Alright, so this chapter has been put up much later than any of the other
ones but I have gone back to school now and it will be about a week or two
in between chapters cos I do most of my writing on the weekend. I hope you
don't mind the time frame and I apologize if it takes any longer than that,
but most of the chapters will be up a week to two weeks apart. Thanks to
all of my reviewers, that's why I put up my last chapter so soon! I love it
when I get reviews!
~*~mysticaldreams
Chapter 4: Quidditch trials and music boxes
James woke the next morning to the familiar loud bangs and pops echoing around the room that he had come accustomed to over the years.
He sat up and yawned sleepily, pulling back the curtains hanging about his four poster bed.
"What time is it Moony?" Knowing his fried would be up and rushing around already.
"Errrm, six 'o' clock"
"What! How did I wake up that early?!"
There was a grunt from the bed over the other side of the room and Peter rolled over, muttering something incoherent in his sleep.
James groped for his glasses on his bedside table and slipped them on. The blurs around him disappeared as his eyesight returned to it's full strength and he looked over at Sirius' empty bed beside his.
"Hey, where's padfoot?"
"Probably fell asleep in the Astronomy tower with some girl again" Came Remus' voice from the drawn curtained bed on the other side of his.
"You alright Moony? It's not close to full moon again is it?"
"No, it's just ever since Sirius set this stupid alarm to go off every morning I haven't been able to study up here!"
"Look on the bright side; at least we won't be late to class anymore!"
Remus grunted and muttered something along the lines of "you mean you"
"Well I'm going up to the owlery to send a letter to me mum, I forgot my wrist watch again"
"You might want to put on a shirt first though, remember last time when Professor McGonagall caught you walking to the library in your boxers" Remus said amused.
"Ah, what can I say, chicks crave after me!"
Remus snorted, "What girl would be up at six 'o' clock in the morning anyway"
"Good point! Though I did see Lily up at five one morning when we were coming back from our run at full moon, though Lily is incapable of human qualities let alone being a girl" James said thoughtfully. "If I can get the time I'll walk past the Astronomy Tower and wake Sirius up, save Professor Sinistra from another bad fright" he said as he walked out of the dormitory, pulling his school jumper over his head.
He walked down the stairs, making sure he jumped the last one, which Sirius had jinxed to blow sparks whenever it was stepped on the night before.
He was just about to climb out of the portrait hole when something caught his eye. Their was a boy with elegant dark hair slumped asleep on one of the squishy armchairs closest to the fire, and lying beside him, her head on his shoulder, also asleep, was a girl with silky black hair.
It had never struck James how alike the two cousins were; they practically looked like brother and sister. James didn't want to wake Sirius and Andromeda up, but thought it best to since all of the Gryffindor's would be up soon, getting ready for their first day of year. He however, first went to get Remus, leaping up to the boys dormitories again and despite himself he was already forming a plan as to how to wake them both up.
"Well that was quick" Remus said as James swung open the door.
"I didn't go to the owlery, but I found Sirius!" James said with positive glee in his voice.
"Where was he" Remus asked, poking his head around the edge of the curtains surrounding his book covered bed, noticing the all too familiar tone of his friends voice.
"Come and see. I need your help!"
He led Remus down the stairs, but as he reached the bottom Remus stepped on the last step. A shower of red, gold, pink and purple sparks came spurting out of the step and lifted Remus off his feet with a loud BANG!
One of the armchairs occupants snapped awake most suddenly and Sirius yawned "Who stepped on the last step?"
"Nice one Remus! Now we can't scare him!" James said annoyingly before he helped Remus back to his feet and they both walked over to where Sirius was sitting.
Andromeda was still asleep, her head lolling on Sirius' shoulder. He carefully placed it onto his lap and stretched out his arms, yawning unsurprisingly in a doglike manner.
"Heavy sleeper" Remus muttered as he looked at Andromeda.
"Yeah, always has been, she slept through my mother and hers screaming; now that's saying something!" Sirius said sleepily, "What's the time?"
"Six 'o'-
At that moment they all heard soft foot falls coming down the girls dormitory stairs and they turned to see Lily walking down them fully dressed and holding a various number of books. Though when she saw the three boys she turned promptly on her heel and started walking back up them again. As she got half way up she spun around.
"Do any of you know where Annie is?" She asked; all trace of emotion wiped from her face. She studied all of their blank looks and then her eyes fell on Andromeda's peaceful form lying beside Sirius.
"Been doing a little in-breeding" James smirked.
"Funny Potter"
"Oi now James, I object to that too!" Sirius said offended.
"Sorry Padfoot, just trying to keep up with madams high standards!" James said looking at Lily.
Andromeda stirred in her sleep and her eyes suddenly flicked open.
"M-morning" she said sleepily looking up at everybody standing around her as she sat up. "M-mothers meeting is it?" She asked smiling.
"We fell asleep last night"
"Well I figured that!"
She looked up to the girl's dormitory staircase.
"Hi Lily! I think I'll go up and get ready for today, change out of these clothes" She said looking at her rumpled robes.
Both of the girls walked up the staircase, Lily calling after her "You might want to change too James, those boxers really don't go with that jumper"
James looked down at his violent purple boxers that had fluro orange stripes on them to his grey and scarlet jumper and blushed.
"Well I'm going back to bed" Sirius told them both "wake me up when you're going down to breakfast". With that he slumped up the stairs, being careful to skip the first step.
"I'm gonna erm...change and go to the owlery"
Remus smirked, "Since when did what Lily say matter?"
"Well I just thought that since she's going to be my girlfriend soon I should probably start wearing clothes that she likes" James said smoothly.
"Dream on Prongs" Remus said patting him on the shoulder and ascending back up to the sixth year boy's dormitory.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At breakfast that morning all the marauders were keen to put as much space between James and Lily as possible, though it was usually amusing to watch Lily rave while James came back with his usual smart ass comments, they thought it much to early for them to argue and all already had headaches from hearing the explosive step on the boy's dormitory staircase explode so many times that morning.
Sirius was dozing on the milk jug while Andromeda, equally exhausted, still seemed to manage a cheery smile while talking to Miria about transfiguration, which was apparently her favorite subject.
When the Great Hall was finally full of all the eager awaiting students the timetables were handed out.
"Hey look Annie, I'm in all of your classes" Sirius said as he skimmed over his timetable, his arm still propped up against the milk jug.
Lily groaned as she realized she was as well. She wasn't annoyed that she was in the same classes as Annie, in fact that was a bonus, what she was really annoyed at was that she was, yet again, in all the same classes as James. It was a well known fact that Sirius and James always took the same electives and were always in the top classes.
"So Miria, are you going to try out for keeper?" James asked her while taking a great gulp of orange juice.
Miria was just about to reply when Andromeda whirled around from talking to Sirius.
"You need a new keeper?!" she exclaimed
"Well yeah, Renee left last year, gone to become a secretary at the department of sports and games, don't ask me why, good enough keeper to play for the wasps that girl....." He suddenly snapped out of his little daze and asked suddenly very loudly "Why, do you play?"
"Course I do! I was keeper for our team at Durmstrang, captain too! The only good thing there mind you" she added in a mumble.
"I'm Gryffindor captain" James said proudly, puffing out his chest.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Quidditch" she mumbled from under her breath.
"Excuse me Lily, would you like to share that?" James asked glaring at her.
"No, no I wouldn't want to interrupt you while you're humbly showing off" She said smirking.
"Fine then, but if your going to say something in the future you might want to speak more clearly, if you mumble too much you'll get a sore throat, then you won't be able to yell at me" He said matter of factly.
Lilly slumped down into her seat, she couldn't think of any retort.
"Well tryouts are this afternoon at four, you should come along, you'll have a fair chance" James said importantly, then not being able to hold his excitement he asked "what kind of broom do you have?"
"Latest model of Nimbus, nine-forty to be exact" She said proudly.
"Really! So do I!" James exclaimed
"Here we go" Remus mumbled from above his book, though James didn't notice, he and Andromeda were both talking very fast about the special features of their brooms and how fast they went, how they polish it, what spectacular moves they can make and how it was recommended to international teams.
They all filed out of the great hall and made their way across the fresh, green grass to greenhouse six, where their first herbology lesson for the year would take place. The lesson went well, other than Peter getting nipped on the finger by a snapdragon (because James and Sirius had told him they calmed down when given burtie botts every flavor beans to eat) the lesson was perfect. Though, at lunch the fun and games began.
"You know, I haven't seen Snivellus once since the feast last night" Sirius said thoughtfully.
"Me neither, hey maybe he ran away! Missed his mummy" James said jokingly, putting on a puppy dog face.
"That or he had to go home because he forgot to get his grease can for his hair" Remus said looking up from the book he was reading. They all roared with laughter and at that very moment Snape walked into the hall. Peter jumped, knocking his pumpkin juice off the table.
"What'ya do that for?" Sirius asked wiping the drips of his robes, then he looked up to where Peter was staring and smiled as he saw Snape sit on his own a couple of meters away from them at the Slytherin table. He elbowed James and he looked up from his meat pie.
"Well, well, speak of the devil" James muttered.
"If you're thinking of picking a fight Prongs I would just like to remind you that you have to be at the quidditch tryouts tonight to judge and tomorrow we're having a meeting" Remus said quietly staring at his homework that was placed on his lap "So it might be a good idea not to get yourself detention this week".
"Oh no, don't worry Moony, it won't be anything too Serious" Sirius said grinning "Plus I have a date Wednesday night so I can't get detention till after then" he said brightly.
Peter's mouth was hanging open "You already have a date?!"
"Yes Wormtail, some people are very lucky to be blessed with good looks and charm" Sirius said.
Remus snorted, "yeah and a very big head"
"Whose side are you on?"
"Who's the other side?"
"You know.. THEM!" Sirius exclaimed pointing at Lily and the group of girls around her who were all laughing. "The ones who don't like us, the ones who think we're arrogant, the ones that tell us that every day!" Sirius finished exasperated.
"Well in that case neither"
"You can't not be on either side!"
"Yes I can"
"No you can't"
"Why are we even having this discussion?"
"Because you think he's arrogant" Peter said.
"I never sa"----
James elbowed Sirius in the gut and they both looked around to see Snape exiting the hall and walking through the entrance hall to the grounds.
"We'll be back" James said as he and Sirius got up and started to follow Snape.
"Keep what I said in mind" Remus called after them.
"What, the arrogance?" Peter asked him confused as they left.
"No you git, the detention!"
Sirius and James both walked silently behind Snape, whispering maniacally about what they would do to him.
"Oh I know!" Sirius exclaimed, "We can put the Sonorous charm on him to make his voice echo back up to the hall and make him sing Mary had a little lamb!"
James grinned. "Or, knowing Snivellus, we won't have to make him do anything because he's sure to spit all the filthy words under the moon at us and then he'll be in even more trouble!"
They both sniggered and quickened their pace. But, they only just realized where Snape was going; he was headed straight for the Forbidden Forest. They both stopped in their tracks, not because of fright, but wonder.
"What's he going there for?" James asked bewilded
"I dunno" Sirius replied, also perplexed, but a grin suddenly spread across his face once more as Snape emerged into the thick forest. "I always knew he was up to something! Hurry up James! We have to follow him, if he's up to something and we can pin him for it, he could get expelled!" he continued excitedly. James bounced off behind Sirius and they were both just about to enter the darkened tree line when they heard a voice behind them.
"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"
"Great" James muttered, "Just what we needed". He knew that voice anywhere, he loved it, but it haunted him every time he went to do something fun.
"Why Lily dear, what a nice day to come and take a stroll with us" James said charmingly, turning to face a sour faced Lily, who's arms were crossed on her chest.
"Don't give me that bull shit! I know perfectly well what you were going to do!"
"Oh, and what was that?" Sirius said losing his patience.
"You were going to go into the forest, and you know perfectly well that your not allowed!"
"Has that ever stopped us?"
"It will now! Detention for both of you, tonight at 8, meet me in the common room" She turned around in her usual quick, sweeping fashion and started walking back up to the castle.
"Hey! Lily you know I have quidditch try outs!"
"Consider yourself lucky Potter, I put it later, there's always 5 'o' clock free if you want"
"What about Snape?!" Sirius yelled
"What about him?" Lily asked, getting very annoyed.
"Well he was the one that went into the forest in the first place!"
"Do you really think I'm that gullible?! Like I'm going to believe that he went in there before you both when I just gave you detention! Stop trying to get out of trouble; it doesn't work on me. And ten points from Gryffindor for lying!"
They both gaped at her.
"Well are you going to get back to class or am I going to have to take another 10 off?"
They both walked after her, cursing under their breaths and whispering about how they would pay her back.
~*~
Later that day James and the marauders were all huddled in a corner in the Gryffindor change rooms, talking while James got ready for the tryouts.
"I told you didn't I?" Remus sighed.
"Hey! It's not our fault Snivellus decided to take a stroll in the forest, you would have gone after him if you'd have seen him!" Sirius said defensively.
"I wonder what he was up to." James said, pondering as he tied up his boots.
"I don't know, but I'm just glad Lily decided to give you detention later on today and not tomorrow" Remus stated, "full moon's only next week".
"Don't worry Moony! I've already got a brilliant plan to share at our meeting!" Sirius said grinning.
James jumped off his seat and grabbed his broom from his locker.
"Well I better get out there. Are you guys going to watch?"
"Yeah, Annie's trying out" Sirius said happily
"Oh, oh, I'll stay!" Peter said excitedly.
"I'll stay for a while, but I have to do some homework for Professor Wenaby" Remus replied.
"Good! C-ya then!" James walked over to his other teammates and they all started off for the trials.
As he walked out onto the pitch he met a group of various Gryffindors, all with their brooms and nervous expressions. In the stands were a couple of other Gryffindors waiting patiently to cheer their friends on. James couldn't help but notice Lily and Miria sitting in the first row of seats, waving to Andromeda who had just walked out to join the group, her old school quidditch robes on, looking very professional and slightly intimidating to the other students.
"Ok, listen up!" James yelled over the chatter, "what we're going to do is put you through a couple of test goals with Mandy, Warren and Jacky, our three chasers and Ian and Marcus are going to be hitting the bludgers randomly also, try and block as many quaffles as possible and dodge the bludgers, I'll be searching for the snitch, I'll blow the whistle to signal for the next person to take over".
They all lined up near the stands and the game began. There were about twenty people trying out and it took them a fair few hours to get to Andromeda, who everyone, except the other contestants were looking forward to seeing. When she walked onto the pitch the stands erupted into cheering, Lily and Miria shouting encouragingly, Sirius sending out various cat calls and Remus whistling loudly. Andromeda's face went bright red, but as she rose into the air on her broom, all of the embarrassment was left back on the ground and her expression turned to her most determined face.
James signaled for the game to begin and once more he let the snitch out of his clutch but this time he didn't go after it straight away. He was staring in amazement at Andromeda. Jacky had faked left and then faked left again, swung across to the right and shot for goal. Andromeda had followed left but as soon as she had dove left again Andromeda turned right straight away, ducking the bludger and catching the quaffle with the air of absolute ease. Throwing the quaffle to Warren she took up her position in the middle of the goals once again and Warren started his move for goal.
Within minutes Andromeda had saved every goal thrown by the three chasers and everyone was looking at her in amazement. The other students waiting for their turns were all wearing faces of defeat, rubbing their brows.
"Well looks like we've found our new keeper!" James yelled across the pitch.
Andromeda nearly fell off her broom in excitement and soon the people in the stands caught on by the excitement of the team and Lily, Miria, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all cheering joyously. Andromeda landed on the ground and Lily and Miria both ran out to congratulate her. When James landed also Andromeda ran up and caught him a hug.
"Thank you so much!"
"No problem, you're the best keeper I've ever seen!"
Sirius also came running onto the pitch. "You were fantastic!" He beamed down at his sister-like cousin.
"Thanks"
"Well I have to be off, don't want to be late for detention Lily" James said smirking at her.
"Good because if you are it will only go for longer" She said just as smugly.
Sirius shook his head, looking at them both.
~*~
Lily sat on her bed in the 6th year girl's dormitory, reading standard book of spells, grade 6 and musing over how much she was looking forward to sending James and Sirius to a detention.
Andromeda came in and sat down next to her on her bed.
"I hear your sending Sirius and James on to detention" She said smiling.
"Yeah, look, yesterday when we were on the train, about what I said"---
"Hey don't worry about it, I know Sirius can be an idiot, It's just, compared to the rest of my family, he's practically a saint, and that's saying something!"
It was the first time Lily had seen Andromeda smile while talking about her family and she was amazed.
"And I thought my sister was bad"
"I have two and their both horribly freaky" Andromeda said looking into space "Narcissa and Bellatrix, mother's probably setting them up with beautiful pure blood boyfriends as we speak" she said disgusted.
"Pure blood mania hey?" Lily asked a bit uncomfortable.
"That's why I left, I couldn't stand all the freaky traditions and over bias opinions, same reason as Sirius, we were always different to the family, that's why we got along so well. We didn't get to see each other often though, but we always sent letters, that's how I came to know so much about Hogwarts"
Lily was quiet for a while, taking in all her friend had just told her, not being able t to think of anything to say. She finally piped up, saying something that she thought was quite pathetic but thought might help Andromeda cheer up.
"Well your mother and mine both seem to have the same idea on something, they both have an obsession with names! I mean Lily and Petunia! You can tell she likes flowers!"
"Yeah I know, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda! Who could think of names like that?!" She laughed, "Though I do like the name Nymphadora!"
They both laughed, falling backwards onto the bed. Then something caught Andromeda's eye, it was sitting on Lily's bedside table, it was a small box, but slightly different, it had a metal piece sticking out of the side and a dancing girl in a pink frock was set on a platform inside the lilac bottom. The box was filled with tiny trinkets, from brooches and earrings to small newspaper clippings and black and white photo's. Lily saw Andromeda staring at it and smiled.
"I got that off my grandmother when I was eight, I love music boxes, they're so enchanting, that one sings somewhere over the rainbow, I've been filling it with little bits and pieces that I loved of hers and little memories. She died when I was ten, my grandpa died when I was just three. I remember when they were cleaning her house after she died and I used to snitch tiny trinkets of hers and hide them in this box" Lily said, dazing into space, reminiscing.
"I'm sorry, it would have been much worse to have someone you loved leave you than to leave a family who hated you" Andromeda said sympathetically. She looked at the box curiously, "How does it work?"
Lily picked it up and twisted the metal leaver around to start up the sweet music. Andromeda stared at it, pleasantly taking in the beautiful music and watching the ballerina slowly spin around
"It's so beautiful" she said in a dreamlike voice, "Can I have a look?" She then asked pointing at all the little bits and pieces filling the velvet box.
"Yeah, sure, I have to go down to the common room for detention giving, you can keep it for a while if you want" Lily replied, smiling at her friend before walking over to the end of the room and closing the door quietly behind her.
######
That's it for chapter 4! Please tell me if you think I am making the chapters too long because I need to know. Thank you to all the reviewers for chapter 3 and my message: Marie4, Agloechen, someone, Li-chan, GinnylovesHarry, Biddett da Pigeon Stalker, James-Padfoot and Hyper Fairy Queen. I hope you liked it and I'll try and have the next chapter up soon!
~*~mysticaldreams
~*~mysticaldreams
Chapter 4: Quidditch trials and music boxes
James woke the next morning to the familiar loud bangs and pops echoing around the room that he had come accustomed to over the years.
He sat up and yawned sleepily, pulling back the curtains hanging about his four poster bed.
"What time is it Moony?" Knowing his fried would be up and rushing around already.
"Errrm, six 'o' clock"
"What! How did I wake up that early?!"
There was a grunt from the bed over the other side of the room and Peter rolled over, muttering something incoherent in his sleep.
James groped for his glasses on his bedside table and slipped them on. The blurs around him disappeared as his eyesight returned to it's full strength and he looked over at Sirius' empty bed beside his.
"Hey, where's padfoot?"
"Probably fell asleep in the Astronomy tower with some girl again" Came Remus' voice from the drawn curtained bed on the other side of his.
"You alright Moony? It's not close to full moon again is it?"
"No, it's just ever since Sirius set this stupid alarm to go off every morning I haven't been able to study up here!"
"Look on the bright side; at least we won't be late to class anymore!"
Remus grunted and muttered something along the lines of "you mean you"
"Well I'm going up to the owlery to send a letter to me mum, I forgot my wrist watch again"
"You might want to put on a shirt first though, remember last time when Professor McGonagall caught you walking to the library in your boxers" Remus said amused.
"Ah, what can I say, chicks crave after me!"
Remus snorted, "What girl would be up at six 'o' clock in the morning anyway"
"Good point! Though I did see Lily up at five one morning when we were coming back from our run at full moon, though Lily is incapable of human qualities let alone being a girl" James said thoughtfully. "If I can get the time I'll walk past the Astronomy Tower and wake Sirius up, save Professor Sinistra from another bad fright" he said as he walked out of the dormitory, pulling his school jumper over his head.
He walked down the stairs, making sure he jumped the last one, which Sirius had jinxed to blow sparks whenever it was stepped on the night before.
He was just about to climb out of the portrait hole when something caught his eye. Their was a boy with elegant dark hair slumped asleep on one of the squishy armchairs closest to the fire, and lying beside him, her head on his shoulder, also asleep, was a girl with silky black hair.
It had never struck James how alike the two cousins were; they practically looked like brother and sister. James didn't want to wake Sirius and Andromeda up, but thought it best to since all of the Gryffindor's would be up soon, getting ready for their first day of year. He however, first went to get Remus, leaping up to the boys dormitories again and despite himself he was already forming a plan as to how to wake them both up.
"Well that was quick" Remus said as James swung open the door.
"I didn't go to the owlery, but I found Sirius!" James said with positive glee in his voice.
"Where was he" Remus asked, poking his head around the edge of the curtains surrounding his book covered bed, noticing the all too familiar tone of his friends voice.
"Come and see. I need your help!"
He led Remus down the stairs, but as he reached the bottom Remus stepped on the last step. A shower of red, gold, pink and purple sparks came spurting out of the step and lifted Remus off his feet with a loud BANG!
One of the armchairs occupants snapped awake most suddenly and Sirius yawned "Who stepped on the last step?"
"Nice one Remus! Now we can't scare him!" James said annoyingly before he helped Remus back to his feet and they both walked over to where Sirius was sitting.
Andromeda was still asleep, her head lolling on Sirius' shoulder. He carefully placed it onto his lap and stretched out his arms, yawning unsurprisingly in a doglike manner.
"Heavy sleeper" Remus muttered as he looked at Andromeda.
"Yeah, always has been, she slept through my mother and hers screaming; now that's saying something!" Sirius said sleepily, "What's the time?"
"Six 'o'-
At that moment they all heard soft foot falls coming down the girls dormitory stairs and they turned to see Lily walking down them fully dressed and holding a various number of books. Though when she saw the three boys she turned promptly on her heel and started walking back up them again. As she got half way up she spun around.
"Do any of you know where Annie is?" She asked; all trace of emotion wiped from her face. She studied all of their blank looks and then her eyes fell on Andromeda's peaceful form lying beside Sirius.
"Been doing a little in-breeding" James smirked.
"Funny Potter"
"Oi now James, I object to that too!" Sirius said offended.
"Sorry Padfoot, just trying to keep up with madams high standards!" James said looking at Lily.
Andromeda stirred in her sleep and her eyes suddenly flicked open.
"M-morning" she said sleepily looking up at everybody standing around her as she sat up. "M-mothers meeting is it?" She asked smiling.
"We fell asleep last night"
"Well I figured that!"
She looked up to the girl's dormitory staircase.
"Hi Lily! I think I'll go up and get ready for today, change out of these clothes" She said looking at her rumpled robes.
Both of the girls walked up the staircase, Lily calling after her "You might want to change too James, those boxers really don't go with that jumper"
James looked down at his violent purple boxers that had fluro orange stripes on them to his grey and scarlet jumper and blushed.
"Well I'm going back to bed" Sirius told them both "wake me up when you're going down to breakfast". With that he slumped up the stairs, being careful to skip the first step.
"I'm gonna erm...change and go to the owlery"
Remus smirked, "Since when did what Lily say matter?"
"Well I just thought that since she's going to be my girlfriend soon I should probably start wearing clothes that she likes" James said smoothly.
"Dream on Prongs" Remus said patting him on the shoulder and ascending back up to the sixth year boy's dormitory.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
At breakfast that morning all the marauders were keen to put as much space between James and Lily as possible, though it was usually amusing to watch Lily rave while James came back with his usual smart ass comments, they thought it much to early for them to argue and all already had headaches from hearing the explosive step on the boy's dormitory staircase explode so many times that morning.
Sirius was dozing on the milk jug while Andromeda, equally exhausted, still seemed to manage a cheery smile while talking to Miria about transfiguration, which was apparently her favorite subject.
When the Great Hall was finally full of all the eager awaiting students the timetables were handed out.
"Hey look Annie, I'm in all of your classes" Sirius said as he skimmed over his timetable, his arm still propped up against the milk jug.
Lily groaned as she realized she was as well. She wasn't annoyed that she was in the same classes as Annie, in fact that was a bonus, what she was really annoyed at was that she was, yet again, in all the same classes as James. It was a well known fact that Sirius and James always took the same electives and were always in the top classes.
"So Miria, are you going to try out for keeper?" James asked her while taking a great gulp of orange juice.
Miria was just about to reply when Andromeda whirled around from talking to Sirius.
"You need a new keeper?!" she exclaimed
"Well yeah, Renee left last year, gone to become a secretary at the department of sports and games, don't ask me why, good enough keeper to play for the wasps that girl....." He suddenly snapped out of his little daze and asked suddenly very loudly "Why, do you play?"
"Course I do! I was keeper for our team at Durmstrang, captain too! The only good thing there mind you" she added in a mumble.
"I'm Gryffindor captain" James said proudly, puffing out his chest.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Quidditch" she mumbled from under her breath.
"Excuse me Lily, would you like to share that?" James asked glaring at her.
"No, no I wouldn't want to interrupt you while you're humbly showing off" She said smirking.
"Fine then, but if your going to say something in the future you might want to speak more clearly, if you mumble too much you'll get a sore throat, then you won't be able to yell at me" He said matter of factly.
Lilly slumped down into her seat, she couldn't think of any retort.
"Well tryouts are this afternoon at four, you should come along, you'll have a fair chance" James said importantly, then not being able to hold his excitement he asked "what kind of broom do you have?"
"Latest model of Nimbus, nine-forty to be exact" She said proudly.
"Really! So do I!" James exclaimed
"Here we go" Remus mumbled from above his book, though James didn't notice, he and Andromeda were both talking very fast about the special features of their brooms and how fast they went, how they polish it, what spectacular moves they can make and how it was recommended to international teams.
They all filed out of the great hall and made their way across the fresh, green grass to greenhouse six, where their first herbology lesson for the year would take place. The lesson went well, other than Peter getting nipped on the finger by a snapdragon (because James and Sirius had told him they calmed down when given burtie botts every flavor beans to eat) the lesson was perfect. Though, at lunch the fun and games began.
"You know, I haven't seen Snivellus once since the feast last night" Sirius said thoughtfully.
"Me neither, hey maybe he ran away! Missed his mummy" James said jokingly, putting on a puppy dog face.
"That or he had to go home because he forgot to get his grease can for his hair" Remus said looking up from the book he was reading. They all roared with laughter and at that very moment Snape walked into the hall. Peter jumped, knocking his pumpkin juice off the table.
"What'ya do that for?" Sirius asked wiping the drips of his robes, then he looked up to where Peter was staring and smiled as he saw Snape sit on his own a couple of meters away from them at the Slytherin table. He elbowed James and he looked up from his meat pie.
"Well, well, speak of the devil" James muttered.
"If you're thinking of picking a fight Prongs I would just like to remind you that you have to be at the quidditch tryouts tonight to judge and tomorrow we're having a meeting" Remus said quietly staring at his homework that was placed on his lap "So it might be a good idea not to get yourself detention this week".
"Oh no, don't worry Moony, it won't be anything too Serious" Sirius said grinning "Plus I have a date Wednesday night so I can't get detention till after then" he said brightly.
Peter's mouth was hanging open "You already have a date?!"
"Yes Wormtail, some people are very lucky to be blessed with good looks and charm" Sirius said.
Remus snorted, "yeah and a very big head"
"Whose side are you on?"
"Who's the other side?"
"You know.. THEM!" Sirius exclaimed pointing at Lily and the group of girls around her who were all laughing. "The ones who don't like us, the ones who think we're arrogant, the ones that tell us that every day!" Sirius finished exasperated.
"Well in that case neither"
"You can't not be on either side!"
"Yes I can"
"No you can't"
"Why are we even having this discussion?"
"Because you think he's arrogant" Peter said.
"I never sa"----
James elbowed Sirius in the gut and they both looked around to see Snape exiting the hall and walking through the entrance hall to the grounds.
"We'll be back" James said as he and Sirius got up and started to follow Snape.
"Keep what I said in mind" Remus called after them.
"What, the arrogance?" Peter asked him confused as they left.
"No you git, the detention!"
Sirius and James both walked silently behind Snape, whispering maniacally about what they would do to him.
"Oh I know!" Sirius exclaimed, "We can put the Sonorous charm on him to make his voice echo back up to the hall and make him sing Mary had a little lamb!"
James grinned. "Or, knowing Snivellus, we won't have to make him do anything because he's sure to spit all the filthy words under the moon at us and then he'll be in even more trouble!"
They both sniggered and quickened their pace. But, they only just realized where Snape was going; he was headed straight for the Forbidden Forest. They both stopped in their tracks, not because of fright, but wonder.
"What's he going there for?" James asked bewilded
"I dunno" Sirius replied, also perplexed, but a grin suddenly spread across his face once more as Snape emerged into the thick forest. "I always knew he was up to something! Hurry up James! We have to follow him, if he's up to something and we can pin him for it, he could get expelled!" he continued excitedly. James bounced off behind Sirius and they were both just about to enter the darkened tree line when they heard a voice behind them.
"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"
"Great" James muttered, "Just what we needed". He knew that voice anywhere, he loved it, but it haunted him every time he went to do something fun.
"Why Lily dear, what a nice day to come and take a stroll with us" James said charmingly, turning to face a sour faced Lily, who's arms were crossed on her chest.
"Don't give me that bull shit! I know perfectly well what you were going to do!"
"Oh, and what was that?" Sirius said losing his patience.
"You were going to go into the forest, and you know perfectly well that your not allowed!"
"Has that ever stopped us?"
"It will now! Detention for both of you, tonight at 8, meet me in the common room" She turned around in her usual quick, sweeping fashion and started walking back up to the castle.
"Hey! Lily you know I have quidditch try outs!"
"Consider yourself lucky Potter, I put it later, there's always 5 'o' clock free if you want"
"What about Snape?!" Sirius yelled
"What about him?" Lily asked, getting very annoyed.
"Well he was the one that went into the forest in the first place!"
"Do you really think I'm that gullible?! Like I'm going to believe that he went in there before you both when I just gave you detention! Stop trying to get out of trouble; it doesn't work on me. And ten points from Gryffindor for lying!"
They both gaped at her.
"Well are you going to get back to class or am I going to have to take another 10 off?"
They both walked after her, cursing under their breaths and whispering about how they would pay her back.
~*~
Later that day James and the marauders were all huddled in a corner in the Gryffindor change rooms, talking while James got ready for the tryouts.
"I told you didn't I?" Remus sighed.
"Hey! It's not our fault Snivellus decided to take a stroll in the forest, you would have gone after him if you'd have seen him!" Sirius said defensively.
"I wonder what he was up to." James said, pondering as he tied up his boots.
"I don't know, but I'm just glad Lily decided to give you detention later on today and not tomorrow" Remus stated, "full moon's only next week".
"Don't worry Moony! I've already got a brilliant plan to share at our meeting!" Sirius said grinning.
James jumped off his seat and grabbed his broom from his locker.
"Well I better get out there. Are you guys going to watch?"
"Yeah, Annie's trying out" Sirius said happily
"Oh, oh, I'll stay!" Peter said excitedly.
"I'll stay for a while, but I have to do some homework for Professor Wenaby" Remus replied.
"Good! C-ya then!" James walked over to his other teammates and they all started off for the trials.
As he walked out onto the pitch he met a group of various Gryffindors, all with their brooms and nervous expressions. In the stands were a couple of other Gryffindors waiting patiently to cheer their friends on. James couldn't help but notice Lily and Miria sitting in the first row of seats, waving to Andromeda who had just walked out to join the group, her old school quidditch robes on, looking very professional and slightly intimidating to the other students.
"Ok, listen up!" James yelled over the chatter, "what we're going to do is put you through a couple of test goals with Mandy, Warren and Jacky, our three chasers and Ian and Marcus are going to be hitting the bludgers randomly also, try and block as many quaffles as possible and dodge the bludgers, I'll be searching for the snitch, I'll blow the whistle to signal for the next person to take over".
They all lined up near the stands and the game began. There were about twenty people trying out and it took them a fair few hours to get to Andromeda, who everyone, except the other contestants were looking forward to seeing. When she walked onto the pitch the stands erupted into cheering, Lily and Miria shouting encouragingly, Sirius sending out various cat calls and Remus whistling loudly. Andromeda's face went bright red, but as she rose into the air on her broom, all of the embarrassment was left back on the ground and her expression turned to her most determined face.
James signaled for the game to begin and once more he let the snitch out of his clutch but this time he didn't go after it straight away. He was staring in amazement at Andromeda. Jacky had faked left and then faked left again, swung across to the right and shot for goal. Andromeda had followed left but as soon as she had dove left again Andromeda turned right straight away, ducking the bludger and catching the quaffle with the air of absolute ease. Throwing the quaffle to Warren she took up her position in the middle of the goals once again and Warren started his move for goal.
Within minutes Andromeda had saved every goal thrown by the three chasers and everyone was looking at her in amazement. The other students waiting for their turns were all wearing faces of defeat, rubbing their brows.
"Well looks like we've found our new keeper!" James yelled across the pitch.
Andromeda nearly fell off her broom in excitement and soon the people in the stands caught on by the excitement of the team and Lily, Miria, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all cheering joyously. Andromeda landed on the ground and Lily and Miria both ran out to congratulate her. When James landed also Andromeda ran up and caught him a hug.
"Thank you so much!"
"No problem, you're the best keeper I've ever seen!"
Sirius also came running onto the pitch. "You were fantastic!" He beamed down at his sister-like cousin.
"Thanks"
"Well I have to be off, don't want to be late for detention Lily" James said smirking at her.
"Good because if you are it will only go for longer" She said just as smugly.
Sirius shook his head, looking at them both.
~*~
Lily sat on her bed in the 6th year girl's dormitory, reading standard book of spells, grade 6 and musing over how much she was looking forward to sending James and Sirius to a detention.
Andromeda came in and sat down next to her on her bed.
"I hear your sending Sirius and James on to detention" She said smiling.
"Yeah, look, yesterday when we were on the train, about what I said"---
"Hey don't worry about it, I know Sirius can be an idiot, It's just, compared to the rest of my family, he's practically a saint, and that's saying something!"
It was the first time Lily had seen Andromeda smile while talking about her family and she was amazed.
"And I thought my sister was bad"
"I have two and their both horribly freaky" Andromeda said looking into space "Narcissa and Bellatrix, mother's probably setting them up with beautiful pure blood boyfriends as we speak" she said disgusted.
"Pure blood mania hey?" Lily asked a bit uncomfortable.
"That's why I left, I couldn't stand all the freaky traditions and over bias opinions, same reason as Sirius, we were always different to the family, that's why we got along so well. We didn't get to see each other often though, but we always sent letters, that's how I came to know so much about Hogwarts"
Lily was quiet for a while, taking in all her friend had just told her, not being able t to think of anything to say. She finally piped up, saying something that she thought was quite pathetic but thought might help Andromeda cheer up.
"Well your mother and mine both seem to have the same idea on something, they both have an obsession with names! I mean Lily and Petunia! You can tell she likes flowers!"
"Yeah I know, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Andromeda! Who could think of names like that?!" She laughed, "Though I do like the name Nymphadora!"
They both laughed, falling backwards onto the bed. Then something caught Andromeda's eye, it was sitting on Lily's bedside table, it was a small box, but slightly different, it had a metal piece sticking out of the side and a dancing girl in a pink frock was set on a platform inside the lilac bottom. The box was filled with tiny trinkets, from brooches and earrings to small newspaper clippings and black and white photo's. Lily saw Andromeda staring at it and smiled.
"I got that off my grandmother when I was eight, I love music boxes, they're so enchanting, that one sings somewhere over the rainbow, I've been filling it with little bits and pieces that I loved of hers and little memories. She died when I was ten, my grandpa died when I was just three. I remember when they were cleaning her house after she died and I used to snitch tiny trinkets of hers and hide them in this box" Lily said, dazing into space, reminiscing.
"I'm sorry, it would have been much worse to have someone you loved leave you than to leave a family who hated you" Andromeda said sympathetically. She looked at the box curiously, "How does it work?"
Lily picked it up and twisted the metal leaver around to start up the sweet music. Andromeda stared at it, pleasantly taking in the beautiful music and watching the ballerina slowly spin around
"It's so beautiful" she said in a dreamlike voice, "Can I have a look?" She then asked pointing at all the little bits and pieces filling the velvet box.
"Yeah, sure, I have to go down to the common room for detention giving, you can keep it for a while if you want" Lily replied, smiling at her friend before walking over to the end of the room and closing the door quietly behind her.
######
That's it for chapter 4! Please tell me if you think I am making the chapters too long because I need to know. Thank you to all the reviewers for chapter 3 and my message: Marie4, Agloechen, someone, Li-chan, GinnylovesHarry, Biddett da Pigeon Stalker, James-Padfoot and Hyper Fairy Queen. I hope you liked it and I'll try and have the next chapter up soon!
~*~mysticaldreams