Catch Me If You Can
Chapter Five ll It's Just Lily
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"Hmpha... awt warse... hmph... av erst oo... hmph... ay?" was what Paige heard from Lily, whose mouth was full of toast.
"Come again?" Paige said with a chuckle.
Lily chewed vigorously before swallowing hugely.
"What class do we have first today?" Lily repeated with a charming smile.
Anna studied her timetable that had been handed out just that morning.
"Charms," she answered promptly, pushing a bowl of porridge forward.
"Oh," Lily had the sense of wasting breath of asking in the first place. She had no idea what Charms was, anyway.
As if reading her thoughts, Sirius, who had been buttering his toast and listening in on the girls, remarked, "Charms is cool."
"What do you do in it?" Lily asked curiously.
James answered this time.
"Just like spells and stuff."
"Oh," Lily said, still looking lost.
"But it can be quite complex," James said seriously.
"Oh."
"Horrible! Hardly anyone passes the Charms exams," Sirius grinned, while Lily turned pale.
"Oh... um..."
"Yeah, most people pass the first year Charms exams in their fifth year!" James exclaimed, winking at Sirius who gave him the thumbs up.
"Oh..." Lily felt edgy.
"I don't expect any of us first years to pass the exam. Maybe in fourth year, if lucky," Sirius added thoughtfully.
"B-- but--" Lily tried to get a in word edgewise.
"Charms gives me the shivers! We might as well jump off cliffs," James remarked mischievously, surprised that Lily was so gullible.
"Oh, but if--"
"Charms is an important part of our education and career, however. So passing the exams is vital."
Lily fell silent, getting horrible images of her career if she heed not pass the Charms exam.
"We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die in Charms," Sirius chanted in a songlike way, while James shook violently as if he was holding back laughter.
The redhead was immensely scared now, and she resumed back to her breakfast meekly.
"THE WORLD IS COMING TO AND END, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" Sirius found it necessary to yell out loud.
Alarmed students nearby turned their heads to Sirius, then laughed. He just smiled and bowed.
"Sirius," Remus sighed, "You're an idiot."
"Why thank you," Sirius said as if it was the best compliment he had ever received.
Lily and the others ate their breakfast quickly, while also studying their timetables. They had Charms first, thought that had already been established, History of Magic second, then lunch break, Transfiguration, Potions and Herbology.
Lily was still quite hazy and pale at the idea of Charms and, before she knew it, everyone was filing out of the Great Hall, books, quills and bottles of ink under their arms.
"First class, Charms," Anna said excitedly, gathering up her books.
"...Yeah," Lily stumbled across words.
They rushed to the Charms classroom, except for Lily who dawdled a bit, hoping to get good seats.
When the redhead arrived in the classroom, she found most of the other first year Gryffindors already seated. Their books and quills were positioned neatly on their desk, toes in line, and chattering quietly to their neighbour.
Lily dropped her stuff on her desk and sank mournfully into the chair beside Anna.
Anna, not knowing what Lily's problem was, because she had been in a conversation with Paige at the time and had only stopped talking to her when Sirius yelled something about the world dying and people coming to an end, patted Lily's hand and said that first classes were nerve-racking, but everything would be okay in the end.
Lily merely nodded at the girl's words of comfort, then frowned. Why was Anna so calm and composed when Charms had proved to be deadly? According to Sirius and James.
....According to Sirius and James...?
Before Lily could establish the importance in that statement, Professor Flitwick, the tiny Charms wizard teacher, walked in. He said "Good morning" to everyone, and climbed on top of a stack of books positioned at the front of the classroom.
"Now, Charms is a fairly complex subject," Professor Flitwick started.
Lily gulped and sank lower in her chair. Anna glanced at her in pity, and wondered where the nerves-of-steel Lily had disappeared to.
Sirius noticed the redhead, and nudged James as they glanced at her. Both of them began to shake in silent laughter.
"...Now, first we are going to start with the 'swish and flick' movement, that you should use when casting a spell," Professor Flitwick continued.
Lily thought she was going to die of agony. She stole a glance around the classroom, and was amazed to see that everyone did not look at all nervous.
With shaking fingers, Lily picked up her wand and then and there decided that it would be her goal to flung herself into her Charms studies, so that she might possibly pass the exam in her second or even first year.
Feeling a bit more confident, she imitated the 'swish and flick' movement with everyone else.
"No, no, 'swish and flick', not 'swish and drop'," Professor Flitwick squeaked to the rest of the class, helping five people at once.
Professor Flitwick looked around the room for a miracle, and found it in Lily, who was doing the movement perfectly.
"Look here everyone!" he called delightedly, "Miss Evans is doing it!"
All heads swivelled over in Lily's direction, who began to feel rather embarrassed.
Oooh, how very evil of James and Sirius to lie to her. She made a mental note to kill them after class.
"Can you kindly demonstrate it again, Miss Evans?"
"Uh oh," Sirius mumbled, as Lily demonstrated the 'swish and flick' movement to the rest of the class.
"What?" James asked, his tongue between his teeth as he tried to copy Lily.
Sirius cast him a sideways glance, as if fearing for his sanity.
"What?! I'll tell you what! Lily is going to kill us. Want me to repeat that? Going -- to -- kill -- us."
"But -- why?" James spluttered, quite at lost.
"Well you know, scaring her about Charms. When it's quite -- not -- true," Sirius said dodgily.
"Err right, but--" James glanced at Lily panickedly, "That was your idea. I had nothing to do with it--"
"Fat chance!" Sirius scoffed, "Come on -- we ride together, we die together."
James laughed, "Sirius, did you know you are a complete idiot."
Sirius grinned maniacally, "Oh yeah, I've had that said to me loads of times."
"And I wonder why..."
--History of Magic--
"Okay, well, we've got lunch after History of Magic, so we make a run for it. Then, we come to Transfiguration -- that's after lunch -- late, so we can get seats away from Lily. We'll keep doing that for the rest of the day and hopefully, by tomorrow, she'd have forgotten," Sirius was introducing their escape plan.
James looked something between confused and admiring.
"I didn't know you had brains, Sirius."
"Shut up, I'm trying to save our lives," Sirius said with fake dignity.
"Do you think we're making a big deal out of this?" James asked with a sigh, glancing at Professor Binns, "I mean -- it's just Lily."
"Just Lily?" Sirius repeated, looking shocked, "Err yeah, just Lily. Who has the hottest temper and such a feisty attitude. Honestly. James, you of all people should know how terribly powerful in pranking and hexing she can be..."
"Yeah, I suppose," James said, remembering.
A certain redhead was keeping a close eye on the two. She saw them bickering away at something, and smiled in satisfaction as she thought about her plans on how to get back at them.
Lily had the gift of appearing interested and enthusiastic, while really, she was dying of boredom. Taking a few notes on witch burning, she flicked through her notebook and came to a rest at a page that was labelled: "Process: Kill James And Sirius."
Writing a few good pranks down, Lily swept a glance over at the boys again. James appeared to be chewing on a quill, while Sirius appeared to be asleep. Remus was doodling on a scrap piece of parchment. Peter was snoring.
And yet, the teacher did not seem to notice. Lily wondered how on earth she could cope with another few years of unprofitable boredom in History of Magic.
Taking out her schedule, she saw that lunch was right after this class. Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, she pulled back out her notebook and managed to stay awake for the remainder of the lesson by passing notes and playing norts and crosses with Paige.
When the bell finally rung, the students all snapped out of their doze and began filing out of the classroom. Sirius and James shoved their quills and books into their bag and tried to make a run for it, when someone grabbed onto James' collar from behind.
"Going somewhere?" Lily asked sweetly, her bookbag hanging from her shoulder.
"Not really," Sirius said sheepishly, digging his nails into James' arm and urging him to break out of Lily's grasp.
"Well good, because I want to have a word with you two."
Why in the name of Merlin does she sound like Professor McGonagall? Sirius wondered.
Dragging both of the boys into an empty classroom (Wow, pretty strong, James thought vaguely), she released them and glowered at them both.
"So what was this about 'Charms being the hardest subject' and 'We're all gonna die in Charms?'."
James fell silent, knowing there was no escape in this one. Sirius, however, said timidly, "Well, you see-- ..."
He collapsed onto the floor and began snoring realistically.
James absolutely could not believe what Sirius was doing, but Lily was trying not to smile. Really, they were an amusing pair and she realised they were just kidding around. No harm done, really...
With one last glare at James, she turned on her heel and left.
James stared after her. Shaking out of his reverie, he kicked Sirius who yelped and leapt up.
"She's left," James informed him.
"Why?" Sirius questioned, getting to his feet.
James shrugged.
Sirius began grinning like a maniac. James glanced at him edgily.
"What is it?"
"Do you know that that means?!" Sirius squealed, bouncing up and down.
"What?" James said panickedly, imagining the worst.
"Don't you know?!" Sirius was almost shrieking.
"What the bloody hell are you on about?" James exclaimed irritably.
"She's pregnant!"
James stared into space for a few seconds.
"WHAT?!" he thundered, looking scared and -- murderous?
Sirius fell onto the ground, rolling on the floor laughing -- roflhao.
"Oh far out!" James kicked Sirius, "That wasn't funny!"
"Yes it was!" Sirius spluttered, still laughing, "Oh man -- the look on your face!"
He began laughing again.
"Sirius!"
"Okay, okay," Sirius managed to steady his breathing and got up, still with a smile on his face, "What I meant to say was; I think we got off the hook."
"So do I," James said with a grin, "What with your manical suggestions and falling onto the ground snoring, I think you scared Lily off..."
Sirius broke into a grin again, "Yup. Me and my dashing ways."
James snorted, earning him a whack over the head.
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"Where is Lily? And James? And Sirius?" Anna asked Remus as they ate their lunch.
"Lily's off killing the other two," Remus informed in between bites.
Paige and Anna exchanged glances, decided they didn't care, and went back to their lunch.
Three minutes later, Lily joined them.
"Hey guys," she greeted, dropping into a seat beside Paige and helping herself to a plate of Yorkshire pudding.
"Hiya, Sirius and James still alive?" Remus wanted to know.
Lily smiled lightly, picking up a fork, "Sirius is in a deep slumber and James is just stunned."
"What did you do to them?" Paige asked her immediately.
Lily chuckled, "Believe it or not, absolutely nothing..."
With a few more disbelieving glances around the table, Peter came up to them.
"Hi everyone," he said to the girls and Remus. Incoherent hellos were said, and he sat down to eat with them.
The two boys began talking about something, Paige was scribbling some lines in her diary while eating and Anna was experimenting with spoons and a fork, so Lily began to study the Great Hall.
Wondering vaguely where Sirius and James were, she suddenly heard that peculiar word said behind her.
"Hey Mudblood."
Feeling a little nervous but angry, she turned around and saw--
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---->A/N: Still that ICKY word. --MSQ.