A/N: Oops, silly me. I swear I was going to put Arabella in the last chapter, but I forgot. Oh well, she's just sort of 'in the story' now. =)
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"Lily, come on! We have to get up!" Someone was shaking her. Who would be up this early?
Lily groaned loudly, turning onto her side and checking the clock. She bolted up. "Sabrina? It's 5:40 in the morning!"5
Indeed it was Sabrina, not looking a bit tired, unlike Lily. "Sorry, I'm really excited about our first day. Can I do your hair? My fingers are itching to do someone's!"
Lily yawned and rubbed her eyes, looking at Sabrina like she was deranged. If she was, Lily didn't want her touching her hair.
"Go see if Misty's in need of a cosmetologist." Lily replied, swinging open her dresser and pulling out one of her black robes.
Sabrina bounded over and jumped onto Misty's bed, making the latter scream in pain.
"Hey Misty, in need of a makeover?" Sabrina asked devilishly.
Misty shoved Sabrina off her bed and went back to sleep, muttering about "deranged psycho maniac monkeys". Lily howled with laughter. Other girls started to stir, muttering about killing the person that woke them up and looking decidedly murderous.
Lily frowned nervously and slid out of the girl's dorm muttering apologies. She padded down to the Common Room in her fuzzy pink slippers down to the girl's locker room. (A/N: You know what, I don't think I should call it a locker room, but you guys know what I mean when I talk about it, right? I mean it's a place where the girls go to shower and stuff.).
She accidentally bumped into someone, dropping all of her womanly toiletries.
She blushed crimson when she realized it was James.
"Hello, Miss Evans. Out for a morning stroll?" He remarked, grinning.
Lily blushed darker. "No, I'm sorry, I- I wasn't paying attention. First day jitters, you know?"
"It's fine, I'm really nervous too." He said bending down to help her pick up her scattered supplies.
"What are you doing up this early, James?" Lily asked, not meaning to sound nosy.
"I couldn't sleep and was about to go down to the kitchens or something for hot chocolate but… then I got sidetracked."
A small smile lit up Lily's sleepy features. "I was going to go shower because I don't have anything better to do. Sabrina jumped on me this morning hoping I'd let her give me a makeover. Needless to say, I declined her offerings."
James grinned wickedly, looking remarkably like Sirius. Lily wondered if he'd picked up too much of Sirius' less-than-favorable habits.
"Tell Sabrina anytime she wants a makeover, she can come to me."
Lily suppressed a shudder. She'd established the fact that she was no longer dealing with what she'd thought mere hours ago was a charming, polite James Potter.
"Well… I should get…showering… school starts in a matter of less than two hours, you know." Lily said awkwardly.
"Yeah, and if I don't want to fall asleep during a 'vital lesson,' I should go get that hot chocolate." James said, and winking at her, he left.
Lily couldn't help but grin. She'd been one of those girls at the academy who, when her friends came back from the holidays, had nothing to talk about because the only thing they could talk about was their boyfriends and French kissing. Being finally noticed by someone, even if he was just a friend, had a really satisfying feeling to it.
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"There you are! We were wondering if you got lost!" Sabrina drawled. Obviously her "girly stage" had finally tapered off.
Lily shook her head as she was seated between Remus and Misty at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. It wasn't until then that she realized how famished she was.
"Find that hot chocolate alright, James?" she teased.
James grinned. "Good morning, Miss Evans. Shower went well, I presume. I've never seen a girl glow so."
Lily blushed furiously. She really wasn't used to flirtatious comments. She wondered if she was supposed to say anything back.
Professor McGonagall suddenly interrupted Lily's thoughts when she shoved a piece of parchment under her nose.
"Schedules!" She barked. Lily glowered at her professor's impertinence as she snatched the parchment from Professor McGonagall.
"First class… with Slytherin?" Sirius practically shrieked with anger.
Lily must've looked alarmed, because Remus said in a loud voice to drown out Sirius' protests, "The Slytherins really are no fun, from what I've heard about them. It's best you stay away from them at all costs."
Lily nodded grimly, hoping she could remember that. She was usually a friendly person, despite the fact she could most definitely hold a grudge longer than anyone she'd known.
The three friends and the Marauders finished breakfast in a friendly atmosphere and set off to the dungeons for their first class.
"Come on Lily, we want to get good seats before the geeks take them." Misty said jovially, skipping through the hallways. Sabrina stared at Misty like she was mental, as did James and Sirius. Remus didn't seem to mind it and even skipped to catch up with Misty.
"Ok, make note of this: skipping to Potions most definitely is not the way to be going about doing things." Sabrina said disgustedly as they turned a corner to the dungeons.
A blast of cold air chilled Lily as they swung open the giant wooden door. It smelled dank, like no one had been in the dungeon for a few years. James shut his eyes as the smell became overpowering.
"Let's go find a - a seat." Misty said, her words sounding strangled as the smell practically choked them.
"It's probably the professor's cologne or something." Sirius muttered. All of them erupted into quiet laughter.
A few people turned around in their seats to see who was laughing.
"Well, if it isn't James Potter!" Drawled a voice. Lily stopped laughing to see who had spoken.
It was a pale boy, with pointed features and silvery-blond hair.
"Malfoy," James jeered, his voice dripping with scorn.
"I see you've picked up some admirers, how many did you blackmail?" Malfoy said, matching James' disdain in his voice.
James narrowed his eyes. "I don't know anything about blackmailing, Malfoy, but you sure define it."
"Oh, ouch Potter. I'm shivering from the insult!" he sneered.
"You won't only be shivering, Malfoy, you'll also be missing all your teeth and two black eyes if you don't turn around and spare us your ugly face, you twit." Sirius said threateningly.
"Leave them alone, Lucius. Pick on people with your own brain capacity." Lily turned her head back, looking to see where the new voice had come from.
A girl with long brown hair and almost blinding sapphire-blue eyes was reclining leisurely in a chair with her feet propped up against a desk. Lucius looked as though he was about to say something, but Lily could tell something was holding him back. She wondered what and was about to ask when to her astonishment, Lucius paled and turned around without another word.
James stared from the brunette to the back of Lucius' head.
"I'm impressed! You can actually tell a Malfoy to shut up!" Sirius said, his eyes full of adoration.
"Don't get used to it. Malfoy just needs to know his place." The girl said, examining her fingernails.
"I'm Lily Evans, mind if my friends and I sit with you?" Lily asked, admiring this girl's boldness. The brunette smiled and nodded.
"By the way, my name's Arabella. Arabella Figg." She said as the professor entered.
The instructor was a woman, with wispy blonde hair and brown eyes to rival James'. She was rather small for her age, which Lily guessed to be around 35 or 40. She thought she was rather attractive compared to the other eyesores at Hogwarts.
"Hello class! I'm Professor Cleary, and I look forward to seeing you all for the next seven years!" She said cheerfully.
"As do we!" James and Sirius whispered enthusiastically back in unison, amused expressions on each of their faces.
Lily rolled her eyes and Misty slapped Sirius' arm playfully.
"Instead of starting out our first class with Potions, why don't we all gather in a circle and tell each other your names!" Cleary said, bubbling with happiness.
Lily's views on the women changed in a blink.
James stared at Professor Cleary. "Is she crazy? We're 11, not 6!"
"If she thinks we're going to do these touchy-feely activities all the time, I quit!" Sirius said huffily.
"Sirius, you can't quit." Lily pointed out.
"Yes you can. But I don't know how… yet." He said, smiling wickedly.
"Come on now, don't be shy! We have to get to know each other sooner or later! Better to make friends than enemies!" Cleary called, as students reluctantly got up from their seats.
"Well, I suppose it's better than actually learning potions." Remus admitted as they all were seated around their fellow classmates.
"Remus, I hate you. How can you even come up with outrageous statements like that?" Sirius asked.
"Even though they are true?" Sabrina spoke up. She hadn't talked much since they arrived in the dungeon; she had been too busy checking out all the boys.
Sirius scowled and was about to reply with something witty when Cleary interrupted him with another outburst of gushiness.
"Come now, children! Let us all sit in a "magic circle"! Teehee, a good bit of humor, if I do say so myself! It's not actually magical, you know. We simply keep the 'magic' alive with kindness and friendliness!" She clapped her hands in excitement.
"I can't take much more of this, and this is our first day!" Lily said, trying to keep calm.
"She's nuttier than a cheese log." James agreed. Cleary sat in the center of the circle, in a painful looking yoga position.
"Well," Sirius remarked, trying to keep his breakfast down, "That's graphic."
"Ok class. Let's start out by learning each other's names. So what I want you to do is to go around the circle and say your name. Let's start with…" she scanned the room and pointed to a rather plump boy with dirty blonde hair, "you."
"Peter Pettigrew!" He squeaked.
"Linda Johansen" The girl said sitting next to him. James was next, and Lily didn't like the look on his face.
"The Swami of Brazil." he said casually, leaning on his elbows.
"Dwight B. Ghilettsburg-Newton Thornbirch Crandall the Third." Sirius said, cottoning on, smiling wickedly and looking at Remus for continuation.
"Spider Man." Remus said wearily.
"Ophelia Delia Vandergrift Plutz." Sabrina said with a smarmy touch to her voice.
"Ursula of Stratford-Upon-Avon." Misty said with a giggle.
It was Lily's turn. She sighed and said "Savannah Bellevue" with a slight Southern accent.
All of her friends laughed and all she could do was blush. Everyone was looking at them like they'd just turned their hair orange.
Arabella, who sat next to Lily, most enthusiastically and obnoxiously said in an American accent, "Jessica Taylor."
"Where ever did you learn to talk like that?" Lily asked, astounded at the accuracy.
Arabella smiled assertively. "I have a cousin who's a muggle and American. We visit her every summer."
Lily nodded, wondering what America was like. In her musings, she'd missed half the classes' names, but she didn't mind. They weren't a friendly bunch and she didn't feel she'd make friends with a whole lot of them.
"OK, now that we've learned everyone's names, why don't we do some soul cleansing? It's very relaxing and will sooth the tension in the air." Cleary said, glowing with delight.
Lily's eyes went big and Sirius let out a wolf whistle. "Soul cleansing, eh?"
James elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
"Honestly, does anything not remind you of sex?" Remus said disgustedly.
Sirius grinned. "Not that I can think of, although I'm welcome to suggestions!"
"I'm going to assign you to yoga partners, and these are the people you will work with the entire year. Your job is to come into class every morning and do what is on the board for the morning yoga stretches. Any questions?"
"Will these be boy and girl partnering?" Asked a chubby brown-haired girl.
Professor Cleary nodded. "I think so. It would be nice to know each other from the opposite sex."
"Yes, it would." Sirius agreed, smiling.
"I made these lists last night so there's no complaining about who you're partnered with." Cleary said, getting out of her rather awkward yoga position and grabbing from her desk a fresh piece of parchment.
"Ahem. Alcove and Blots!"
"Bitts and Barman!"
"Black and Figg!"
"Pettigrew and Hornsby!" Lily giggled. Olive Hornsby (A/N: Sorry to interrupt valuable reading time… did Myrtle go to school the same time Lily and James did? * thinks * I don't know, oh well, Olive as well as Myrtle will only be mentioned in a few parts, briefly I might add. If you think or know you know if Myrtle went to school with them, email me at Redraz1599@aol.com, ok?) was the girl who was sitting next to Peter, and he seemed to have taken a shine to her.
"Potter and Evans!" James grinned at Lily. Lily grinned back at him, though her mind was in a frenzy.
"Hamilton and Madison!" Misty looked over to where a strapping, dark brown-haired boy was sitting with a few other Gryffindor boys, ones that they didn't know. Misty nudged Lily to look in the boy's direction. Lily's eyebrows lifted slightly as she looked at him with mild interest.
Misty slapped Lily's arm. "Hands off, he's my yoga partner." Lily laughed.
"Brimstone and McDonnell!" Sabrina groaned as a nerdy boy looked in her direction, his glasses as thick as glass Coke bottles.
"Lupin and Estes!" A girl with long, strawberry blonde hair looked over at Remus. She smiled and waved at him. All he could do was stare. Sirius looked furious and made it his own personal mission to tease him about it.
"Just my dumb luck." He insisted, as Cleary told them to spread out in the classroom so they could have time to practice.
Lily and James went over into an unused space by the blackboard.
"Is she supposed to tell us what we're doing? Because I've kind of… you know, forgotten how to do yoga. Since I do it so much and all." James said acerbically.
Lily laughed. "Well how am I to trust you?"
James held up his hand and crossed his fingers. "Scout's Honor."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I think being sarcastic will be the end of you."
James shrugged. "It's part of my personality. If you can't accept it, then that's your problem."
"Wise words from a not-so-wise man." Lily said, grinning.
"Give me a reason and I'll turn your hair into solid gold." James waved his wand threateningly over Lily, "It's not fun. I turned my sister's hair gold once and her head was weighed down for half an hour while my parents tried to find the counter-curse."
Lily smirked. "So you've perfected the Golden-Haired Curse."
James smirked back. "I've learned a few curses and hexes in my years on Earth." He said few the way you would brag to your friend about getting 39 presents for your birthday.
"You like pranks? I mean you do them frequently?" Lily asked. Suddenly the conversation took a turning point, even if the answer was 'yes.'
James' eyes lit up. "Like pranks? I LOVE PRANKS!"
Lily couldn't help but imagine a four-year-old James, putting glue on someone's chair. She grinned at the image.
"What?" He asked, looking utterly confused.
Lily quickly bit her lip. "Nothing. Is there any particular reason you play tricks on people? You seem very sweet." She blushed, realizing she said that last bit out loud.
James blushed too, though his was more noticeable than Lily's. "I don't know, I just think it's funny. And don't call me that… my auntie calls me that."
Lily nodded. "Would nice work?"
James shrugged. "Nice is the description of someone who does nothing but bring an apple for the teacher. That's not me."
"No, it isn't." Lily concurred.
"What about you, Miss Evans? You seem to know so much about me, yet I know practically nothing about you." James asked, as he slowly put his wand away.
"There's nothing for me to know. I've been a lonely girl for eleven years who was shipped off to a boarding school at age 6 and then I was transferred here with people telling me I possess magical powers," Lily said, plucking at her robes in a glum way.
James shook his head from side to side. "You have to stop doing that."
"Do what?" Lily asked.
"Feel sorry for yourself!" he said, as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Sorry for myself! I am not sorry for myself! I'm overjoyed at the way my life turned out!" Lily shrieked angrily, her voice full of spite.
"Well stop pretending like you have a great life if you don't think you have it!" James snapped, his sudden temper getting the better of him.
"What are they going on about?" Arabella asked absentmindedly, watching Lily and James throw insults and other meaningless words at each other.
Sirius shrugged, trying to do some of the complex-looking yoga drawn rather accurately on the blackboard.
"How can you say you don't know? It's not a good sign for new friends to be fighting." She said worriedly.
"How would you know?" Sirius asked, getting up and brushing his robes off.
"It's just a bad omen! It's common sense, Black." Arabella snapped, not taking her eyes off them.
"Look, Arabella, I've known James practically my whole life. A little tiff means nothing in a friendship with him." Sirius said, watching Lily take out her wand.
"Uh oh," Remus said, coming over to join Arabella and Sirius.
"Redheads have horrid tempers. My aunt always ends up storming out on my uncle at Christmas time because he drinks too much eggnog," Sirius said knowingly.
"I like eggnog," Remus chirped. Arabella rolled her eyes.
"Just one more word and I'll hex you off the face of the earth, James!" Lily threatened, waving her wand around.
"Then I guess that makes two of us!" he said, smirking.
"Either that or I'll just wipe that smirk right off your face." she considered.
James shrugged. "Whatever works."
Lily suddenly realized even though she'd poured over her textbooks she'd bought at Diagon Alley, she knew of no spells or curses to use on James. She did the only thing logical and socked him in the face. He howled in pain and doubled over, blood pouring from his nose. Amidst his pained cries he managed to mutter 'Goldineus Incantatum!' and Lily's head suddenly felt much heavier as the class started laughing hysterically.
James had indeed proved to Lily he knew the Golden-Haired Curse.
"What is going on here? Mr. Potter, Miss Evans! Are you two ok?" Professor Cleary hurried over and bent over James to check if his nose had stopped bleeding.
Lily, on the other hand, was feeling extreme pain in her neck as her gold hair took its toll. "Excuse me, but I'm the one with gold hair here!" Lily said exasperatedly.
"Finite Incantatum." Cleary said absentmindedly and waved her wand at Lily. Lily slowly lifted up her head, afraid the weight would completely break her neck. Her hair felt considerably better and lighter as she patted it to make sure it wasn't solid anymore. The telltale silky feeling as she ran her fingers through it confirmed it was no longer solid.
"Mr. Black, Mr. Lupin, would you please escort Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing?" Professor Cleary asked exasperatedly. Sirius and Remus nodded as James slowly got up.
"Oh, no please Professor, let me! I was the one who injured him!" Lily protested. Guilt gnawed at her insides and she felt terrible at what she'd done.
James looked horrified but Professor Cleary seemed delighted at the idea. "That's fabulous Lily! Just… just marvelous that you can admit your mistakes and volunteer to help the one you wounded!"
Lily smiled at her emotional teacher, while all the while thinking in her mind "Lord, why me?"
James held his hand cupped under his nose as they both awkwardly left the Potions classroom and into the fresh air of the corridors.
"You don't have to take me to the Hospital Wing. In fact, I'd prefer it if you didn't," James said, looking worried.
Lily snorted softly. "I'm really sorry about that James, I just realized that since I don't know any spells that I could just… um…" Lily broke off.
"I'm sorry too… when I get really really angry, my temper flares up." He admitted, as they turned the corner to the Hospital Wing.
"Mine too! My parents always called me the 'flaming tigress' because I'd get mad at my sister for teasing me."
"You have a sister?" He asked.
Lily nodded grimly. "She's three years older than me and looks absolutely nothing like me. She's a bony, sallow-faced little sissy nuisance that does nothing but complain about not getting the perfect outfit or whatever."
"Older sisters are annoying. My sister, Vanessa, is 18, and all she ever does is play some stupid Muggle music – if you can call it that - on her record player."
"Aren't you from a wizard family though?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, except Vanessa works for some Muggle thing at the Ministry and gets to work with all of these crazy gadgets and such and she's become infatuated with their music," James explained.
"Ah, new patients! What can I help you dears with?" A tall, gangly-looking woman with a kindly face interrupted their conversation, towering over them and her cat's-eye glasses reflecting off sunlight pouring in from a window.
Lily looked at James pointedly. His nose had stopped bleeding, but there was no taking chance.
"Uh… I seemed to have taken a bad fall and my nose started bleeding. Professor Cleary sent me," James lied.
The woman looked sympathetic and made little clucking noises while she grabbed her wand from a nearby counter.
She sounds like a chicken, Lily thought and muffled a laugh by biting her lip.
The nurse waved her hand over James' head, muttering some words that sounded like ancient Latin to Lily.
"You seem to check out ok, Mister Potter. Do try and not be a stranger around here!" the woman said, winking obviously.
James shuddered as they turned to walk back to the Potions classroom. "She fancies me, I'm telling you!"
Lily gave a slight shake of her head to get a rather disturbing mental image out of it. "I think she does too, which is morally wrong because-"
A ringing bell cut off Lily from the rest of her sentences as door-opening sounds fell on their ears like dominos.
Students poured from classrooms, nearly trampling Lily as she fought through swarms of frantic people.
Then, as quickly as it began, the hassle stopped.
Lily flashed James an apologetic smile. "Er… we should be getting to class before we get detention."
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A/N: * yawns tiredly* Eleven pages should satisfy you for a little while. R/R! I know this took very long to get out… but live with it! I write slowly when I have writer's block! Luv, IceAmethyst