Third Chapter
Christmas Ball and Change of Feelings
The last week of November came, with a storm of snow. The Hogsmeade visit
was going to be cancelled, but fortunately, for the students, the weather
improved. Students were lined up in the entrance Hall, in front of the oak
doors, waiting to go out. Filch stood at the door, with a list in his
hands, making sure no students went out, without permission. Lor and Lily
were chatting, when Anabell, Cheryl and Adele appeared, wearing their
cloaks over their uniform, just like Lorreine and Lily.
The girls had a great day. Even though it was cold, they could relax from studies, teachers, homework, and in Lily's case, from James. They visited the Shrieking Shack, the Post Office, they even dragged Lor and Lily into Zonko's. Both girls refused to go in there because they were sure they were bound to meet any Marauder in there. They were one of the few, if no the only girls, who never took notice of how charming, cute and hot they were and despised the fact that they cursed and bullied anybody just because they could, even if that didn't stop Lor from laughing at one of their jokes. But they were lucky, because the four boys were very busy making fun of Snape in front of The three Broomsticks. "So, Snivellus, what have you been up to?" said James laughing along with Sirius. Remus had a smile on his face, but took no part of this, just like Peter, but that was just because he was afraid.
"Trying to wash our hair, aren't we?" said Sirius, pointing his wand at him.
"What do you want?" said Snape, looking from one to the other, with pure disgust.
"Ah, nothing, actually, we just wanna have fun" said Sirius, swishing his wand playfully. People started to look at them, smiling. They loved to see the Marauders playing pranks and making fun of someone, but didn't like being that someone.
"Come on guys, let's go to the Three Broomsticks" said Remus. Sirius took a step forward to Snape and said "Saved by the bell, dear Snivellus" and turned away to follow his friends.
"Why did you have to cut the amusement?" Sirius asked Remus, catching up with them.
"You can't just curse him in the middle of the street, Padfoot" said Remus reasonable. ",besides, I don't think James would have liked Lily to see him making fun of Snape, now, would you, Prongs?"
They sat down at the bar. A pretty young lady approached with a big smile on her face noticing who they were. "Dear Rosmerta!" said James enthusiastically.
"Have we told you how pretty you look?" continued Sirius, with one of his charming smiles.
"You look just gorgeous" corroborated Remus.
"You guys come here just to make fun of me, now, have you?" said Madame Rosmerta, laughing at the foursome.
"Not a chance in the world!" said Sirius grinning. "Is that a new perfume you're using?"
"Come to lighten up my day, don't you?" said the woman with a big smile. "What do you want, guys?"
"We'll have four butterbeers, please" said Remus, just when the door was opened and five girls stepped in, covered by snow.
"It's a pity we don't need partners for the ball" said Anabell to the other girls "I would've loved to go with that Ravenclaw beater. He's so cute"
"I think it's better so." said Cheryl leading the group towards a table on a corner, far away from the rest.
The Three Broomsticks was packed with weird people. Being the only magical town, it was likely to be that way, full of strange people who couldn't disguise themselves from the muggles. "I'll get the drinks" said Lily, walking towards Madame Rosmerta, who was laughing at something.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Lor "I forgot to buy a present for my little brother. I'll be right back, I'll see what I can get" she stood up and exited the place, letting a cold wind in as she opened the door, without noticing that someone had seen her go.
"Hey! Sirius, wake up" a voice brought Sirius back to reality. James was handing him a bottle of butterbeer. Sirius just stared at the door, remembering that the last time Lor and he had talked had been in their first Care of Magical Creatures, and that he hadn't been nice to her. Nevertheless, she had thanked him for the help he gave her. And since that day, he couldn't forget those eyes, even when he had tried to push that thought to the back of his head .
"Yeah, I'll have the same as you." said Sirius, without paying attention to any of the guys. He stood up and crossed the pub, leaving his friends with puzzled looks and James muttering 'what the heck is wrong with him', stepping into the cold and windy streets of Hogsmeade, searching for a certain girl.
James was still looking puzzled and at the door, when Remus nudged him on the ribs. "You may want to see that" he said, with a soft chuckle, looking in the other direction.
James turned around and spotted a pretty red-haired girl talking to Madame Rosmerta, sitting at the bar. He grinned to Remus and walked towards her. She had her back at him, so she couldn't see him. he approached carefully and overheard her talking, while rummaging her pockets. "I am sure I had a galleon" said Lily exasperated, searching for it. "somewhere here..."
James took a few steps closer in silence, taking a galleon out of his pocket.
"Looking for this" he whispered, stretching his hand, so she could see the galleon.
She turned around and stared at him for a moment, without blinking. Without taking his eyes from hers, he leaned over, until they were only an inch apart, and placed the coin in front of a smiling Rosmerta, who was eyeing them suspiciously. He, then, grabbed the five bottles, still looking into those emerald eyes, which haunted his dreams every night. "Where to?" he asked her. She shivered unwillingly.
"What do you want?" was her reply.
"I believe this young man, here, is being quite a gentleman." said Madame Rosmerta, smiling at James. He winked at her as a thank-you, and turned to Lily again, grinning even more broadly. He handed her the bottles, which she took hesitantly. She started to walk towards the table were Adele, Cheryl and Anabell were sitting, when...
"Thank you" she said with a faint smile. He just stared at her, standing by the bar, with a big, goofy smile on his face. He just winked at her and returned to where Remus and Peter were.
She walked to the table, and noticed that Lorreine wasn't there. She looked inquiringly at her friends. "Had to buy something for her brother" said Cheryl receiving a bottle of butterbeer.
"And Sirius went after her!" said Adele, giggling.
"Sirius what?" asked Lily, not sure she had heard correctly.
"We don't know" said Anabell. Rolling her eyes.
Lily sat down a little bit confused by what happened with James and by what the girls had just said, thinking seriously if Sirius would follow Lor. They didn't get exactly well... come to think about it they were always fighting.
But all the same, Sirius had followed her, and was looking for Lor.
Sirius walked along the stores, packed with students and teachers. He found her making her way to Honeydukes, through a group of seventh years, who turned around to stare at her as she passed. Sirius walked past them muttering to them a very cold 'what are you looking at', without even noticing. He opened the door and felt instantly warm. The place was crowded with students who were trying some of the new sweets that had just arrived. He spotted Lor at the back of the store, in front of a stand full of chocolate frogs. She was really amazed to see all kinds of chocolates. There were ones that changed colour in you mouth, and painted your tongue with it and lasted for days, others would scream if you bite their heads and others were full of different-flavoured cream.
There were a bunch of frogs in a cage that were bouncing up and down, with some labels hovering over them, where the different flavours could be read. She took one cage, trying to decide a flavour for her brother. "Hmm... I think he'll like mint-chocolate..." she muttered to herself, not noticing that a cute, black-haired someone was just inches behind her.
"Nah, bubblegum is better." He whispered in her ear, with his sweetest voice, making her jump and gasp, she let the cage fall to the floor, it opened and the frogs jumped away through the customers, leaving chocolate dots in the carpet.
Sirius tried to catch them, laughing at her, but he failed, and from the corner of his eye he saw the owner approaching. He seemed pretty mad. Without thinking, he grabbed Lor's wrist and pulled her to the closet that was a few steps away from them. "We better stay here, until the owner goes away" he said, still smiling mockingly at her for the incident. "I don't want to get in trouble, not if I didn't cause it."
"Yeah, where's the fun, huh?" she said exasperated. He had scared her to death, dared to touch her, and even pulled her into a closet full of boxes and dust. "So you're saying that all this was my fault? I believe, Black, that it was you the one who scared the living hell out of me."
Sirius stared at her with indignation. "I was only giving you some advice. Mint chocolate frogs are yuck! "
"Yeah, well no one asked for your advice" she said, noticing that they were awfully close. She could even smell his essence. She came back to reality. "and stop following me. Or are you going to tell me that you ran into me just by coincidence." She spat to him, with anger.
Sirius got mad at this. Why would he want to follow her? "For your information I just came to apologise for that class of Magical Creatures. I was kinda mean to you. But you know what? That's too much for you, so just forget it. If your little brain knows what that means, Scarse." And with that, he opened the closet door, stepped out and closed it with such force, that some boxes fell down.
Lor stood in the middle of the narrow room, processing what had just happened. 'He wanted to apologise?' 'Sirius black?' She slowly opened the door and stepped out as well, receiving some curious looks, but without noticing it, until some 5th, 6th and 7th years approached to her, smirking, some even had jealous looks on their faces. "How on earth did you manage to be inside a closet with gorgeous Sirius?" said one of them, with and impressive look, although with a hint of jealousy . "Alone! "
She just smiled at them, without even noticing it. She was still glaring at the door Sirius had just gone through, thinking about how he had gotten mad when she had asked him if he was following her. And about how he insinuated that she had no brains. 'Does he really thinks that way about me?' she asked herself, making the girls stare at her with even more curiosity. 'Well, what do you care, anyway?' Said another voice in her head. She walked through the door, trying to forget about everything, making her way back to The Three Broomsticks, not caring about the present she had to buy for her little brother.
The day at Hogsmeade passed quickly. By the time they were in Hogwarts, it was already really dark outside, and it only was 4 o' clock. All four girls entered the common room, freezing and laughing. They were about to climb up the stairs to the girls dormitory, when a voice called. "Lily!" it was Remus, who was sitting with the rest of the Marauders, in front of the fire. The other girls climbed up, and left Lily behind, at the foot of the stairs. She walked to Remus.
"We have prefects meeting in ten" he said. "To set the date for the Christmas ball, and the next Hogsmeade visit, along with the other prefects"
"Oh yeah. Right"
"Shall we go?" asked Remus, a little bit worried. She didn't seem to be in the same world, let alone in the same room.
"Yeah, right"
They exited the common room, Remus was still eyeing her from the corner of his eyes. She seemed deep in her thoughts, far away from here. She was bothered by something, but she wasn't quite exactly sure about it. She just felt something strange inside her, that she couldn't possibly put into words.
They arrived in time, they just had to wait for the Hufflepuff's prefects to come. They discussed the different dates, which one would be more appropriate and all the stuff that concerned it. They had some problems with Malfoy and Bellatrix, because they wouldn't agree to anything that the others were suggesting, and what was worse, they never gave ideas. But after almost two hours of work, they managed to set the date for the Ball, the hours and the date for the next Hogsmeade visit.
It was already late, when Remus and Lily made their way to the common room, which was deserted, except for three people, who were talking in front of the fire, with serious faces, very unlike them.
Lily bade good night to Remus, and climbed up the stairs, leaving him alone in the common room with his three friends. It took a while for them to notice him, where he stood staring at the staircases. "Moony, how was the meeting?" asked a very excited Sirius. "Any news?"
Remus sat down and told them how the meeting had gone, the date and hour of the Ball and Hogsmeade visit. Until James remembered something and cut him off. "Don't you have something to tell me, Moony dear?" he asked with a significant look. But Remus stared at him puzzled. "You and Lily, opening the ball? Does that ring a bell?"
"Oh! That!" exclaimed Remus. "Yeah, right. Well I thought about something that might work. It's dangerous and we could get in detention, but if you think it is worth it, just to have a dance with precious Lily-"
"Absolutely!"
"Well, then we have to start right now" he said grinning. He knew his friend would anything for her, so he told them about his plan, and when they should start.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No! Peter, don't!" BANG!
A loud sound echoed through the room and the corridor. Peter lay (A/n sorry if that's wrong, We always get messed up with those word... laid, lay... neway.. keep reading...) on the floor, with boxes all over him, while two pair of eyes closed, praying for patience and that no one heard that.
It was past midnight, and three Marauders were inside the Room of Requirement, preparing a potion, whispering to themselves.
"Peter!" said Sirius, exasperated. "clean up that mess, and don't touch anything! "
"Sorry" whispered Peter. He leaned down to pick up the boxes and the shattered glasses, while the door of the room swung open, and then it closed itself. Out of thin air appeared the fourth Marauder, with a package on one hand and the map and the invisibility cloak on the other. He threw the last two things to the corner of the room, and sat down next to James and Sirius.
"Did you get it?"
"Yes," said whispered Remus, showing them the package he was clutching. "What was all the noise for?"
"Peter," muttered James, motioning to him with his head. Peter was still cleaning up the mess. "Did you have any problems?"
"Nah! I'm a Marauder, am I not?" Remus said proudly "no one was around, so it was easy. I just hope, Stowe (A/n... potions master's name, just in case) doesn't notice."
"I wonder why the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin didn't appear when we thought about this place" Peter said frowning, getting closer to the potion.
"Because" said James exasperated, grabbing the package Remus was handing him and opening it ", we're not exactly allowed to use it. That's why it is not in the students' cupboard, Peter"
"How can you be so thick, Wormtail?" said Sirius, laughing.
"I just hope it works" said James, while adding the ingredients to a shimmering potion.
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Finally Christmas Ball day came. It was Thursday, and they were only going to have a half day of school, so all the students could have plenty of time to prepare themselves. And Friday's classes had been cancelled, so they could go home, to spend the Holidays with their families. The Great Hall was full of Christmas decorations. Twelve Christmas trees stood on either side of the Hall, and there were green and red banners hanging from the ceiling. It was hard to concentrate that day. Everyone was talking about the dance, so they didn't pay attention to anything. So some teachers decided to give their hour free. Only McGonagall decided to continue with her class and she even gave them work for the Holidays. A five foot parchment about animagus transformation. "Evil! That's what it is!" said James, coming out of McGonagall's class room, heading to the common room.
The classes were over, and the students were returning to their respective common rooms, to get changed and ready for the dance.
The five Gryffindor girls were already in their room, getting ready. Each one had their robes on their beds, and were talking about the great time they were going to have in a couple of hours. "Nervous about opening the dance?" asked Adele to Lily, while she stepped out of the bathroom.
"Just a little bit" she answered. It was the first time she thought about this, after that day when McGonagall gave them the news. And coming to think of it, she felt more than 'just a little' nervous.
The girls got dressed and had to take turns to use the mirror. There was only one, and there were five girls, and all of them needed it for the make up and to see how they looked. After three hours, they were ready and beautiful. Adele, Cheryl and Anabell went down first. Adele wanted to meet her Hufflepuff boyfriend, so the other two walked her to the Great Hall. "So, ready to go down?" asked Lor, smiling at their reflection. She had to admit they had done a pretty good job choosing the robes and with the hairstyle.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Lily said, walking to the door.
"Well, a certain black-haired someone with glasses will be downstairs, waiting to see you" she answered with a wicked smile following her.
Lily chose to ignore this. True, James was going to be there, and he probably was going to ask her to go out or something, but she had decided to ignore him and to have a good evening. There was a pretty Ravenclaw guy, she had met at the library a week ago, and she was hoping to spend some time with him, to get to know each other better.
The common room was full of fifth, sixth and seventh years, each wearing different-coloured dress robes for a change. The Marauders stood at one corner, arranging the last few details of Remus' brilliant plan, when James looked up and felt himself melting. There, at the foot of the stairs was a pretty red-haired, green-eyed girl, talking to Lor, with a big smile. James couldn't help but grin, catching the attention of her fellow mates. "Damn! They look gorgeous!" came Sirius' voice from his right side. Al four guys stood there looking at the girls. And not just them, almost every head in the common room was looking into their direction, and they had seemed to noticed this because Lor whispered "Lets get out of here, shall we?"
They went through the portrait hole, and into the corridor, leaving more than just four guys open-mouthed. Specially a certain Potter guy, who came back to reality only when Remus whispered "Are you ready for the potion?"
The boys stepped into the corridor, which was almost deserted. Most of the students where either in their common room or already in the great Hall. "Quick!" said James to the others "I can't be late!"
"Or rather Remus can't be late" said Sirius, watching the reaction of his friend, but it never came, he was immersed with his thoughts. "Relax, Prongs, we won't be late"
They entered the Requirement Room, and took the potion out of the closet and placed it on the table. "Remember that you've only got an hour" said Remus warningly. "Don't stay longer!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The door of the Great Hall opened and the students stepped in, awwww's and ohhhhh's could be heard, once they saw how great the Hall looked, with the trees, the candles, the lights and the banners. Al four tables had disappeared, instead of them were round tables for five all over the Hall, with matching napkins and tablecloths. The teachers were already sitting at the High table, beaming at the students. Then professor Dumbledore stood up and everyone fell silence. Lily was looking for Remus, he wasn't anywhere to be seen and they were supposed to dance. "Prefects" said professor Dumbledore, and immediately the music started to sound. The Slytherin's, Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's prefects stepped into the centre of the hall. Lily was getting desperate, when she felt someone pulling her towards the dance floor. In front of her was a sweaty Remus, beaming at her. He put his hand on Lily's back and the other one grabbed Lily's free hand. For an unknown reason, she felt chills down her spine, while she stared at Remus' eyes. There was something different. "Are you ok," she whispered, while dancing along with the other couples. "Where were you? what took you so long?"
"Relax, Lily. I'm here, so that's what matters"
She stared at him, a little bit puzzled. She noticed that he never took his eyes off her once, throughout the four songs they danced, non stop.
"Should we sit down? I am getting tired"
"Sure, Lily. Want something to drink?"
"Erm... yeah thanks."
Remus went to get her a drink. She had a really good time. She already knew Remus, he was a nice guy, unlike James and Sirius, who were complete pranksters and unconsiderate. They talked about everything, even Quidditch. She never knew Remus could be such a Quidditch fan. He never went for the Quidditch them and wasn't as obsessed as James. 'he's full of surprises' she thought. She looked across the room and saw Lor scowling at Sirius, and turning back to talk with a seventh year Gryffindor boy, who was smiling charmingly at her. And a few feet away was Peter in front of the food table, eating. She searched the room, trying to find someone. 'Funny' she thought 'I haven't seen Potter' but she forgot about him when Remus offered her a hand and asked her to dance.
They walked to the dance floor and he hugged her. She was slightly surprised, but something inside her made her put her arms around his neck and lean her head on his shoulder, inhaling his sweet smell. 'Wait' said a voice inside her head 'This is Remus we're talking a bout' but all the same she did it. By doing this she couldn't notice Remus' goofy smile, spread across his face, while dancing. A few minutes passed, when Remus opened his eyes, just to check that Lily was still there, next to him, dancing with him, when he noticed Sirius trying to get his attention, standing next to Peter. It took a while for Remus to understand what he was trying to say. He suddenly started to feel strange, and he couldn't see perfectly well anymore. Everything was getting cloudy. His time was up. He had to go back to the requirement room. He stopped dancing, and before Lily could look up at him, he ran out of the Hall.
Lily didn't know what was happening, Lily could see the back of Remus, making his way out of the Hall, running into a group of students, who were standing at the entrance, almost knocking them over. 'Strange' she thought. But something made her look at him again. Since when did Remus have black hair?
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The girls had a great day. Even though it was cold, they could relax from studies, teachers, homework, and in Lily's case, from James. They visited the Shrieking Shack, the Post Office, they even dragged Lor and Lily into Zonko's. Both girls refused to go in there because they were sure they were bound to meet any Marauder in there. They were one of the few, if no the only girls, who never took notice of how charming, cute and hot they were and despised the fact that they cursed and bullied anybody just because they could, even if that didn't stop Lor from laughing at one of their jokes. But they were lucky, because the four boys were very busy making fun of Snape in front of The three Broomsticks. "So, Snivellus, what have you been up to?" said James laughing along with Sirius. Remus had a smile on his face, but took no part of this, just like Peter, but that was just because he was afraid.
"Trying to wash our hair, aren't we?" said Sirius, pointing his wand at him.
"What do you want?" said Snape, looking from one to the other, with pure disgust.
"Ah, nothing, actually, we just wanna have fun" said Sirius, swishing his wand playfully. People started to look at them, smiling. They loved to see the Marauders playing pranks and making fun of someone, but didn't like being that someone.
"Come on guys, let's go to the Three Broomsticks" said Remus. Sirius took a step forward to Snape and said "Saved by the bell, dear Snivellus" and turned away to follow his friends.
"Why did you have to cut the amusement?" Sirius asked Remus, catching up with them.
"You can't just curse him in the middle of the street, Padfoot" said Remus reasonable. ",besides, I don't think James would have liked Lily to see him making fun of Snape, now, would you, Prongs?"
They sat down at the bar. A pretty young lady approached with a big smile on her face noticing who they were. "Dear Rosmerta!" said James enthusiastically.
"Have we told you how pretty you look?" continued Sirius, with one of his charming smiles.
"You look just gorgeous" corroborated Remus.
"You guys come here just to make fun of me, now, have you?" said Madame Rosmerta, laughing at the foursome.
"Not a chance in the world!" said Sirius grinning. "Is that a new perfume you're using?"
"Come to lighten up my day, don't you?" said the woman with a big smile. "What do you want, guys?"
"We'll have four butterbeers, please" said Remus, just when the door was opened and five girls stepped in, covered by snow.
"It's a pity we don't need partners for the ball" said Anabell to the other girls "I would've loved to go with that Ravenclaw beater. He's so cute"
"I think it's better so." said Cheryl leading the group towards a table on a corner, far away from the rest.
The Three Broomsticks was packed with weird people. Being the only magical town, it was likely to be that way, full of strange people who couldn't disguise themselves from the muggles. "I'll get the drinks" said Lily, walking towards Madame Rosmerta, who was laughing at something.
"Oh, no!" exclaimed Lor "I forgot to buy a present for my little brother. I'll be right back, I'll see what I can get" she stood up and exited the place, letting a cold wind in as she opened the door, without noticing that someone had seen her go.
"Hey! Sirius, wake up" a voice brought Sirius back to reality. James was handing him a bottle of butterbeer. Sirius just stared at the door, remembering that the last time Lor and he had talked had been in their first Care of Magical Creatures, and that he hadn't been nice to her. Nevertheless, she had thanked him for the help he gave her. And since that day, he couldn't forget those eyes, even when he had tried to push that thought to the back of his head .
"Yeah, I'll have the same as you." said Sirius, without paying attention to any of the guys. He stood up and crossed the pub, leaving his friends with puzzled looks and James muttering 'what the heck is wrong with him', stepping into the cold and windy streets of Hogsmeade, searching for a certain girl.
James was still looking puzzled and at the door, when Remus nudged him on the ribs. "You may want to see that" he said, with a soft chuckle, looking in the other direction.
James turned around and spotted a pretty red-haired girl talking to Madame Rosmerta, sitting at the bar. He grinned to Remus and walked towards her. She had her back at him, so she couldn't see him. he approached carefully and overheard her talking, while rummaging her pockets. "I am sure I had a galleon" said Lily exasperated, searching for it. "somewhere here..."
James took a few steps closer in silence, taking a galleon out of his pocket.
"Looking for this" he whispered, stretching his hand, so she could see the galleon.
She turned around and stared at him for a moment, without blinking. Without taking his eyes from hers, he leaned over, until they were only an inch apart, and placed the coin in front of a smiling Rosmerta, who was eyeing them suspiciously. He, then, grabbed the five bottles, still looking into those emerald eyes, which haunted his dreams every night. "Where to?" he asked her. She shivered unwillingly.
"What do you want?" was her reply.
"I believe this young man, here, is being quite a gentleman." said Madame Rosmerta, smiling at James. He winked at her as a thank-you, and turned to Lily again, grinning even more broadly. He handed her the bottles, which she took hesitantly. She started to walk towards the table were Adele, Cheryl and Anabell were sitting, when...
"Thank you" she said with a faint smile. He just stared at her, standing by the bar, with a big, goofy smile on his face. He just winked at her and returned to where Remus and Peter were.
She walked to the table, and noticed that Lorreine wasn't there. She looked inquiringly at her friends. "Had to buy something for her brother" said Cheryl receiving a bottle of butterbeer.
"And Sirius went after her!" said Adele, giggling.
"Sirius what?" asked Lily, not sure she had heard correctly.
"We don't know" said Anabell. Rolling her eyes.
Lily sat down a little bit confused by what happened with James and by what the girls had just said, thinking seriously if Sirius would follow Lor. They didn't get exactly well... come to think about it they were always fighting.
But all the same, Sirius had followed her, and was looking for Lor.
Sirius walked along the stores, packed with students and teachers. He found her making her way to Honeydukes, through a group of seventh years, who turned around to stare at her as she passed. Sirius walked past them muttering to them a very cold 'what are you looking at', without even noticing. He opened the door and felt instantly warm. The place was crowded with students who were trying some of the new sweets that had just arrived. He spotted Lor at the back of the store, in front of a stand full of chocolate frogs. She was really amazed to see all kinds of chocolates. There were ones that changed colour in you mouth, and painted your tongue with it and lasted for days, others would scream if you bite their heads and others were full of different-flavoured cream.
There were a bunch of frogs in a cage that were bouncing up and down, with some labels hovering over them, where the different flavours could be read. She took one cage, trying to decide a flavour for her brother. "Hmm... I think he'll like mint-chocolate..." she muttered to herself, not noticing that a cute, black-haired someone was just inches behind her.
"Nah, bubblegum is better." He whispered in her ear, with his sweetest voice, making her jump and gasp, she let the cage fall to the floor, it opened and the frogs jumped away through the customers, leaving chocolate dots in the carpet.
Sirius tried to catch them, laughing at her, but he failed, and from the corner of his eye he saw the owner approaching. He seemed pretty mad. Without thinking, he grabbed Lor's wrist and pulled her to the closet that was a few steps away from them. "We better stay here, until the owner goes away" he said, still smiling mockingly at her for the incident. "I don't want to get in trouble, not if I didn't cause it."
"Yeah, where's the fun, huh?" she said exasperated. He had scared her to death, dared to touch her, and even pulled her into a closet full of boxes and dust. "So you're saying that all this was my fault? I believe, Black, that it was you the one who scared the living hell out of me."
Sirius stared at her with indignation. "I was only giving you some advice. Mint chocolate frogs are yuck! "
"Yeah, well no one asked for your advice" she said, noticing that they were awfully close. She could even smell his essence. She came back to reality. "and stop following me. Or are you going to tell me that you ran into me just by coincidence." She spat to him, with anger.
Sirius got mad at this. Why would he want to follow her? "For your information I just came to apologise for that class of Magical Creatures. I was kinda mean to you. But you know what? That's too much for you, so just forget it. If your little brain knows what that means, Scarse." And with that, he opened the closet door, stepped out and closed it with such force, that some boxes fell down.
Lor stood in the middle of the narrow room, processing what had just happened. 'He wanted to apologise?' 'Sirius black?' She slowly opened the door and stepped out as well, receiving some curious looks, but without noticing it, until some 5th, 6th and 7th years approached to her, smirking, some even had jealous looks on their faces. "How on earth did you manage to be inside a closet with gorgeous Sirius?" said one of them, with and impressive look, although with a hint of jealousy . "Alone! "
She just smiled at them, without even noticing it. She was still glaring at the door Sirius had just gone through, thinking about how he had gotten mad when she had asked him if he was following her. And about how he insinuated that she had no brains. 'Does he really thinks that way about me?' she asked herself, making the girls stare at her with even more curiosity. 'Well, what do you care, anyway?' Said another voice in her head. She walked through the door, trying to forget about everything, making her way back to The Three Broomsticks, not caring about the present she had to buy for her little brother.
The day at Hogsmeade passed quickly. By the time they were in Hogwarts, it was already really dark outside, and it only was 4 o' clock. All four girls entered the common room, freezing and laughing. They were about to climb up the stairs to the girls dormitory, when a voice called. "Lily!" it was Remus, who was sitting with the rest of the Marauders, in front of the fire. The other girls climbed up, and left Lily behind, at the foot of the stairs. She walked to Remus.
"We have prefects meeting in ten" he said. "To set the date for the Christmas ball, and the next Hogsmeade visit, along with the other prefects"
"Oh yeah. Right"
"Shall we go?" asked Remus, a little bit worried. She didn't seem to be in the same world, let alone in the same room.
"Yeah, right"
They exited the common room, Remus was still eyeing her from the corner of his eyes. She seemed deep in her thoughts, far away from here. She was bothered by something, but she wasn't quite exactly sure about it. She just felt something strange inside her, that she couldn't possibly put into words.
They arrived in time, they just had to wait for the Hufflepuff's prefects to come. They discussed the different dates, which one would be more appropriate and all the stuff that concerned it. They had some problems with Malfoy and Bellatrix, because they wouldn't agree to anything that the others were suggesting, and what was worse, they never gave ideas. But after almost two hours of work, they managed to set the date for the Ball, the hours and the date for the next Hogsmeade visit.
It was already late, when Remus and Lily made their way to the common room, which was deserted, except for three people, who were talking in front of the fire, with serious faces, very unlike them.
Lily bade good night to Remus, and climbed up the stairs, leaving him alone in the common room with his three friends. It took a while for them to notice him, where he stood staring at the staircases. "Moony, how was the meeting?" asked a very excited Sirius. "Any news?"
Remus sat down and told them how the meeting had gone, the date and hour of the Ball and Hogsmeade visit. Until James remembered something and cut him off. "Don't you have something to tell me, Moony dear?" he asked with a significant look. But Remus stared at him puzzled. "You and Lily, opening the ball? Does that ring a bell?"
"Oh! That!" exclaimed Remus. "Yeah, right. Well I thought about something that might work. It's dangerous and we could get in detention, but if you think it is worth it, just to have a dance with precious Lily-"
"Absolutely!"
"Well, then we have to start right now" he said grinning. He knew his friend would anything for her, so he told them about his plan, and when they should start.
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"No! Peter, don't!" BANG!
A loud sound echoed through the room and the corridor. Peter lay (A/n sorry if that's wrong, We always get messed up with those word... laid, lay... neway.. keep reading...) on the floor, with boxes all over him, while two pair of eyes closed, praying for patience and that no one heard that.
It was past midnight, and three Marauders were inside the Room of Requirement, preparing a potion, whispering to themselves.
"Peter!" said Sirius, exasperated. "clean up that mess, and don't touch anything! "
"Sorry" whispered Peter. He leaned down to pick up the boxes and the shattered glasses, while the door of the room swung open, and then it closed itself. Out of thin air appeared the fourth Marauder, with a package on one hand and the map and the invisibility cloak on the other. He threw the last two things to the corner of the room, and sat down next to James and Sirius.
"Did you get it?"
"Yes," said whispered Remus, showing them the package he was clutching. "What was all the noise for?"
"Peter," muttered James, motioning to him with his head. Peter was still cleaning up the mess. "Did you have any problems?"
"Nah! I'm a Marauder, am I not?" Remus said proudly "no one was around, so it was easy. I just hope, Stowe (A/n... potions master's name, just in case) doesn't notice."
"I wonder why the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin didn't appear when we thought about this place" Peter said frowning, getting closer to the potion.
"Because" said James exasperated, grabbing the package Remus was handing him and opening it ", we're not exactly allowed to use it. That's why it is not in the students' cupboard, Peter"
"How can you be so thick, Wormtail?" said Sirius, laughing.
"I just hope it works" said James, while adding the ingredients to a shimmering potion.
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Finally Christmas Ball day came. It was Thursday, and they were only going to have a half day of school, so all the students could have plenty of time to prepare themselves. And Friday's classes had been cancelled, so they could go home, to spend the Holidays with their families. The Great Hall was full of Christmas decorations. Twelve Christmas trees stood on either side of the Hall, and there were green and red banners hanging from the ceiling. It was hard to concentrate that day. Everyone was talking about the dance, so they didn't pay attention to anything. So some teachers decided to give their hour free. Only McGonagall decided to continue with her class and she even gave them work for the Holidays. A five foot parchment about animagus transformation. "Evil! That's what it is!" said James, coming out of McGonagall's class room, heading to the common room.
The classes were over, and the students were returning to their respective common rooms, to get changed and ready for the dance.
The five Gryffindor girls were already in their room, getting ready. Each one had their robes on their beds, and were talking about the great time they were going to have in a couple of hours. "Nervous about opening the dance?" asked Adele to Lily, while she stepped out of the bathroom.
"Just a little bit" she answered. It was the first time she thought about this, after that day when McGonagall gave them the news. And coming to think of it, she felt more than 'just a little' nervous.
The girls got dressed and had to take turns to use the mirror. There was only one, and there were five girls, and all of them needed it for the make up and to see how they looked. After three hours, they were ready and beautiful. Adele, Cheryl and Anabell went down first. Adele wanted to meet her Hufflepuff boyfriend, so the other two walked her to the Great Hall. "So, ready to go down?" asked Lor, smiling at their reflection. She had to admit they had done a pretty good job choosing the robes and with the hairstyle.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Lily said, walking to the door.
"Well, a certain black-haired someone with glasses will be downstairs, waiting to see you" she answered with a wicked smile following her.
Lily chose to ignore this. True, James was going to be there, and he probably was going to ask her to go out or something, but she had decided to ignore him and to have a good evening. There was a pretty Ravenclaw guy, she had met at the library a week ago, and she was hoping to spend some time with him, to get to know each other better.
The common room was full of fifth, sixth and seventh years, each wearing different-coloured dress robes for a change. The Marauders stood at one corner, arranging the last few details of Remus' brilliant plan, when James looked up and felt himself melting. There, at the foot of the stairs was a pretty red-haired, green-eyed girl, talking to Lor, with a big smile. James couldn't help but grin, catching the attention of her fellow mates. "Damn! They look gorgeous!" came Sirius' voice from his right side. Al four guys stood there looking at the girls. And not just them, almost every head in the common room was looking into their direction, and they had seemed to noticed this because Lor whispered "Lets get out of here, shall we?"
They went through the portrait hole, and into the corridor, leaving more than just four guys open-mouthed. Specially a certain Potter guy, who came back to reality only when Remus whispered "Are you ready for the potion?"
The boys stepped into the corridor, which was almost deserted. Most of the students where either in their common room or already in the great Hall. "Quick!" said James to the others "I can't be late!"
"Or rather Remus can't be late" said Sirius, watching the reaction of his friend, but it never came, he was immersed with his thoughts. "Relax, Prongs, we won't be late"
They entered the Requirement Room, and took the potion out of the closet and placed it on the table. "Remember that you've only got an hour" said Remus warningly. "Don't stay longer!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The door of the Great Hall opened and the students stepped in, awwww's and ohhhhh's could be heard, once they saw how great the Hall looked, with the trees, the candles, the lights and the banners. Al four tables had disappeared, instead of them were round tables for five all over the Hall, with matching napkins and tablecloths. The teachers were already sitting at the High table, beaming at the students. Then professor Dumbledore stood up and everyone fell silence. Lily was looking for Remus, he wasn't anywhere to be seen and they were supposed to dance. "Prefects" said professor Dumbledore, and immediately the music started to sound. The Slytherin's, Ravenclaw's and Hufflepuff's prefects stepped into the centre of the hall. Lily was getting desperate, when she felt someone pulling her towards the dance floor. In front of her was a sweaty Remus, beaming at her. He put his hand on Lily's back and the other one grabbed Lily's free hand. For an unknown reason, she felt chills down her spine, while she stared at Remus' eyes. There was something different. "Are you ok," she whispered, while dancing along with the other couples. "Where were you? what took you so long?"
"Relax, Lily. I'm here, so that's what matters"
She stared at him, a little bit puzzled. She noticed that he never took his eyes off her once, throughout the four songs they danced, non stop.
"Should we sit down? I am getting tired"
"Sure, Lily. Want something to drink?"
"Erm... yeah thanks."
Remus went to get her a drink. She had a really good time. She already knew Remus, he was a nice guy, unlike James and Sirius, who were complete pranksters and unconsiderate. They talked about everything, even Quidditch. She never knew Remus could be such a Quidditch fan. He never went for the Quidditch them and wasn't as obsessed as James. 'he's full of surprises' she thought. She looked across the room and saw Lor scowling at Sirius, and turning back to talk with a seventh year Gryffindor boy, who was smiling charmingly at her. And a few feet away was Peter in front of the food table, eating. She searched the room, trying to find someone. 'Funny' she thought 'I haven't seen Potter' but she forgot about him when Remus offered her a hand and asked her to dance.
They walked to the dance floor and he hugged her. She was slightly surprised, but something inside her made her put her arms around his neck and lean her head on his shoulder, inhaling his sweet smell. 'Wait' said a voice inside her head 'This is Remus we're talking a bout' but all the same she did it. By doing this she couldn't notice Remus' goofy smile, spread across his face, while dancing. A few minutes passed, when Remus opened his eyes, just to check that Lily was still there, next to him, dancing with him, when he noticed Sirius trying to get his attention, standing next to Peter. It took a while for Remus to understand what he was trying to say. He suddenly started to feel strange, and he couldn't see perfectly well anymore. Everything was getting cloudy. His time was up. He had to go back to the requirement room. He stopped dancing, and before Lily could look up at him, he ran out of the Hall.
Lily didn't know what was happening, Lily could see the back of Remus, making his way out of the Hall, running into a group of students, who were standing at the entrance, almost knocking them over. 'Strange' she thought. But something made her look at him again. Since when did Remus have black hair?
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