Darian – Thank you! I'll defiantly check out the rant. And rambling reviews are my fave! They make me laugh!
Alecatq – good reads are always good. It was A Long, Hard Road, by Twigs. It is on ff.net, although I was reading it on another site.
Ecilla – ok! I'll trick him! Sometime…
Heather – I'll try to update, but…
Rhysel Ash – yeah, I can see Lily getting all emotional and stuff! Thanks for saying it made your day, all these reviews certainly make mine!
Wintermoon – it was 'A long, hard road', by Twigs. Thanks for telling me about your story, I'd love to check it out!
Padfootsgurl4eva – I'm praying, believe me. I'm hoping too, and keeping my fingers crossed!
O0true0o – I'm keeping it up!
Corey – Hey! I soooo do not agree. They ARN'T GAY in this fic either, in case you hadn't noticed!!!! And I hope everyone who hates slash appreciates how hard it is not to make them gay! All us slash lovers will know, but I have to be hard on myself and try to make everyone happy… grumbles
Thanx to everyone who's reviewed so far., I love you guys! I'm in Germany from next Monday to Thursday, so I might not be able to update . Not fair! But we get to go to a chocolate factory!!!!
The next morning Harry was woken up by an excited and extremely awake Sirius and James jumping on him. Remus was standing by the door, laughing. Harry couldn't really see what was so funny.
"Wake up, sleepy head! Come on, breakfast!" James yelled.
"Let me sleep," Harry muttered as they fell on the floor. "I can't go down to breakfast anyway…"
"Yes you can!" Sirius bellowed in his ear. "You'll be sitting with across the hall, scaring the hell out of the Slytherins!"
After this had penetrated through Harry's sleep-fuddled mind, he woke up slightly. Pulling on the robes James thrust in his face, he grabbed the cloak and stumbled after the chatting trio down to breakfast, still half asleep.
Once safely in the hall, he nicked Peter's cup of coffee, leaving the mousy haired boy staring blankly at the table.
"Uh… James? My coffee just disappeared."
"Oh, probably Peeves. Careful he doesn't dump it on your head," James said casually. Peter looked up nervously, and shifted a bit.
'Great idea…' Harry thought as he wandered over to the Slytherin table. He sipped at the coffee, pulled a face and dumped it over Lucius Malfoy's pale head. 'No sugar. Yuck!' Malfoy jumped, and gave a strangled yell as the hot liquid spilled over his perfect hair, staining it brown. 'And the nice thing is, the Marauders can't be blamed; as they are siting there in plain sight, staring in astonishment like the rest of the hall.' Harry thought with satisfaction. Tricking Malfoy was painfully easy; he was half-asleep, but still managed to get the better of him. 'Snape's turn…'
Snape's coffee disappeared, and Malfoy immediately turned to him in fury. "How could you, Sev! My hair! How dare you! I'll… I'll see you expelled for this!" with that said, Malfoy stormed out of the hall, narrowly missing Harry. Snape sat, staring after him in astonishment with his mouth open. His greasy hair was tied back in a ponytail, and it waved around as he ran out of the hall after Malfoy.
Harry walked over to the Gryffindor, and leaned down to whisper in James' ear. "How did I do?"
"Brilliant!" the older boy whispered back, hazel eyes sparkling like mad. James slipped him a muffin under the cloak, and Harry munched it gratefully as he slid into the empty seat next to the dark haired boy.
"So, how come the prank you're gonna play in Transfiguration doesn't sound too complex?" he whispered with his mouth full.
"Oh, we can't do much in McGonagall's lessons; she's too sharp. We have to make it look like their incompetence. McGonagal can smell a prank a mile off," James whispered back, making it look like he was checking his timetable.
"Oh, right. Hey, pass me a sausage, won't you?"
"Sure."
Harry munched on his second sausage as they walked out of the hall, heading for Transfiguration.
Once in the classroom, Harry sat back and watched the Marauders in action. They were very good, better than anything he'd ever seen Fred and George do, because they worked as a team, and there were more of them. In Harry's time, Fred and George may be a team, but Lee couldn't anticipate their movements the way the marauders seemed to be able to do with each other.
Remus walked smoothly to the front of the class, and began to talk to McGonagal, managing to turn her attention sideways towards him rather than towards the front of the class. He didn't look to see what the other two were up to, but managed to keep up a flow of talk, diverting McGonagall's attention completely.
At the back of the classroom, James and Sirius were muttering a spell over the desks, frowning in concentration. They also didn't have to look over at Remus, they trusted that he would distract McGonagal for long enough so that they could get on with it. As Harry watched, a faint blue glow settled over the two desks, before fading into the woodwork. James and Sirius straightened up, and moved to their desks in the middle of the class by the window. Remus joined them a few minutes later, and the three talked quietly. Harry sat on the desk, commenting and listening.
"Well, that went ok," Sirius said quietly.
"How long does the spell last?" Harry asked, curious.
"An hour and ten minutes," James said. "We set it to that, so McGonagal doesn't get suspicious in the next class."
"Yeah, if we leave it on too long, exactly the same thing will happen in the next class," Sirius explained.
"You know," Remus said thoughtfully, "Since Harry stained Malfoy's hair, it looks like they're going to be late as well as incompetent today!"
"Yeah, go Harry! Now, what else do you want to do today? Apart from eavesdropping on all our lessons?"
"Um… I wouldn't mind meeting Lily. She seemed nice."
"Cool! We'll introduce you at lunch or something."
Just then the rest of the class swarmed in, talking loudly. Remus was right – Snape and Malfoy weren't in the first rush of pupils; in fact, they dashed in 10 minutes late, which got them a detention after school.
The Marauders grinned broadly as their spell began to work, and an increasingly impatient McGonagal lectured the unfortunate boys on how to turn snakes into walking sticks. All she was getting from the back tables were swarms of ants and mayflies, and neither her nor the Slytherin's could understand it. Harry amused himself by standing at the back of the lass, and randomly enlarging or changing the insects. At one point a furious McGonagal had to dodge a legion of pink and purple ants the size of batteries.
The class was in an uproar, with most of the students whacking at the insects with their walking sticks. James, Sirius and Remus, although they had three perfect walking sticks laid neatly across their desks, simply sat, enjoying the view. They knew Harry was behind the curious behaviour of the ants.
However, they were quite worried when one of the remaining snakes slithered to the corner where Harry was standing and disappeared.
~*~
Harry was having a great time, when he suddenly saw one of the snakes left, heading straight for him. The red and yellow reptile slithered under the cloak, and Harry decided to brush up on his parseltongue.
"Hello," he hissed.
"What?! A human who speaks our tongue? This school is indeed strange," the snake hissed back.
"What is your name?"
"I don't have one. Do you?"
"Yes, it's Harry. Harry Potter. Why don't you have a name?"
"No one has ever given me one that I like. The man in the shop called me Goldie."
"Oh. What do you think of the lesson?" Harry asked, picking the snake up carefully, and letting it twine itself around his arm and hand. He held his hand up in front of his face, and the snake rested it's chin on his knuckles as it replied.
"I'm quite glad to escape being a walking stick, I take it the havoc is your fault?"
"Partly, but not all. And you would've been changed back to a snake once the lesson was over."
"I know, she did this lesson last week too, with a different set of pupils."
"So, would you like me to give you a name?"
"Only if I can stay with you. You know, some snakes spend their entire lives looking for someone who can understand them?"
"Really? Well, now you've found me, you'd better stay. But I don't come from this time."
"What do you mean?"
"I travelled from the future, to meet my Dad and his friends."
"Couldn't you have done that in your own time?"
"My parents died when I was a baby. They were killed by a dark wizard; Voldemort. He was a parseltongue too. Are snakes evil?
"No, we aren't. But most wizards who talk our tongue are, so we have got a reputation. It's mostly the poisonous snakes that are evil anyway. I'm a Californian corn snake, we aren't poisonous, but we can bite."
"Would you bite me?"
"No! I want to be your companion, or servant, rather. If you ask me to do something, I will obey."
"How come?"
"Don't you know what you are?"
"No."
"Then I'll tell you the legend, the whole story, as it was passed down from my mother, who learnt it from hers, and so it goes, down the generations."
"Snakes have history?"
"Of course. Any creature that can talk and remember has history. Cats do, and so do dogs, I believe. Horses, flying and normal. Even rats. I don't think mice do, I've never spoken to one. Mice have lore, they remember how to get out of traps and things, I think."
"Wow. I never knew that. Are you male or female?"
"Female. We'd better stop talking."
"Why?"
"The lesson is over."
"Oh!"
Harry hurried over to Remus' desk, and watched as the three teens packed their bags.
"How did I do?" he asked, smiling. The snake twisted herself around his neck, and rested her head by his ear, ready to whisper things to him if she wanted.
"That was brilliant, Harry!" Sirius whispered, grinning like mad, dark eyes shining like stars.
"Yeah, that was amazing!" Remus agreed. James merely nodded, his face full of laughter and pride.
As they walked over the grounds to Herbology, Harry asked quietly "What's you favourite girl's name?"
Ok, what should it be???? James will say Lily, but I want a real nice name to call the snake. Remember, she doesn't like Goldie, and she's a gold and red Californian corn snake. Btw, for any snake lovers, I know that Corn snakes usually have to be kept in the warmth as much as possible, but I'll explain that in the next chapter.
So, for the next chapter:
NAMES!
And how to you think Lily should take the news?