Disclaimer~ I do not own anything that belongs to JK Rowling or any of the authors at fanfiction.net. However, any original work here belongs to me.
DanniBannani~ Hello people! Just so you know, updates may be a teensy bit slower than they usually were (before that month break thing :-s) because of schoolwork and stupid teachers who think it's a wonderful idea to give a bazillion tests each week…But, my goal is to update weekly or every other week. I really do hope I can achieve this! And thanks to all the reviewers of the last chapter J. You guys rock! And since there were five of you, I can name you all!!! So thanks to: nerdypurdy
shortnsassy
GravityDrop
Toria
JCTigerwolf4e
Heehee! Oh, and by the way…I am searching for a person who is excellent at summaries because I've just realized mine totally sucks! Hahaha…well, that's all…so…
On with the fic…
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Lily was on the verge of fainting from fright when she felt herself fly forward. Eyes still shut tightly; she landed against a nice, warm padded wall that cried, "Oof!" when she hit it.
"Sheesh Lily! If you close your eyes any tighter you may go blind!" said the voice of Sirius Black, "And let go of James before you rip his robes! They don't come cheap, y'know!"
"What?" whispered Lily with a tremble, eyes still clamped tight.
"Open your eyes and maybe you'll see!" cried Sirius, a bit perturbed. His tone of voice quickly changed when he said slyly, "Unless you and James need to tell us something…"
Surprisingly this statement didn't faze Lily. Instead of immediately jumping back as expected, she slowly opened her eyes and looked James in the face as if he were some sort of strange exhibit. She stood in front of James, arms clamped tightly onto his shirt, for several seconds before abruptly shaking her head and jumping away.
"What'd you do that for? You wouldn't let me go!" cried Lily indignantly.
"Excuse me!" yelled James, "If I recall correctly, which I always do, you were the one holding on to me!"
"Was not!"
"Were too!"
"Was not!"
"Were too!"
"Will you two just shut up!" cried a voice from out of nowhere.
The heads of Peter, James, Sirius, Remus, Arabella, and Lily (the people present in the room) turned towards the fireplace where Melanie was emerging in pale green dress robes.
"So, what have I missed?"
"Oh, nothing much, really; just the usual Lily-James quarrel," causally stated Peter.
"Oh," Melanie said off handedly, "Anyways, Robyn should be here any second now."
"Were you at her place?" asked Lily, now out of her 'I hate James Potter' state.
"Nope. She was at mine. But, being a muggle born, I hope she doesn't have trouble getting here… but, I see you got here Lily, so hopefully she'll be alright."
A few moments later a crash was heard from somewhere above. Then a loud call of "Meeeeeeeeeeeel?"
"Well, at least she's in the right place," said Remus with a shrug, "Let's go get her before she terrorizes an unsuspecting house elf."
Another shriek, though several octaves higher, called, "Master James' muffin!"
"Looks like we're too late," said Arabella with a faint smile.
As the crowd of seven followed James through his home, those new to their surroundings had eyes the size of dinner plates. They didn't expect James Potter-minister's son or not- to live in such extravagance. All the walls were covered in portraits of James' predecessors (most male Potters having unruly black hair). The windows had a royal quality to them with the swirly windowpanes and lush scarlet silk curtains, covered in intricately embroidered designs done in golden thread. The walls were painted a warm cream color and the entire house held a feeling of warmth and welcome.
After passing through several doors and hallways and mounting one staircase, James led his friends into a room off the side of the hallway in which they'd just entered. Once there they met a strange site. Robyn was frantically apologizing to a tiny house elf who looked as if she were about to burst into tears.
"I'm soo sooo sooo sorry. I didn't mean to. I promise," squealed Robyn.
"Master James will be so angry, yes he will. Master James will be mad with Missy. All Missy wants is to make her masters happy. But now Master James won't want Missy no more, no he won't…" the house elf, Missy, babbled on to herself in a barely audible voice.
"What did you do this time Gillette?" asked Sirius.
"I…uh…I sort of…er…" Robyn started.
"Oh, spit it out!" yelled Sirius, with a hint of impatience in his tone.
"Um…Did this mean a lot to you?" she asked as she pulled a teddy bear from behind her back, caked in so much grime it wasn't salvageable.
"Muffie!" cried James, horrified! Lily sniggered. "I mean…er…no. I don't care about her." James tried to put on a nonchalant tone, but the look on his face gave him away.
"I'm sorry James, but I came out of the fireplace and then I slipped on the bear and then it went flying and then it was going towards the water bucket over there and Missy tried to catch it, but she couldn't and it fell in and—"
"Don't worry about it." James cut in before the story got any more chaotic. Robyn stared at her toes before the room went awfully quiet except for the mutters of Missy and the sniggers of Lily.
Finally,
Sirius cut in and shouted, "Are you guys ready to party?"
Everyone stared at Sirius with
expressionless faces.
"Oh, come on you lot! You're so boring!" he cried.
"You know what? Sirius has a point," said James, lightening the room, "Let's get 'em!"
"The words are let's party, stupid!" Lily smiled annoyingly while briefly scrunching her eyes and shaking her head. When she opened her eyes once more, they saw a jet of cold water spurting her dress like a hose.
With one shriek Lily cried, "This means war Potter!" She whipped out her wand and cried, "Aqualus inducio!" A jet of water pulsed out of her wand and hit James square in the face. Before James could recover, Lily ran out of the room, yelling behind her, "Bet you can't catch me Potter!"
"Oh no you don't!" roared James before chasing after her.
They ran throughout the house, hitting each other with their own bursts of water, as well as soaking the floors, walls, and just about anything else that got in their way.
As Lily was rounding a corner, she looked over her shoulder and shot James in the stomach. Before she had a chance to turn around, she bumped into someone, causing her to fall with a thud onto the marble floors.
"Oww...," moaned Lily.
"Here you go Miss Evans," said a masculine voice as strong arms picked Lily off the floor and set her on her feet once more. The arms remained supportively on her shoulders, as the man asked, "Are you hurt?"
Lily looked up to see the face of Henry Potter, Minister of Magic, "H-hello sir, y-yes. I think I'm fine."
"No bones to be mended?" he asked in a friendly manner.
"No sir," she said, shaking her head.
"I told you already," Henry said winking, "Sir makes me feel too old. Call me Henry."
"Yes s-, Henry," she smiled.
"Well, I'm glad to see that the two aqua-children are both okay, but my house elves sure aren't happy."
Lily finally took the time to survey the damage she'd done just in the hall behind her. The curtains were soaked, along with the walls, the floor, the windows, herself, and James.
"Sorry dad." James said with a guilty smile.
"Don't worry. You'll just have to clean it up yourself—before the other guests arrive at 7."
The smile was wiped of James's face, "But Dad!" he protested.
"Don't worry about it Mr. Potter. We'll do a great job," assured Lily.
"We? I only meant James, because he was the one who started the fight, correct?"
"Yes, but I didn't do anything to stop it. I'm to blame also."
"Very well then. Have fun!" and with that Mr. Potter turned around and walked down the hall.
"I would pound you Potter," Lily said angrily, "but since we have a big job to do right now I think we need to start working."
"Yeah, you're right." James stood in his spot for a minute, bouncing on the balls of his feet and looking around as if he didn't know what to do.
"GET TWO MOPS AND SOME TOWELS YOU IDIOT!" yelled Lily.
"Oh. Right."
After James had gotten to his senses and retrieved the towels and mops the two delinquents set to work, first mopping the floors of all the water; then drying the curtains and walls with simple heating spells; and finally clearing any water damage done to the walls. With five minutes to spare, the two hurried upstairs to where they had left their friends. They, of course, were not in the room where Robyn had arrived. James assumed Sirius had led them to his room and therefore took Lily to the 'East Wing' of the Potter Mansion.
When they arrived at the door to James' room there was a lot of laughing heard from the other side of the door. James quickly opened it up to find Remus hopping up and down on one foot while yelling, "Sirius is the king of all kings! I boweth to thee Sirius!" He then gave his best attempt at a bow before losing his balance and tumbling to the floor.
"What is going on here?" inquired James.
"We're starting a new tradition!" exclaimed Peter.
"We are, are we?" asked James.
"Why of course!" Peter piped.
Sirius stood up on James' bed, "May I announce the first annual New Years Eve Truth or Dare Game! Rules being: We pick who goes first. They ask the person of their choice a truth or dare question, as long as they haven't gone before. Then if the person backs out of the dare or won't tell the truth they have to go sniff James' dirty knickers!"
"No one's sniffing my dirty knickers!" protested James.
"My point exactly, no one will back out. Anyways, before I was so rudely interrupted by JAMES here, I was talking about something…oh yeah, the First Annual New Years Eve Truth or Dare Game. Rules, Rules, Rules…yes. James' knickers. You will have to sniff them if you back out, so I warn you in advance. Just do the truth or the dare. It can't be worse than those things," Sirius pointed to some underpants that were laying on the floor and scowled.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, mate."
"So, what time do we need to be downstairs?" asked Arabella, referring to the ball James' parents had organized.
"Well, right about now," said James, glad to have a subject change.
"Well, I need to fix up Lily at this instant!" declared Arabella in near state of panic, "What have you and James been up to? You look horrible!"
"We were—" Lily started
"Never mind. We'll be late. Hurry up!" Arabella marched out of James' room, but she returned only a few seconds after she'd left, "Where's your bathroom?"
"Oh, through that door by my desk," James said gesturing towards a door off the side of his room.
Arabella grabbed Lily's arm as well as Melanie's who in turn grabbed Robyn's. As a group they entered the bathroom to fix Lily's dampened appearance. Robyn shut the door behind her and the girls set to work.
"Lily, what were you two doing, dousing each other with garden hoses?" asked Robyn.
"Garden whats?" said Arabella and Melanie in unison.
"Muggle watering device," explained Lily, "and no, we didn't use gardening hoses. Just our wands."
"Well, you sure know how to soak someone!" joked Arabella.
Lily smiled and said, "I am pretty good at that, aren't I?"
~Meanwhile on the other side of the door~
"What's taking them so long?" asked James.
"I don't know, and I probably never will," said Remus, perplexed.
"So, all the girls are looking great tonight, eh boys?" asked Sirius, winking.
"Ewww!" cried Peter, "Girls have cooties, right guys?" he nodded towards James and Remus.
"Right," said James sarcastically.
"Why are you looking at other girls like that?" asked Remus, "Aren't you and Arabella an item?"
"No," said Sirius quickly.
"Oh, I didn't know. What happe—," asked Remus.
But he didn't have time to finish his sentence. The girls had finally made their appearance and were chattering happily.
"Well, I guess it's time to go," said James. "We'll have to be announced soon."
"Announced?" questioned Melanie.
"Well, unluckily, the minister's son and his friends can't just walk in like normal people," James bitterly replied.
"Oh," came the voice of Melanie, suddenly ten times quieter.
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DanniBannani~ Okay, okay, okay. I again have come down with a case of the evil, lying author illness. I tried and tried and tried to get into the party/ball, but I just couldn't! (holds out hands) Go on! Slap the back of my hands with a plastic ruler! I deserve such cruel and unusual punishment ((fake sobs)). Please forgive me! I am evil!
And I may not be updating as often as usual, because my teachers have all decided that four tests a week is the best way to go! So…I have to write in what little spare time I have. But jus so you know, more reviews equals quicker updates ((winks vigorously)). And that means more truth or dare ((more wink)) and that make you people happy!!!! So, please review ((winks until eye starts to hurt)). REVIEW!!!!