Year Two – Part One
"Lily!" A familiar female voice was calling, and Lily turned around and screamed, "Bella!"
"Hey Lils," greeted Arabella, watching her friend's red hair soar in the wind as she approached her. "Nice vacation, eh?"
"Best I've ever had," said Lily, smiling. She was starting to remember the events of the summer.
Lily was humming to herself as she watched the birds sing sweet songs on a nearby tree. It was always a hobby of hers, to watch birds. Suddenly, out of nowhere, something whooshed by, causing her to nearly fall of the edge of her bed. Now soaring through the sky were a couple of broomsticks. Lily grinned, thinking that it was probably Arabella coming to save her from Petunia. Maybe Violet and Jennifer, her two other friends at Hogwarts, had come too.
As soon as she opened her window to let them in, it was no other than James Potter, her arch-nemesis at Hogwarts. Of course, he wasn't as bad as Severus Snape, the avid Gryffindor-hater, who also, unexpectedly and unfortunately, had an enormous crush on Lily.
"What are you doing here, Potter?" she hissed, glaring at the boy.
"I'm allowed to save you from Petunia, aren't I?" He grinned that lop-sided grin of his. James Potter was your typically average popular boy, who was entering his second year like Lily. He had jet-black hair, which ran untidy all over the place, called "the untamed forest" by Lily. He also had soft brown eyes, which shined with mischief and bravery. He was thin and wiry, but he was very tall. Followed by him was none other than his first-hand mate, sidekick, and best friend, Sirius Black. Sirius looked a lot like his best friend, except he had longer black hair and dark black eyes that had a mysterious glitter in them, but nevertheless, they were just as mischievous as James'.
Remus followed his two friends, smiling at Lily gently. He was liked best of all among the girls (Lily's group of friends). He had light brown hair, steady gray eyes, and a thin, tired face. Yet he had a gentle air around him, perhaps a bit eerie, but he was always so gentle, so kind, like a great healer. Peter, sadly, was gliding jerkily through the air, trying to hold on to his dear life. James and Sirius offered to let him share a broomstick with either of them, but Peter jauntily refused. He seemed to want to prove to Lily, who was the smartest witch of their age, no doubt, that he was something. Maybe not a lot, but something.
Arabella, Violet, and Jennifer had come soaring right after the boys, and landed in Lily's room as well. They rode on a broomstick – Lily assumed it was a large, family-sized one, and greeted Lily with hugs.
"Girls," Sirius had muttered, "always showing such affection." But he had taken the statement back right away after Arabella gave him some "affection" of her own.
Lily laughed. "Yep. Best summer I ever had."
"Best summer you'll ever have," corrected Arabella. "It's obvious the first summer after first year is more special than any other."
"Sure Bells—hey, there's Sirius!" She emphasized the last word, sending her best friend in fits.
Arabella and Sirius had their little "snog session", as Lily often called it, and her emerald eyes traveled around until it sank into a pair of brown ones.
"James Potter," she said coolly.
"Lily Evans," James said, just as coolly. Then he grinned again and motioned toward Remus, who was desperately trying to fight off a flirting Jennifer. "Looks like Dean's got it bad."
"Shut up, Potter," snapped Lily irritably. "It's not every day Jennifer gets taken with a boy. In fact, she hates boys so much that I'm surprised she's even talking civilly to Remus."
"Violet's paired off with our Peter, too," said James, pretending to sigh wistfully, as he watched Peter awkwardly compliment a giggling Violet.
"Everyone's paired off," replied Lily gloomily, and she looked rather sad.
"No one's as cute a couple as Lily Evans and James Potter," interrupted Sirius, walking towards them with a grin. He ducked as a shower of sparks hit him, and straightened up, with Arabella cuddling next to him.
"Sirius Black, don't you dare—" began Lily, but James kissed Lily unexpectedly. Lily screamed and started to threaten him, but he just grinned and winked at Sirius.
"All right, what's going on here?" asked Lily loudly.
Arabella shrugged. "Who knows. Boys are weird anyway. They never have an explanation for any of their actions."
An exclamation of "Hey!" came from the two boys, and both girls grinned.
"Let's go find Jennifer and Violet," suggested Lily.
When both girls left, Sirius smiled at his friend. "So...you think Lily Evans is totally gorgeous?"
James glowered at him. "Did I say that?"
"You want to."
He groaned. "Sirius, leave me alone."
Sirius shrugged. "Fine. But I'm telling you—if I break up with Bella, then I'm going after Lily."
James waved his hand impatiently. "Whatever."
"Hey, show more consideration for your wife!"
James' jaw, literally, dropped to the floor. "B-but h-how d-did you know?" he stuttered. Then he frowned and asked, "Did Evans tell you?"
"Nope. I—er—accidentally overhead your conversation with Dumbledore. But Lily already knows that I know."
James groaned. "Why am I always the last to know everything?"
"Because, Jamie-boy, everything bad always happens to you first."
He snorted. "Yeah—like falling 'in love' with Deanna Jackson, probably the most hated girl in Gryffindor."
"She's attractive."
"Not to me."
"Ah, now only going for the redheads, are we?" Sirius smirked.
"You go for the brown-curled ones," retorted James. Then his smile widened. "Didn't like Arabella too much on the first day back on the train, did we?"
Sirius colored. "None of your business, James Potter."
James pretended to gasp. "Is Sirius Black being...*gasps from the audience*...serious?"
His best friend shook his head and said bleakly, "Ha, ha."
"What's so funny?" Lily had come back, closely tailed by her three friends.
"Nothing," James muttered.
"You're always so shy around Lily, James, are you sure nothing's up?" asked Arabella slyly.
Violet coughed, which made Jennifer automatically say, "Remus, can I talk to you for a moment?"
"No." Remus was right behind James and Sirius, causing the latter to jump. "I will not, Miss Jennifer Dean."
As if expecting it all along, Jennifer's face was impassive.
"We're going to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor," said Arabella hurriedly. "We have—er—a project to finish." Then they all scurried off to the ice cream parlor, leaving Lily and James alone, standing there.
"They planned this whole thing up!" cried Lily angrily. "I knew Bella was up to something—she was writhing and squirming all over the place at breakfast."
James stared at Lily. Sirius was right, he thought. Lily Evans is gorgeous. Most beautiful girl I've ever seen in my life – but we're still enemies, of course. He thought he heard a snort in the back of his head that said, "Yeah, right, Jamie-boy."
"I'm not Jamie-boy and I don't think Lily Evans is gorgeous!" Lily stared in surprise at James' outburst, and the boy blushed furiously.
"Sorry," he mumbled.
The whole lot of Diagon Alley was staring at him. Many of the bystanders were Hogwarts students, and some of them snickered and a few whispered to each other that James Potter, the most wanted and admired boy in school, liked Lily Evans, the prettiest and cleverest girl at Hogwarts.
"Er—" Lily was staring at James, puzzled. No one had said that she was gorgeous—probably Sirius had put a charm on him to repeat the words "Jamie-boy, you know Lily Evans is gorgeous" in his head.
"Shall we join our friends?" asked James, still red in the face. As they went to the ice cream parlor where their friends were, many girls flirted with James non-stop; fluttering their eyelashes and giggling like idiots. Lily looked thoroughly depressed by all the attention that she was getting as well. Nearly every boy—even fourth and fifth years—were staring at her with a mixture of astonishment and intensity. Suddenly, Severus Snape, the famous hater of Gryffindor, had come up to her, looking into her eyes pleadingly.
"Lily!" he exclaimed happily. "How pleasant to see you!" He eyed her body in approval. Then he looked over at James and frowned.
"What are you doing here, Potter?"
"I've come to buy my school supplies, Snape, you idiot," snapped James. He was obviously in a very bad mood. "Why, is that illegal?"
"It looks like you were harassing my Lily," spat the greasy-haired boy. He emphasized on the 'my'.
"For heavens' sake, I'm not yours, Snape!" cried Lily. She had enough of the oily Slytherin as well.
Snape was taken aback. Lily had never lost control like that to him before. He concluded that Potter had indeed messed around with the poor girl's brain and decided to make an offer involving improper advances to Evans before Evan Rosier could find him.
"So, Lily," he began, "would you like to have a 'visit' to my dormitory today?"
"Thinking of shagging her, Snape?" spat James menacingly. Snape was taken aback.
"Well!" he exclaimed, but his tone was unusually high. "I certainly do not know how you came up with such a theory, Potter, but I can assure you—"
"No thank you, Severus," snapped Lily, "I would not like to visit your dormitory. No doubt that you do want me to crawl into bed with you, and McGonagall or Hurst catching me. Besides, it's against school rules: no Inter-House common room visits."
James sighed in relief. For a fleeting moment, he thought that Lily would accept Snape's offer just to make him jealous. But he wouldn't be, of course – would he?
"Hello? Earth to James!" It was Sirius, and he was grinning like a maniac.
James was back on earth again. Then he broke into a tirade.
"How dare you leave me alone with Evans, Sirius Black! What were you thinking?"
Sirius shrugged. "It wasn't my plan, it was my Bella's and all her friends' plan. I swear, I had nothing to do with it!" His face was pale as James' cold face stared furiously at his.
Finally, James gave up. Maybe Sirius was telling the truth for once in his life. "Fine, forget about it."
Sirius grinned. "That's Jamie-boy for you. Always had a big heart."
"Sirius, do me a favor and stop the sappy stuff."
"Whatever you say."
James decided to change the subject. After all, they were going nowhere with this conversation. "Did you ever wonder why Remus disappears every month?"
Sirius furrowed his brow. "Didn't he say his mother was ill and he had to go home to see her?" he asked, almost doubtfully.
"Yeah—but Dumbledore wouldn't allow a student to go home just because his mother was ill, would he?"
"No...but Dumbledore's always been the kind and understanding headmaster, so I wouldn't count on it. But it's funny, really, how poor Remus looks like he doesn't get enough sleep at all. I'm sure if he did go home to visit his mother, he would get a good rest."
James' head snapped up. "I think I've got it!"
"Got what?"
"The answer to Remus' mysterious disappearances!"
"Have you? What is it?"
"Well...I don't exactly have the answer, but I know how to find out. Here, give me a piece of parchment."
Sirius handed his best friend a piece of parchment, wondering vaguely if his friend had gone bonkers. James was scribbling down on his parchment eagerly, and Sirius leaned in to see what he was writing.
Remus disappears every month.
Remus seems awkward whenever we bring up the subject of why he disappears, so it must be something he really doesn't want us all to know.
I notice that whenever he disappears, the moon is full, because he always glances at it wistfully.
Sirius stared at the piece of parchment. "What does this all mean?" he asked eagerly.
James shrugged. "I have no idea."
***
A week later, it was September 1st, and King's Cross was jammed with hundreds of Hogwarts students trying to get on Platform 9 ¾. Lily was pushing her cart with her trunk and owl, Hannah, in it, while struggling to have her mum stop crying.
"Mum," she sighed, exasperated. "Stop crying. I'll come home for the Christmas and Easter holidays if you want."
Her mother had stopped crying at once. "Would you, dear? Yes...I'll stop crying; you coming home will do me good..." She sniffed.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Well, I have to go, I still have fifteen minutes before the train leaves."
Her dad turned to Petunia, who was, as usual, sulking at a corner. "Petunia, say good-bye to your sister," he said sternly.
"No," replied Petunia defiantly. "Why should I? She said she was coming home for Christmas and Easter holidays."
Before the Evans could say another word, Lily pushed her cart between Platforms Nine and Ten, hearing distinct yells and noises behind her. Probably Mum and Dad yelling at Petunia for being so 'rude' to her sister, she thought, grinning. She ran with all her might through the barrier, until the words "Platform nine-and-three-quarters" were hanging above her head.
"Lily! There you are!" It was her best friend, Arabella, calling and waving to her frantically. Behind her, Jennifer and Violet, Lily's other two friends, were happy to see her again.
"Hey Bella, Jen, Violet!" greeted Lily enthusiastically. "Sorry I couldn't get here earlier; Mum was crying her eyes out again. 'Fraid I have to go home over the Christmas and Easter holidays—promised Mum."
Arabella's face looked downcast, but she brightened up again. "So...will you and James get together again?"
"No." Lily sighed in resentment and impatience. Why were her friends so caught up in matchmaking them?
"Lily Flower!" She turned around to see James Potter's circle of Marauders run towards her in excitement.
"Hello Lily," greeted Remus affectionately. Lily had always liked Remus best of them all; he was always so gentle and understanding.
"Hi Remus," said Lily, smiling at the tired boy. Then she turned to Peter and Sirius. "Hey, Peter, Sirius."
They both greeted her, and Lily purposely ignored the fourth member and ringleader of them all.
"Hi Evans." It was James, and he was sporting his usual lop-sided grin.
"Potter," was all Lily said. She disliked – no, hated, James Potter from the moment she met him a year ago at King's Cross. The six other friends sensed a hatred silence between them, and stood awkwardly aside.
Then James nudged Sirius, and the boys filed into the train and went in search of an empty compartment. The girls found an empty one just at the end of the train and collapsed into the seats tiredly.
"Petunia bore you to death, Lil?" asked Arabella, yawning.
"Yep. She wouldn't say good-bye to me at the train station, so I think I heard my mum and dad yell at her when I was out of earshot."
All four girls laughed. The compartment door slid open and the four Marauders came barging in.
"We need to sit here," said James shortly. "All the others are full."
"Are you sure you're just saying that so you can sit with Lily, James?" asked Arabella sweetly. James colored and glared at her.
"Can we?" asked Sirius hopefully. He looked mighty tired from all the searching.
"Sure, why not?" Lily scooted over a seat, as did the rest of the girls.
"Thanks." The boys all sat down, looking exhausted.
As time passed, the train was speeding up quickly. The countryside surroundings had passed and they were going deeper and deeper into a thick forest. Remus, Violet, Jennifer, and Peter were fast asleep, so Lily, Arabella, James, and Sirius started a discussion about Remus' mysterious disappearances.
The girls looked at each other apprehensively. "We—er—know what's wrong with Remus," said Lily uncomfortably.
James and Sirius stared at them. "Well—go on—tell us! We won't care if it's something terrible."
Finally, Lily said, "Remus—Remus is a..." She kept her voice low so only the four of them could hear, "a werewolf."
James and Sirius went pale. Then James shrugged indifferently and said, "How come he's never told us before?"
Arabella was astonished. "You mean, you don't—you don't care?"
The boys were annoyed. "Why would we care? It's not his fault!"
Lily and Arabella looked at each other delightedly. "He never told any of us because he was afraid that we'd dump him as a friend. Of course, we'd never, ever..."
"How'd you girls figure it out?" asked Sirius curiously.
"Lily," answered Arabella simply. "She's the genius, you know."
Lily shrugged. "I just figured out that Remus leaves at every full moon, and the only thing that does that is a werewolf. Jen and Violet know to. Bit of a nasty shock for Jen at first, but she was only wondering, like yourselves, why Remus never told any of us."
"Remus is a great friend, he doesn't think we're that shallow, does he?"
"Many people are frightened of werewolves, you know."
"But—we're still his friends—"
"All right, end of discussion!" said Arabella loudly, causing both Remus and Peter to stir. Remus sat up, rubbing his eyes, and glancing around at all the serious faces.
"What is this, a funeral?" he asked, trying to make a joke out of it. When he saw that no one laughed or budged, he asked, "why the long faces?"
"Why didn't you ever tell us, Remus?" asked James quietly.
"Tell you what?" asked Remus, confused.
"Tell us that you're a werewolf," finished Arabella quietly.
Remus nearly fell out of his seat. "How did you...how did you..." he spluttered.
"Mostly thanks to Lily," informed Jennifer coolly.
Remus was shaking harder than ever. Lily's face softened and she frowned at the angry James and Sirius and nudged them hard in the ribs.
"Remus," she began gently, "we don't care if you're a werewolf. You're still the same sweet Remus we've all known, and it doesn't make much of a difference what you are."
"But..." Remus looked around at James, Sirius, and Peter, and they were all grinning. Then he looked over to the girls and they were smiling as well.
"I thought I'd lose you guys as friends," he said slowly. "I mean, I've never really had friends before because my whole neighborhood knew that I was a werewolf, so they forbid the children to go near me. Not that any of the kids wanted to; they were afraid of me, too. So when I came to Hogwarts, I found you guys and you all are the best friends I've ever had. So if you found out...what I was, you'd dump me."
"We'd never," the seven chorused together serious. Even Sirius was looking solemn for a moment.
Remus grinned. "You guys are the best."
"You mean the girls are the best," corrected Lily, grinning in feigned mock shock.
"The girls are the best, then," he said, smiling widely at his friends' shocked faces.
"Boys are better than girls and you know it," retorted Sirius, pretending to be angry with Lily.
"Aww...you know Bella can change your perspective on anything," mocked Violet. They all looked at her in surprise. Violet was usually the quiet and sensible one of the lot.
"Good job, Violet," lauded Jennifer. "Soon you can properly mock the dog-boy."
The four girls burst out laughing, and even the boys sniggered. Sirius flushed.
"Hey, at least half my gang aren't flowers," he said quickly.
Lily and Violet looked at each other. It was true, but they had never noticed it before.
Then Arabella spoke up, smiling flirtatiously at Sirius. "Sirius, dear, you really must calm yourself down. These are my friends you're mocking!"
Sirius gave a low bow. "But of course, m'dear Figg."
Everyone laughed. Then their compartment door slid open and Severus Snape came in with Rosier, Avery, Lestrange, Wilkes, and one other boy with slick blond hair that they didn't know. Snape was looking very authoritative and oily as he entered.
"My dear Lily," he began, smirking. "Wouldn't you like to join us?"
Lily stared at Snape wearily. "No thank you, Severus. I'd rather hang with my friends, if you'd be so kind..."
"Told you this wouldn't work, Severus," muttered the blonde boy. "What were you thinking anyway?"
"L-Lily's nice," stuttered Snape. "Better than most Gryffindors, anyway."
Lily stood up angrily. "Is that what you think of me as, Snape? Just 'better than most Gryffindors'? Well, let me tell you something! If you're not sticking around here to be friendly, then leave."
The rest of the friends stared at the redhead. They had never seen her temper rise like that – not even with James.
Avery stiffened. "Come, Snape, Lucius, we're not sticking here to associate with Mudbloods."
James jumped and whipped out his wand. "What did you call her?"
Avery sneered. "A Mudblood. Got a problem with that, Potter?"
"It's not a problem I only have. It's a problem that nearly the whole school would have, if they heard you – except with your dirty House, of course."
Lestrange stood right in front of Avery and narrowed his eyes at the black-haired boy. "Slytherin is not a dirty House, Potter. For your information, I think that your stupid House, Gryffindor, should really be eliminated from Hogwarts. There's really no need to have Mudbloods in the school. Oh, and your headmaster should be rid of too – the nasty Mudblood and Muggle-lover, Dumbledore."
Sirius suddenly stood up and shook with anger. "Don't you dare insult Dumbledore! He's the greatest headmaster Hogwarts has ever had! So who do you idiots want as headmaster? Barty Crouch?"
Wilkes, who was watching the conversation, spat, "Of course not, he's outspoken against the Dark Side, that's not we want –" He was cut off by a distinct "Shh!" from his friends.
"Trying to get Lily to join your precious Dark Side, are you?" shouted Arabella. "Well, I won't have any of that!" She furiously drew out her wand and pointed it at the Slytherins. A few red and gold sparks shot out of them and the sulking Slytherins left the compartment.
"That was brilliant, Bella dear!" cried Sirius. "Those good for nothing ba—"
James coughed, knowing that Sirius was going to let his language get the better of him. Sirius blushed and said quickly, "Er—sorry 'bout that."
"I'm glad that we won't be seeing much of them at Hogwarts," said Jennifer defensively.
"There's still Double Potions," said Lily moodily. Everyone groaned.
"And we have to eat meals in the same place as them," added Peter.
"Peter!" they all shouted.
"Oops, sorry."
The eight of them all laughed again, waiting for a fresh new year to start at Hogwarts.
***
"Look at this! A week after school starts and our homework pile is piling up!" complained James Potter, throwing up his hands in frustration. "How does Evans finish all this?"
"She doesn't procrastinate like you do, Jamie-boy," said a work-absorbed Sirius Black lazily, as he tried to concentrate on remembering all the Potions antidotes. Finally, he threw up his hands in the air like James had done, causing the new first years to be startled.
"God, Hurst is trying to kill us, he is! How does he expect me to remember all these?" Sirius shoved a long piece of parchment into James, revealing a whole long list of complicated Potions antidotes.
"He doesn't," said James. "He's just trying to make everything harder so that we can all fail. Then when he sees the Slytherins failing, he can just change their answers so it'll look like they memorized them better than us. 'Course, Evans isn't clever enough to figure this out so she studies anyway."
"Stupid git," muttered Sirius. James looked delighted.
"You mean Evans?"
"No, you moron, I was talking about Hurst!"
"Oh." James sounded dejected and went back to scanning his own Potions notes.
"Hey Jamie-boy, can I borrow your Potions notes?" asked Sirius, after a while of silence.
"Why?" asked James suspiciously. "Don't you have your own?"
"Of course I do," snapped Sirius. "I just want to use yours, since I take the worst notes in Potions. In fact"—he showed James his Potions 'notes'—"I don't really have much on those stupid antidotes."
"Sirius, you don't have anything on them!" cried James. "What do you do all Potions class? Drool at Arabella?"
"Pretty much."
"Wait 'till Evans hears this and she'll have a fit."
"I'm so scared."
"Yeah right you are."
"Hey, Lily has a pretty high temper gauge, you know!"
"I know," said James, wincing, as he remembered several painful experiences.
"Will you guys shut up for a minute?" hissed Remus, impatiently, rubbing his forehead in concentration. "I'm trying to memorize these antidotes here!"
"Sorry, Remus," apologized James. "But don't you realize what Hurst is trying to make us do?"
"Fail?" suggested the tired boy.
"Exactly. So we shouldn't study!"
"Er—right."
"I think that you should study for everything," said a stern voice from behind them. A weary-looking redhead was glaring at the four boys.
"Hi Lily!" said Sirius enthusiastically. "How're you doing today?"
"Fine," was all Lily managed to say, before she glared at James.
"You would do a bit better if you actually studied," she snapped ferociously.
James was taken aback. "Aww, come on Lily, you think the high and mighty James Potter would actually study?"
"No. But you should...if you're going to pass the second year." Lily smirked.
"I'm calling Deanna!" whined James.
Lily snorted. "Think again, boy, because Deanna's with another boy now." She pointed to a corner of the common room, where Deanna was flirting with a blushing fourth year.
"Who's that?" snarled James.
"I think that's Kevin Patil," replied Remus, squinting at the couple.
"You should've paid more attention to her, Jamie-boy. Now she's dumped you for that fourth year."
"Whatever." James looked extremely put-off at the prospect of a girl dumping him, but began to hyperventilate at the announcement of Quidditch try-outs at the end of the week.
"We certainly need better players!" he roared enthusiastically, as he dragged Sirius to the battered bulletin board. They were in need of one Chaser, one Beater, and a Keeper, since the three of those players who played last year graduated from Hogwarts.
"Quidditch," said James loudly, so that Lily could hear him, "is something that Evans cannot do."
"Shut up, Potter," snapped Lily grumpily, as she studied her Potions notes again.
"Evans insulted me!" cried James, causing several girls to look up and glare at Lily.
"Potter is an egotistical idiot," muttered Lily, before retiring to her dormitory for the night. Arabella followed her, but shot daggers at James before walking up the staircase.
Sirius frowned after her. "Now look what you did, Jamsie. The girls are turning against us."
"Shh! Sirius, I have a brilliant plan to help Remus."
Sirius' eyes widened. "How?" he whispered excitedly.
James showed him his careful Transfiguration notes that he took that day and whispered excitedly, "Animagi."
The two began whispering and plotting excitedly until Peter stepped up to them, frowning. "What are you talking about?"
The two boys looked at each other and let Peter in on the conversation. After what seemed like hours of plotting, they decided to wake up Remus and tell him their "ingenious" plan.
"Remus!" The three boys shook Remus, who was asleep in an armchair by the fire.
"Wha—What?" he murmured sleepily. The boys then began discussing their plan to Remus, who listened, wide-eyed.
"You mean—become Animagi? For...for me?"
"Of course," stated James. "Why is that so unusual?"
"You'd really do that for me?"
"'Course." The three boys nodded in assent.
Remus broke into a true smile that lit up his whole face. "You guys are the best friends anyone could ever have."
***
It was just another day in Gryffindor Tower with Lily Evans and James Potter screaming the House down. Their friends sighed, knowing that there was no way they'd get together—even as friends.
"When do you think they'll become friends?"
"Never, I expect."
"For some reason, I can imagine them both being Head Boy and Girl."
"Funny really—that is imaginable."
The six friends were huddled together in a plot to get Lily and James as friends. Arabella, who knew Lily all too well, and Sirius, who knew James all too well, said that it was impossible.
"They'll get along in their fourth or fifth year," said Arabella lazily, yawning. "Our Lily is too stubborn. She's one lily that's not lily-like and pure – at least not most of the time."
Meanwhile, Lily and James were on the other side of the common room, screaming at each other as usual.
"If you didn't dye my hair blue, then I wouldn't have poured black ink on your Transfiguration homework! Besides, you should be grateful it was a subject you're decent at; if it was Charms, then you'd take all night to re-do it!"
"Why can't you be like the other girls?" shot back James. "Then you wouldn't want revenge from me all the time!"
"Because I don't want to be 'another flower of the valley'!" shouted Lily. "Do you want me to be someone like Deanna?"
"Good point," muttered Sirius from the armchair.
"I HEARD THAT SIRIUS BLACK!" yelled James, who suddenly cast his attention on his best friend.
Arabella tutted loudly. "And to think he could hear with all that commotion he's making."
"I'M WARNING YOU FIGG! ONE MORE WORD AND I'LL..."
They heard Lily giggle. "Come on, Potter, you're scaring the common room." She nudged her head to a group of frightened-looking first years and a pair of harassed-looking sixth years.
"Hush Evans," snapped James.
"Ooh, touchy."
"Shut it, Evans," repeated James, growling.
"Would you tackle a girl?" asked Lily sweetly, batting her eyelashes at James.
"If it was someone like you, yes."
"That hurts."
"Good."
"Would you really hurt a lady?" asked Lily, pouting. Boys around the common room were staring at Lily intensely.
"Stop staring!" hissed Arabella, waving her arm around the common room.
"And if you think my Bella's pretty, she's already taken," added Sirius.
Remus and Jennifer burst out laughing, and Violet smiled.
"You guys are crazy," stated Lily, collapsing into a squashy armchair by the fire, looking tired.
"Hey Evans, tired of our fight?" called James, smirking.
"Yeah, Potter, I'm tired of looking at your face the whole time," replied Lily wearily, with a huge grin on her face.
James frowned. "Hey!"
"Yeah...you'll improve if you'd actually brush your hair once a week." The girls giggled and James was angry.
"Hey, you try to brush down hair like mine! It runs in the family!"
"And to think why girls fall for you," said Lily, pretending to sigh with confusion.
"Hey Lil, you said yourself that you thought James was cute and that you knew why girls were all over him," said Sirius suddenly, his eyes gleaming. He winked at James from across the common room and James' frown slowly turned into a smile again.
"I was still a first year," snapped Lily impatiently. "Besides, you guys should be working on the homework Professor McGonagall gave us; it's not going to do it itself—"
"—unless you do it for us," finished James with an air of triumph.
"How about this for an answer—no."
"I'll do your Transfiguration homework if you do my Charms."
Lily thought for a minute. "No."
"Come on, you're almost as bad as Violet at the subject."
"Hey!" cried Violet. "I'm not that horrible, you're just—"
"Shut it, Potter, I'm not that bad. At least—I'm behind Remus on it."
"Peter's better," sniggered Sirius.
Lily glared at him. "You're supposed to be on my side Black! You Benedict Arnold!"
Sirius furrowed his brow. "Benedict who?"
"Never mind, Muggle stuff."
"Benedict Arnold was a traitor for the American Revolution," piped up Remus. Everyone around the room stared at him and he cowered lower. "Er—I read Muggle books," he supplied hopefully.
"Please enlighten us Professor Lupin!" squeaked James.
Remus stared at him. "Professor Lupin? Where'd that come from?"
James shrugged. "Evans and I saw this thing that Dumbledore had that showed some of the future, and you were the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. And you, Sirius"—he looked around at his friend—"you're some kind of an infamous person, because whenever people said your name, they shivered and frowned."
"Cool!" said Sirius enthusiastically.
"It is not cool, Sirius," said Lily, joining in the conversation. "Even"—she shuddered—"even the Harry kid, who's supposed to be our son, called you 'Black'. And James said he wanted you as godfather!"
Sirius frowned. "Really?"
"Yep."
"So..."
"You're probably in Azkaban and then escaped," put in James.
Lily shot him a nasty look. "That's something nice to think about."
"Isn't it? Sirius Black, the most infamous prisoner Azkaban has ever held! Has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Sirius Black...hey, you know, Sirius-boy, your name even sounds like a criminal one!"
"Er—right. And what's up with Sirius-boy? That's one hell of a lame nickname, Jamie-boy."
"See! See! You call me Jamie-boy, so I…" James trailed off, grinning evilly. "How about Siri-boy?"
"I like it!" exclaimed Arabella, who suddenly had awaken from being asleep on their conversation. "It has a nice ring to it...Siri-boy."
"Bells." Sirius pouted.
Lily smiled and ruffled Sirius' trim black hair. "Well, I better get back to work. Got that nasty Transfiguration essay to do." She groaned and went back to her table, which was spread out with heaps of parchment and heavy books.
Arabella saw James glaring at Sirius with jealousy and teased, "Aww...jealous, are we?"
James' head immediately shot back to her. "Jealous?"
"You're jealous that Lily ruffled Sirius' hair. You want Lillian to do it to you, do you?"
James blushed, though it was true. For some reason, he always felt as though he should pull a prank or tease Lily when she was around, while he didn't feel anything when other girls were around.
"Considering, are we?" Arabella smirked.
"Considering to tell you (1) you're an idiot or (2) you're a mind-reader."
"Option 2 is a nice choice," said Arabella, grinning devilishly. "So...you were thinking that Lily is a gorgeous redhead?"
"Eh…no."
Arabella snorted and muttered something like "egotistical idiot". Then she leaned over and whispered into James' ear, "Go to Lily and tell her that I have something to tell her."
James was annoyed. "Why would I do that?"
"Because…I'll give you a hug. Or a kiss."
"That makes me even more disgusted."
"Okay fine, do it and I'll give you five Knuts."
"You're on!" Then James scuttled towards Lily, who was writing her last sentence, finishing her Transfiguration essay.
"Hey Evans."
Lily looked up. "What do you want, Potter? Come to bother me again."
"Er—actually, Figg over there wants to talk to you."
"Oh. And you did this for her? Aww…you have a little crush on my best friend?"
James made a face. "No. Because she'd pay me five Knuts if I did it for her."
Lily gave a disappointed sigh. "All right then." She left her Transfiguration essay on the table, the ink still glistening, and went to find Arabella. "And don't you dare touch my essay, Potter! If you mess it up, you'll have to write it again for me!"
James, indeed, was planning to ruin Lily's essay, but a thought of doom occurred to him. If he did destroy it, Evans would make him rewrite the essay for her. And if he refused, she'd try and curse him, but if he still refused to write that essay...then she'd probably tell McGonagall. And McGonagall liked Evans better.
"Fine, I won't ruin it!" yelled James.
Lily smirked and focused her attention on Bella again. "What is it you want to tell me, Bells?"
Arabella looked around the common room to see if anyone was eavesdropping. Then, satisfied, she smiled at Lily serenly.
"How about we get Remus and Jennifer together?"
Lily's rosy mouth opened in surprise, but it quickly parted into an evil grin identical to the one Arabella was wearing on her face. "You're on, girl."
"And then they could help me get you and James together."
"You will not do that Arabella Figg! Or I won't help you get Jen and Remus together."
Arabella sighed. "Oh fine, I won't. But it was a nice thought at first."
^^^
So…how did you like this chapter? I though it was a bit weird, and sorry if I didn't include much of the summer! I want to keep this story a bit brief, since I have my story "Red Footprints" that I'm working on, too. So I apologize if you wanted to read the summer, but I promise that I'll include more of it in the third year.
Disclaimer: God, how many more of these do I have to do? All right, J.K. Rowling owns everything; I'm just a lesser mortal who wants to write a story of Harry's parents. Fine, even the characters I made up can be hers! I own NOTHING! My name just happens to be the author of the story, but it's really her creation. LOL! I know, I'm an idiot, but so what?
Everyone read Louisa Potter's story, "Lily Evans Potter"! It's awesome! :D
I'll get the next chapter ready by next week or the week after! Hey, winter break is almost over, don't kill me! :P
Oh, and also read Saralea's stories, too! They're great too! In fact, check out all my favorite stories (they're all L/J ones, by the way), and read them! I have good taste :) Just don't read 'em if you don't like romance, especially L/J ones. I'm a hopeless romantic :D