Hi everyone! I know I haven't updated as frequently as I usually do but I
have two fanfics going at the moment and they're both in different era's so
it's been really difficult to get into that certain mood to write. School's
started back up again, and let's just say that maths this year isn't going
too crash hot for me, so I'll try my hardest to update ASAP. This is a
longer chapter and it's a funner one to. Well hope you like it!!
Disclaimer: There is information from the book 'Quidditch Throughout the Ages' by Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling) contained in this chapter of the fanfic. Whatever information stated in the book the credit goes completely to J.K Rowling. There is also a quote from Goblet of Fire in here as well, which belongs to J.K.
Also, there is mention of measurement in here as well, e.g. inch, hand span, that sort of thing. And I'd just like to point out that its Australian measurement so it'll be in metres and centimeters. All measurements are different in different countries but I hope you'll get the main gist of it anyways, just thought I'd point it out to save confusion.
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 11: One! Two! Three! Attack!!
The snow fell thickly across Hogwarts grounds as the Gryffindors all lazed about their warmly lit common room discussing Christmas vacation and house points (which had fell considerably since the two well-known sixth years had had a little 'incident' with the oddball Slytherin lovingly known as 'Snivellus') The common room was thick with chatter and all in all, the Christmas spirit was spreading fast around the castle.
"So Sirius, you going to stay for Christmas?" James asked as he moved his castle towards a quivering pawn of Remus'.
"Yeah, I wanted to spend Christmas with Annie this year, since it's her first time here, if it's all right with your parents and all" he replied from the squishing armchair close to the fire.
"Mmm" he said, pressing his lips together in concentration, "I think I'll stay too, Christmas just 'aint the same without anyone to through snowballs at"
"Awe, Prongs, I'm touched" Sirius said, holding his hand to his heart in mock sensitivity.
"You won't when that snowball fight begins; I've been practicing my shot" he said with an evil grin.
"You're no match for me Potter! I'm King of snowball fights!"
This was partly true, snowball fights were Sirius' spatiality, when playing, no one ever wanted to be on the opposite team out of fear of heading a concussion. . .from snow. . .
"Well Moony, you going to stay?"
"Yep! Full Moon's two days before Christmas, it's easier to transform here then at home" he said with a grateful grin to his friends.
"Great! We can have some pre-Christmas fun then!" Sirius said happily.
"How 'bout you Wormtail?" he then asked.
"Can't" he said regretfully, "My Grandmothers coming all the way from Australia to see us, we're having a big family reunion"
"Ahh, lovely, pinching cheeks and sloppy kisses, family reunions are always so fun!" James said sarcastically.
"Consider yourself lucky mate" Sirius said darkly, "In my case it's more like you can run, but you can't hide. Everyone wants to whisper about the disgrace of the family and tell you off for 'dishonouring the family name'" he said in something that sounded much like his mother's scornful voice.
"Well there's no need for that anymore my friend! In April you shall be of age and free to do whatever you want!" James declared triumphantly as he moved his Queen towards Remus' defeated looking King.
=*=
The same topic of discussion was taking place among the group of 6th year girls as they stood watching Andromeda sign her name underneath Sirius' on the small clip board.
Lily skimmed up the column of names. Great. Potter was staying. She was torn between two worlds: If she stayed she'd have to put up with Potter, if she went home, she'd have to put up with Petunia. It seemed as if she could never win! Even though she had quickly pushed her thoughts to the certain 'occurrence' that had taken place in the great hall last month out of her head she still found James immensely annoying, which was actually somewhat of an upgrade for him. She used to think he was unbearable beyond doubt. Now she just thought he was an annoying prick. She had put her unreasonable pondering down to being over worked and rather stressed; she had been studying hard for her NEWTS ever since the beginning of the summer holidays following her fifth year after all. Yes, she decided, that was definitely it, over worked and not thinking straight, that's what had made her think that way about him. But she still couldn't get the image he had set for her that day in the library out of her head. It seemed that every time she thought she had James Potter worked out, he went and did something spontaneous. Maybe he wasn't as arrogant as she thought he was. . .
Lily mentally slapped herself. She had been over this thousands of times before and had told herself at least a million times to forget about it, it was no use. She shook her head, 'whatever comes, comes' she told herself, 'you'll just have to go with the flow Evans'. After all, she was pretty good at thinking on her feet.
Lily sighed. She finally decided that she would stay at Hogwarts since Miria and Andromeda were as well, at least she new they would make it fun, even if they did end up hanging around with Potter and his crew.
She signed her name in her loopy cursive handwriting underneath Miria's and hoped for dear life that James wasn't in an annoying mood on Christmas day.
=*=
James woke up on Christmas day to Remus nudging his shoulder and whispering in his ear.
"Presents!"
James sat bolt upright, any signs of tiredness banished from his face as he stared down at the mound of presents at the end of his bed.
"Good load this year!" he said as he sprung upon his gifts like a vulture.
Remus returned to his own pile and started sifting through them.
There was a loud snort from the bed next to James' and some sort of muttering. Remus and James looked at each other with mischievous glee. Without saying a word both boys approached their friends bed and drew back the curtains quietly.
Remus took a cup from underneath Sirius' bed.
"This should do" he muttered to himself, and quietly whispered a spell to turn it into a white feather. He then continued to lower the feather to Sirius' nose and moved it up and down his face.
Sirius' nose scrunched up as if he had just smelt some disgusting odor and he rolled over muttering something.
"Christmas" James said in a sing song voice close to his ear.
"Yeah, yeah, Christmas, whatever" he said grumpily, trying to swat James away.
Remus stood, counting backwards from ten on his fingers, once he had gotten to five Sirius had sat bolt upright, just like James.
"CHRISTMAS!"
A look of utter merriment spread across his face as he looked down at his presents and leaped towards them like an excited four year old child.
Both of the boys went back to their own piles and soon the dormitory was filled with ripped Christmas rapping paper.
"Hey awesome! Thanks Prongs!" Sirius said as he took out a large packet of assorted products from Zonko's.
"I was getting low on dung bombs"
"No prob Padfoot"
Sirius had a smaller pile of presents then the others, considering he wasn't exactly in speaking terms with any of his current relatives (except for Andromeda and maybe Uncle Alphard), so naturally, he noticed his envelope first.
"Oi look! McGonagall's sent her favourite student a present!"
Remus' ears pricked up over the other side of the room.
"Huh? I didn't get a-"
"Not you! Me! And you say we're cocky!" Sirius said waving a hand towards James and himself.
"For someone who's supposed to be modest you're very self-assured"
Remus blushed at this statement, and then, not game to retort, buried himself amongst his presents again.
"Hey! I got one too!" James exclaimed as he pulled out a similar envelope wedged between two brightly rapped gifts.
They both tore the envelopes open and took out a red and green slip.
"So what does it say?" Remus asked curiously.
"Congratulations" James read aloud, "You are one of the first students in a century to have been issued a detention on Christmas. Merry Christmas! Professor M. McGonagall"
Remus burst out laughing.
"Favourite student hey, Padfoot?"
Sirius tossed the slip underneath his bed, (where all un-useful objects were discarded)
"Well at least we know we're not forgotten!" he said happily.
"True" James said, "I wonder if we'll go down in history"
"I think all the marauders will go down in history" Sirius said with a grin.
"Yeah, I'm sure when we're all old and sprouting grey hairs we'll be sitting down telling James and Lilly's son all about the best powder puffed pastries in the kitchens" Remus said while he examined a talking paperweight his mother had sent him.
James' pillow went zooming through the air and Remus toppled over the side of his bed as it brushed above his head and hit the opposite wall.
Sirius started laughing as Remus peeked over the edge of his bed.
"Fine then, we'll make the kid a daughter!"
This made Sirius practically roar with laughter so that he also was in danger of falling off of the side of his bed.
James went pink in the face and picked up a random piece of clothing that was lying on the ground to throw towards Sirius.
"Speaking about Lily, do you think the chicks would be up yet?"
"Why?" Remus asked, confused.
Sirius' face cracked into a mischievous grin.
"I wanted to give Andromeda her present in person"
"Oh God! What'd you get her?" James asked with a pained expression, he knew all too well what some of his friends supposed 'presents' turned out like.
"For me to know and you to find out!" Sirius said gleefully as he drew the curtains around his bed to get changed.
The two other boys finished unwrapping their presents and started to get dressed as their friend took his leave down to the common room singing 'God rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs' in a very off key tune.
James and Remus followed Sirius' lead down to the common room, slightly nervous as to what was awaiting them. When they got there, however, they had to look around the room twice before they found their friend.
Sirius was sitting next to the Gryffindor Christmas tree with a large red ribbon tied underneath his chin with a humungous bow sitting on top of his head, and he looked absolutely delighted about it.
James gagged, appalled at his friends new feminine touch. Remus however, cracked up laughing.
Sirius then broke out in song again, this time at the top of his lungs, obviously hoping to gain attention by others.
"GOD BLESS YE, MERRY HIPPOGRIFFS, GOD BLESS YE MERRY SOUL!!"
James and Remus covered their ears; it was the worst sound they had ever heard!
"Make it stop!" James moaned.
The two boys heard a shout from upstairs and uncovered there ears to see whose voice it was.
"SIRIUS BLACK SHUTUP!!"
They recognized the voice to belong to Andromeda.
This, however, only achieved to increase the loudness of this booming voice.
"FLY TO THE PUDDING! YE. . .THINGY! I DON'T KNOW THE REST!" he kept 'singing'.
"SIRIUS SHUTUP!" came several voices at once.
When Sirius' 'singing' didn't cease there came a swishing sound from the girls staircase and out zoomed a red hair brush.
Sirius' eyes widened comically as the brush flew straight towards him.
He leaped to one side, as the brush zoomed close to his right ear, missing it by millimeters.
Sirius got back up, rubbing his head, but to his utter amazement, the brush rounded back on him.
"JAMES HEELLLPPP!! THE BRUSH IS ATTACKING ME!!" he yelled as he ran hysterically away from the brush.
After running around like a raving lunatic for a whole two minutes Sirius suddenly realized that, shock horror! He had a wand! He quickly whipped it out as he jumped over an armchair, his bow wobbling dangerously on his head as he held his wand as if he was in a western shoot out.
"There 'aint enough room in this world for you and me brush! One of us will have to go!"
By this point in time Remus and James were both clutching the door frame that lead to the boy's dormitories, gasping for breath as they laughed.
"Incantartae!" Sirius yelled as he pointed his wand at the killer-brush. The brush smashed mid-flight and bits of red plastic went flying around the common room.
Sirius took a bow, but stood up straight backed when he heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
He ran over to the Christmas tree and took his respective spot, straightening his bow as he sat.
"Oi! That was my brush!" Miria said as she emerged from the landing.
"Yeah and it was trying to kill me!"
"Yeah, well you were trying to kill us all with that. . .Noise!" she stated.
Andromeda also came down the stairs and as she reached Miria's side she followed her friends' gaze over to where Sirius sat. She stared at him, blinking her long lashes before bursting out laughing.
"Lily! Bring down the camera, this is priceless!" She yelled up the stairs.
"Did you like my singing?" Sirius asked innocently.
"I thought it was the sound of death" Andromeda replied bluntly.
"Well Merry Christmas to you to!" Sirius said with mock hurt.
Andromeda's face cracked into a grin, "Merry Christmas" she said warmly.
Lily appeared behind Andromeda with an odd expression adorning her features.
"Black there are others in the castle besides your-"
Her eyes lay on Sirius' form beside the Christmas tree.
"Self" she finished her cut off word.
"Why the hell are you wearing a. . . ribbon?"
"Yeah Padfoot, you should have told us you were going to be a cross- dresser; we would have joined in!" Remus said, obviously feeling in very good humour today.
"I'm not a cross-dresser!" Sirius said indignantly. He turned his eyes towards Andromeda.
"I told you I was going to get you the best present ever, didn't I?"
Andromeda lifted and eyebrow and nodded.
"Well what better present then me!" Sirius exclaimed grinning ear to ear.
"Yeah, everything a person could ever hope for" Lily muttered sarcastically.
Andromeda's face took on an evil smile.
"Well then that means, if you're my present and all, then I can do with you" she paused for dramatic affect . . . "Whatever I want"
Sirius' grin faulted for a moment, and then a dawning look of horror overcame his expression.
"Awe mate, you've put your foot right in the shit this time" James said as he tried to suppress his laughter.
"W-well, I hadn't exactly thought of it that way. . ."
"Well I have!" Andromeda said happily, relishing the first time she had finally caught out her cousins so called 'fool proof' plans.
"Now, my first request- wait no- order" she smiled evilly, "Is that I get to be on your team for sno-"
"NO!" Sirius said in horror, "No you can't meddle with snowball fights! Prongs and Moony are always on my team! We're the awesome. . .threesome!"
He looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Come on Annie, it's Christmas, be merciful"
"Oh fine!" she snapped, "Then Miria and Lily are-"
"Oh no! You're not getting me into this!" Lily said putting her hands up.
Miria turned to Lily and whispered in her ear, "Come on Lils, you'll be able to hit Potter as much as you want"
A gleeful smile appeared across Lily's face, one which all three marauders didn't like the look of.
"Ok, I'm in!"
"Yeah, me too!" Miria said excitedly.
"Good!" Andromeda said, smiling proudly at her friends.
"Ok so three against three. That's fair don't you think?"
"Fine with me" James affirmed as the others nodded their agreement.
Sirius looked positively delighted and seeing this expression, Andromeda rounded on him.
"And don't you worry, I have something else in mind for you. . ."
Sirius' smile only widened as she said this.
Andromeda gave him a surprised look and then the three girls crossed the common room to step through the portrait hole.
"Padfoot, why the hell are you smiling?" Remus asked when the girls had left.
"Moony, Moony, Moony, you always smile" he said as if talking to a small child, "It makes them wonder what you're thinking"
Sirius winked jovially before jumping out of his seated position.
James laughed lightly and Remus shook his head unbelievably at his spontaneous companion before all three clambered out of the portrait whole towards the wafting smells of Christmas breakfast.
=*=
"Alright boys, this is it"
"The big one"
"The one we've all been waiting for"
James glared at his two friends.
"Well James, when are you going to learn to stop quoting Daren O'Hare's before match prep talks?" Sirius asked irritably.
"But it's good luck! He gave that prep talk the match that they first used the Hawkshead attacking formation to beat Puddlemere United!" James stated excitedly.
"James! I go for Puddlemere United! Plus, the Kestrels only beat them once!" Remus stated as he balled up another snowball in his gloves and put it on top of their ever-growing pile.
"Puddlemere United?! You just wait Lupin, the Arrows are gonna smash them in the world cup!" Sirius said, obviously feeling the need to back up his own team.
"The Arrows?!" Came a call from across the field of snow. Andromeda stood up from behind her barrier of snow.
"Man I can't wait to see them play the Wasps!" she said gleefully.
"GO THE WASPS!!" Miria shouted punching the air with her fist.
"You're talking about Quidditch over a snowball fight?!" they heard the irritable tone in Lily's voice drift across the field.
"We talk about Quidditch during everything Evans!" Sirius yelled back.
"Is there anything you ever talk about other then that?" She yelled back at him.
"Well James talks about you an awful lot, but other then that-"
James threw the snowball that he was forming at his friends head and Sirius started laughing and threw one back.
"Oh what a good idea, kill yourselves and save us all the work!" Andromeda commented as she watched the two friends fight.
Remus, sure he wasn't going to miss out on the fun, lunged himself at Sirius' back and clung onto him in hopes of making him fall. Sirius staggered around trying to hold Remus' weight as James continued to throw snowballs at him. He then bent over to reach for more ammo and landed face first into the snow with Remus still clinging to his robes.
Andromeda clapped her gloved hands together, smiling as Remus promptly sat on top of Sirius' back.
Sirius brought his head up, spitting out snow and spluttering as he threw his fellow marauder off; Moony surprisingly didn't weigh that much.
"We gonna get this thing started now or what?" Lily yelled across the playing field.
"Ok but there's one rule" Sirius said once he had ridden his mouth of snow.
"What's that?" Miria asked curiously.
"No wands allowed"
"What?!" the three girls yelled in unison.
Sirius just smiled. "What? Did you think you were going to get away with using magic to defeat us? Oh no Evans, I've seen you in charms and you won't be using any of those fancy spells that you know you're an expert at"
Lily put on a pouted expression and folded her arms across her chest. She looked like a little girl who had just been denied to play with her dolls.
"Plus, it lasts for longer when you do it the muggle way" he stated.
"Alright then, lets get on with it so we can prove to these show offs which gender really is the dominant species" Andromeda said as she retreated back behind their snow fort.
"One!" Sirius yelled.
"Two!" James joined in.
"Three!" Remus shouted.
"ATTACK!!"
The two teams ran out into the field that lay between both of their strongholds with snowballs clasped in their hands.
Miria crouched in the girls' fort, throwing snowballs over the top and ducking behind the wall as others headed her way. Her two friends were frantically dodging snowballs from their three opponents as they swiftly scooped the snow from the ground to shape.
Lily dodged a hit aimed at her by Remus and scooped up some more snow which she then aimed back at him, unfortunately he ducked just in time and the snowball flew past him and instead hit James square in the side of the head.
Lily yelled in triumph as she jumped in the air and toppled over as another ball of snow hit her in the gut.
James smirked at her and she quickly picked herself back up.
Sirius and Annie were battling it out as they circled one another, slowly getting closer to each other, and as they stood a metre apart Sirius thrust his snowball right in Andromeda's face. He laughed gleefully and retreated back behind the fort.
Miria and Andromeda soon switched places and Miria continued out to the battle field to take a shot at Remus and James as Sirius threw power hits with expert aim.
James ducked, jumped and dodged snowballs with the amazing agility he had learnt from years of practice on the quidditch pitch but he lacked the strategy that Remus was skilled with, like Lily; he was an expert at thinking on his feet.
After a while, the girls were starting to get exhausted and they new that they would all collapse soon. It was Lily's turn behind the stronghold and she knew that they needed backup. She scanned the grounds and soon her eyes lay on two Ravenclaw girls walking only a short distance away from them.
"Hey! Hey you two over there! Wanna join in?" she yelled over her friends' laughter.
The two girls looked at each other and then nodded and ran over to where Lily was sitting.
One of the girls looked around third year and the other about first.
"Hey thanks" she said as they both sat down beside her.
"My names Lily, it'd be great if you could help us out, these guys are whipping us!"
The smaller girls rosy cheeks formed dimples as she smiled up at the snow fight behind them.
"Sure!" she said happily.
The older girl looked excitedly at Lily and swished back her dark brown hair.
"Hi I'm Monique, this is my 'lil sis, Gwen" she said.
"Kay" Lily obliged, "The only rules are, no magic, and be as ruthless as you can, these guys stop at nothing" she said waving her hand at the three boys now on the field.
Both the girls nodded.
"Now on the count of three, we'll all run out and attack!" she said smiling.
"Ready? One! Two! Three!"
The three of them lunged themselves out of the fort and rampaged onto the field in a flurry.
The five current players looked at them in surprise as they scraped up snow and rounded it into snowballs to throw at them.
Miria and Andromeda yelled in delight as the others shouted in protest but kept throwing.
Remus was worried about the little girl on the field, so when hitting her he didn't throw as hard, but when a snowball hit him with about as much force as Sirius' he spun around to come face to face with the first year and looked at her, surprised as she sped around him and hit another at James.
Sirius ducked as Monique threw a ball of snow at him and jumped back up to find one hit the back of his head. He spun around to see two tall boys dressed in the Ravenclaw colours of blue a short distance away.
"Hey Sirius! Wanna hand?" One of them called.
Sirius' grin widened as they ran over to the commotion.
"Well if it isn't the Prewett twins!"
"Hey guys we got back up!" Sirius called.
James and Remus looked around briefly to see the two seventh years join in. They all grinned mischievously as they met eyes with one another.
"No! No, no, no! That's unfair! Not Gid and Fab!" Miria whined from in the middle of the field.
"Come on Mere, we're not that bad!" Gideon said as he aimed a snowball at Lily.
"Yeah Miria leave the twins alone!" James put in.
"Oh, right, easy for you to say, you didn't date him" Miria pointed towards Gideon, "For two months"
"Miria two months isn't very long" Remus said as she ducked a snowball aimed by Andromeda.
"What are you talking about, two months is ages!" Sirius exclaimed.
"See, that's what you both have in common, you can't keep a relationship together for longer then a week before you start getting restless" Miria said as she threw a snowball towards Gideon.
Gideon grabbed onto his brothers sleeve so he wouldn't topple over as the ball made impact with his gut.
"You never told me you went out with anyone before" Andromeda said looking at Miria, surprised.
Fabian looked over to Andromeda as he threw a snowball at Lily.
"This your cousin Sirius?"
"Yes, who's asking?" Andromeda said as she pulled herself up off the ground where she had fallen.
"Oh, heard a lot about you" Gideon stated as he too turned his eyes towards the black haired girl.
"Fabian Prewett" Fabian introduced as he went over to shake her hand, "And this here is me half wit twin, Gideon" he said pointing towards Gid who smiled and chased back after Miria.
Fabian span around as he felt something sweep past his legs and he looked down to see Gwen grinning evilly up at him. As he was distracted he caught a ball in the gut aimed by Monique.
"Oh no, not you two"
"Please tell me it's not evil Gwen" Gideon almost pleaded.
Gwen laughed and threw a snowball at him.
"Evil?" Lily asked perplexedly.
"This little devil caught us throwing dung bombs up the girls' dormitory stairs and threw them back down and hit us on the head" Fabian explained.
"On purpose" Gideon added.
"Well you deserved it" Gwen justified.
Lily smiled at the small girl, "Good on you!"
Gwen poked her tongue out at Gideon and Gideon childishly poked his back out at her.
The girls' savoir was Gwen, who weaved in and out of the other players, unnoticed amongst the tall boys. She often tripped them over as Monique; with her killer aim hit them hard in the gut.
One by one the players dropped to the ground, exhausted until only Gwen and Sirius were left battling it out to the end.
"Owe! Owe! Come back here you little devil!" Sirius shouted as the smaller girl's snowballs hit him as he was running after her.
Gwen danced out of his reach as she ducked yet another ball thrown by Sirius.
"Well Sirius, it looks like you've met your match" Andromeda said as she watched the expedition from her spot above Lily on the ground.
Sirius turned to look at his cousin in disbelief.
"Sirius Black has not met his- Arrrghhhhh!"
For the split second that the marauder had turned his head Gwen had come up behind him and yanked his legs from underneath him. Sirius toppled over onto the snow in a heap next to James as the girl whooped with glee. He lay in a tangle as the others laughed with her.
Sirius grabbed at her ankles from his place on the ground and she fell down on top of him mid-cackle.
"Ha! Who's laughing now!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
Gwen poked him in the gut and rolled over to sit on his stomach.
"What is it with people and sitting on me?!"
"You just must be very comfy and pudgy Padfoot" James said.
"Then what does that make Peter?" Remus asked.
Everyone laughed at this comment as they lay in the snow, oblivious to the wet ice saturating their heavy clothes.
Lily smiled up at the clouds overhead and closed her eyes for a moment just to store this memory in her mind for years to come. She opened her mouth to say something to Andromeda when a clump of snow was stuffed into her wide open trap. She snapped open her eyes to see James standing above her with a delightful grin upon his face.
"That's for throwing a snowball at me you know where"
Lily pushed herself off the ground with sudden force as she spluttered and leapt towards James who swiftly jumped out of the way. She scooped up some snow from the ground and pegged it at him as he ran backwards with an arrogant smile plastered on his face.
She lunged towards him again but he caught her and heaved her up to throw over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Lily banged her fists on his back as he walked back over to the laughing group.
"James let me down!!" she screeched.
"Only if you say the magic word" he said teasingly.
"No! I shouldn't have to! Now let me down!!" she said stubbornly.
"Oh come on Lily, just one magic word"
"NO!" she exclaimed pounding his back harder.
"But there are so many of them, all you have to do is choose one"
Lily suddenly stopped pounding.
"Oh, well in that case"
Her hand flew to the pocked of her jeans and just as she was about to retrieve the wand that lay inside, another hand caught her wrist in a strong grip.
"Now Lily, honestly, do you really think I'd let you blow my buddy up on Christmas day?" Sirius asked teasingly.
Lily let our a very exasperated noise from her throat as Sirius reached into her jean pocket and whipped out her wand.
"I'll be keeping this until you-somehow-get free"
Lily reached out her arms in a failed attempt to snatch her wand back but Sirius easily jumped out of her reach, only to once more come a finger-span away from her hands then quickly leap back as she made to grab it. After a few more attempts she gave up and hung limp on James' shoulder, subsiding muttering some very colourful words.
"Dear, dear Evans, your vocabulary seems to have expanded largely since we last fought" James commented as he hitched her higher onto his shoulder.
"It seems so has your weight-"
That was enough for Lily, she quickly acted upon her last resort; she kicked with her foot hard where she knew it would hurt him most; his groin.
"Oof!" James toppled over in pain and Lily fell down with him as he loosened his grip on her.
All the other boys standing around winced and looked at him with either pained faces or great sympathy.
However, all the girls seemed to think it was hilariously funny.
"And that's what I call kicking your ass!" Lily said triumphantly as she leaned over James' crumpled form.
"Evans that was pure evil" Sirius said as he threw Gwen off to lean over his silently gasping fellow marauder.
"Jeez Lily, how hard did you kick!" Fabian asked as he too looked on.
"Too-hard" James said through a sharp intake of breath.
"Ok, how many fingers am I holding up?" Sirius asked.
"Sirius my getting kicked in the groin doesn't affect my vision!" he said exasperatedly swatting his hand away.
"It does when you have tears in your eyes" Remus pointed out.
"I-am not crying!!" James said indignantly.
"Looks like it hurt more then I thought" Lily pondered.
"You have no idea" Gideon commented.
Monique, however, didn't seem to notice James' pain, or took immense joy out of it as she couldn't stop herself from giggling and had to shove her fist in her mouth.
James finally sat up.
"Er. . . Potter, are you alright?" Lily asked a little uncomfortably looking down at his pained face.
"No" he said irritably, "You could have prevented me from ever having children you kicked so hard!"
Lily was about to shout that he deserved it when she processed what he had said.
"Urgh! Potter! Bad mental images!" Lily said with a disgusted face.
"Yes, but the point is you were having mental images" he pointed out, a grin once more spreading across his face.
Lily snorted, "Yeah, whatever, you deserved it!"
"Oh I did, did I?" He asked as he took Remus and Sirius' arms to help pull him back up.
"Who hit me. . . there. . .with a snowball in the first place!"
"Well you were goading me!"
"There's no rules Evans!"
"You were still asking for it!"
"I wasn't asking for it there!"
"Well it's not my fault I have bad aim!"
"Then you should have tried out for chaser to improve it!"
"You know I'm petrified of heights you prat!"
"That's why I suggested it!"
"Seriously, do they ever take a break?" Fabian asked Andromeda.
"Well ever since I came here at the beginning of the year, no, they haven't"
Lily was now yelling about something that James had done to her in their third year and James was commenting smoothly, not once raising his voice.
"You know, you two would make a really good couple" Gideon stated, draping his arms around both of their shoulders.
"I keep telling her tha-"
"You keep your mouth shut Gideon Prewett!" Lily said and pulled away from him to continued with her ranting, obviously determined to prove James wrong.
"Well I don't know about anyone else but it's getting rather chilly out here, I'm going back inside" Miria said as she rubbed her cold arms.
"Mmm, me too" Andromeda said.
They both started to walk back up towards the castle and the others followed, all except for Lily and James.
"WELL YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUT PINK POTION IN MY HAIR!!"
"But it looked so sexy!"
"I DON'T CARE!!"
"Urgh! They're giving me a headache!" Gwen stated.
"Mmmm" Remus said with pursed lips, "Hey I got an idea!"
Remus' face cracked into a trade marked marauder grin.
"You'll have to do the charm though Sirius, I'm not very good at it"
Sirius grinned; he knew exactly what his friend was talking about.
"My pleasure"
"What?" Monique asked.
"You'll see"
They reached the heavy doors to the castle and pulled them open; they could still hear Lily screeching across the grounds, totally oblivious that they were gone.
Remus and Sirius closed the doors behind them and as the yelling drowned out Sirius leant against them and closed his eyes.
"You hear that?" he asked contently.
"What?" Gwen asked, falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
"Silence" he sighed.
"Hurry up Sirius, before they notice!" Remus urged.
"Okay, okay" he said taking out his wand.
"Which one shall it be?" he asked playfully, "Nothing that can counter curse Alohamorah I suppose?"
"Obviously" Remus rolled his eyes.
Fabian caught onto their idea immediately.
"Try Conjunctuous"
"Good idea"
Sirius was just about to whisper the spell when Professor McGonagall came walking out of the great hall.
"And what do you think your doing Mr. Black?" she asked sharply, obviously Christmas hadn't effected her usual snappy behavior.
"Trying to lock Lily and James out so we don't have to listen to their screaming Professor" Sirius said truthfully as he muttered the spell with his tongue between his teeth in concentration.
Professor McGonagall lifted an eyebrow at the group.
"Move out of the way Mr. Black, I know a much better spell then that!"
~*~
Woohoo! I hope you liked it, it was heaps fun to write! PLEASE review, cos I didn't get many last time. And next chapter, dun dun duunnnn!! You get to see what Andromeda has in plan for Sirius. . .hehehe! Thanks to my two new reviewers, LightningFairy and F and G W. Until next time! ^.~
~*~Mystical Dreams
Disclaimer: There is information from the book 'Quidditch Throughout the Ages' by Kennilworthy Whisp (J.K. Rowling) contained in this chapter of the fanfic. Whatever information stated in the book the credit goes completely to J.K Rowling. There is also a quote from Goblet of Fire in here as well, which belongs to J.K.
Also, there is mention of measurement in here as well, e.g. inch, hand span, that sort of thing. And I'd just like to point out that its Australian measurement so it'll be in metres and centimeters. All measurements are different in different countries but I hope you'll get the main gist of it anyways, just thought I'd point it out to save confusion.
~*~Mystical Dreams
Chapter 11: One! Two! Three! Attack!!
The snow fell thickly across Hogwarts grounds as the Gryffindors all lazed about their warmly lit common room discussing Christmas vacation and house points (which had fell considerably since the two well-known sixth years had had a little 'incident' with the oddball Slytherin lovingly known as 'Snivellus') The common room was thick with chatter and all in all, the Christmas spirit was spreading fast around the castle.
"So Sirius, you going to stay for Christmas?" James asked as he moved his castle towards a quivering pawn of Remus'.
"Yeah, I wanted to spend Christmas with Annie this year, since it's her first time here, if it's all right with your parents and all" he replied from the squishing armchair close to the fire.
"Mmm" he said, pressing his lips together in concentration, "I think I'll stay too, Christmas just 'aint the same without anyone to through snowballs at"
"Awe, Prongs, I'm touched" Sirius said, holding his hand to his heart in mock sensitivity.
"You won't when that snowball fight begins; I've been practicing my shot" he said with an evil grin.
"You're no match for me Potter! I'm King of snowball fights!"
This was partly true, snowball fights were Sirius' spatiality, when playing, no one ever wanted to be on the opposite team out of fear of heading a concussion. . .from snow. . .
"Well Moony, you going to stay?"
"Yep! Full Moon's two days before Christmas, it's easier to transform here then at home" he said with a grateful grin to his friends.
"Great! We can have some pre-Christmas fun then!" Sirius said happily.
"How 'bout you Wormtail?" he then asked.
"Can't" he said regretfully, "My Grandmothers coming all the way from Australia to see us, we're having a big family reunion"
"Ahh, lovely, pinching cheeks and sloppy kisses, family reunions are always so fun!" James said sarcastically.
"Consider yourself lucky mate" Sirius said darkly, "In my case it's more like you can run, but you can't hide. Everyone wants to whisper about the disgrace of the family and tell you off for 'dishonouring the family name'" he said in something that sounded much like his mother's scornful voice.
"Well there's no need for that anymore my friend! In April you shall be of age and free to do whatever you want!" James declared triumphantly as he moved his Queen towards Remus' defeated looking King.
=*=
The same topic of discussion was taking place among the group of 6th year girls as they stood watching Andromeda sign her name underneath Sirius' on the small clip board.
Lily skimmed up the column of names. Great. Potter was staying. She was torn between two worlds: If she stayed she'd have to put up with Potter, if she went home, she'd have to put up with Petunia. It seemed as if she could never win! Even though she had quickly pushed her thoughts to the certain 'occurrence' that had taken place in the great hall last month out of her head she still found James immensely annoying, which was actually somewhat of an upgrade for him. She used to think he was unbearable beyond doubt. Now she just thought he was an annoying prick. She had put her unreasonable pondering down to being over worked and rather stressed; she had been studying hard for her NEWTS ever since the beginning of the summer holidays following her fifth year after all. Yes, she decided, that was definitely it, over worked and not thinking straight, that's what had made her think that way about him. But she still couldn't get the image he had set for her that day in the library out of her head. It seemed that every time she thought she had James Potter worked out, he went and did something spontaneous. Maybe he wasn't as arrogant as she thought he was. . .
Lily mentally slapped herself. She had been over this thousands of times before and had told herself at least a million times to forget about it, it was no use. She shook her head, 'whatever comes, comes' she told herself, 'you'll just have to go with the flow Evans'. After all, she was pretty good at thinking on her feet.
Lily sighed. She finally decided that she would stay at Hogwarts since Miria and Andromeda were as well, at least she new they would make it fun, even if they did end up hanging around with Potter and his crew.
She signed her name in her loopy cursive handwriting underneath Miria's and hoped for dear life that James wasn't in an annoying mood on Christmas day.
=*=
James woke up on Christmas day to Remus nudging his shoulder and whispering in his ear.
"Presents!"
James sat bolt upright, any signs of tiredness banished from his face as he stared down at the mound of presents at the end of his bed.
"Good load this year!" he said as he sprung upon his gifts like a vulture.
Remus returned to his own pile and started sifting through them.
There was a loud snort from the bed next to James' and some sort of muttering. Remus and James looked at each other with mischievous glee. Without saying a word both boys approached their friends bed and drew back the curtains quietly.
Remus took a cup from underneath Sirius' bed.
"This should do" he muttered to himself, and quietly whispered a spell to turn it into a white feather. He then continued to lower the feather to Sirius' nose and moved it up and down his face.
Sirius' nose scrunched up as if he had just smelt some disgusting odor and he rolled over muttering something.
"Christmas" James said in a sing song voice close to his ear.
"Yeah, yeah, Christmas, whatever" he said grumpily, trying to swat James away.
Remus stood, counting backwards from ten on his fingers, once he had gotten to five Sirius had sat bolt upright, just like James.
"CHRISTMAS!"
A look of utter merriment spread across his face as he looked down at his presents and leaped towards them like an excited four year old child.
Both of the boys went back to their own piles and soon the dormitory was filled with ripped Christmas rapping paper.
"Hey awesome! Thanks Prongs!" Sirius said as he took out a large packet of assorted products from Zonko's.
"I was getting low on dung bombs"
"No prob Padfoot"
Sirius had a smaller pile of presents then the others, considering he wasn't exactly in speaking terms with any of his current relatives (except for Andromeda and maybe Uncle Alphard), so naturally, he noticed his envelope first.
"Oi look! McGonagall's sent her favourite student a present!"
Remus' ears pricked up over the other side of the room.
"Huh? I didn't get a-"
"Not you! Me! And you say we're cocky!" Sirius said waving a hand towards James and himself.
"For someone who's supposed to be modest you're very self-assured"
Remus blushed at this statement, and then, not game to retort, buried himself amongst his presents again.
"Hey! I got one too!" James exclaimed as he pulled out a similar envelope wedged between two brightly rapped gifts.
They both tore the envelopes open and took out a red and green slip.
"So what does it say?" Remus asked curiously.
"Congratulations" James read aloud, "You are one of the first students in a century to have been issued a detention on Christmas. Merry Christmas! Professor M. McGonagall"
Remus burst out laughing.
"Favourite student hey, Padfoot?"
Sirius tossed the slip underneath his bed, (where all un-useful objects were discarded)
"Well at least we know we're not forgotten!" he said happily.
"True" James said, "I wonder if we'll go down in history"
"I think all the marauders will go down in history" Sirius said with a grin.
"Yeah, I'm sure when we're all old and sprouting grey hairs we'll be sitting down telling James and Lilly's son all about the best powder puffed pastries in the kitchens" Remus said while he examined a talking paperweight his mother had sent him.
James' pillow went zooming through the air and Remus toppled over the side of his bed as it brushed above his head and hit the opposite wall.
Sirius started laughing as Remus peeked over the edge of his bed.
"Fine then, we'll make the kid a daughter!"
This made Sirius practically roar with laughter so that he also was in danger of falling off of the side of his bed.
James went pink in the face and picked up a random piece of clothing that was lying on the ground to throw towards Sirius.
"Speaking about Lily, do you think the chicks would be up yet?"
"Why?" Remus asked, confused.
Sirius' face cracked into a mischievous grin.
"I wanted to give Andromeda her present in person"
"Oh God! What'd you get her?" James asked with a pained expression, he knew all too well what some of his friends supposed 'presents' turned out like.
"For me to know and you to find out!" Sirius said gleefully as he drew the curtains around his bed to get changed.
The two other boys finished unwrapping their presents and started to get dressed as their friend took his leave down to the common room singing 'God rest Ye, Merry Hippogriffs' in a very off key tune.
James and Remus followed Sirius' lead down to the common room, slightly nervous as to what was awaiting them. When they got there, however, they had to look around the room twice before they found their friend.
Sirius was sitting next to the Gryffindor Christmas tree with a large red ribbon tied underneath his chin with a humungous bow sitting on top of his head, and he looked absolutely delighted about it.
James gagged, appalled at his friends new feminine touch. Remus however, cracked up laughing.
Sirius then broke out in song again, this time at the top of his lungs, obviously hoping to gain attention by others.
"GOD BLESS YE, MERRY HIPPOGRIFFS, GOD BLESS YE MERRY SOUL!!"
James and Remus covered their ears; it was the worst sound they had ever heard!
"Make it stop!" James moaned.
The two boys heard a shout from upstairs and uncovered there ears to see whose voice it was.
"SIRIUS BLACK SHUTUP!!"
They recognized the voice to belong to Andromeda.
This, however, only achieved to increase the loudness of this booming voice.
"FLY TO THE PUDDING! YE. . .THINGY! I DON'T KNOW THE REST!" he kept 'singing'.
"SIRIUS SHUTUP!" came several voices at once.
When Sirius' 'singing' didn't cease there came a swishing sound from the girls staircase and out zoomed a red hair brush.
Sirius' eyes widened comically as the brush flew straight towards him.
He leaped to one side, as the brush zoomed close to his right ear, missing it by millimeters.
Sirius got back up, rubbing his head, but to his utter amazement, the brush rounded back on him.
"JAMES HEELLLPPP!! THE BRUSH IS ATTACKING ME!!" he yelled as he ran hysterically away from the brush.
After running around like a raving lunatic for a whole two minutes Sirius suddenly realized that, shock horror! He had a wand! He quickly whipped it out as he jumped over an armchair, his bow wobbling dangerously on his head as he held his wand as if he was in a western shoot out.
"There 'aint enough room in this world for you and me brush! One of us will have to go!"
By this point in time Remus and James were both clutching the door frame that lead to the boy's dormitories, gasping for breath as they laughed.
"Incantartae!" Sirius yelled as he pointed his wand at the killer-brush. The brush smashed mid-flight and bits of red plastic went flying around the common room.
Sirius took a bow, but stood up straight backed when he heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs to the girl's dormitories.
He ran over to the Christmas tree and took his respective spot, straightening his bow as he sat.
"Oi! That was my brush!" Miria said as she emerged from the landing.
"Yeah and it was trying to kill me!"
"Yeah, well you were trying to kill us all with that. . .Noise!" she stated.
Andromeda also came down the stairs and as she reached Miria's side she followed her friends' gaze over to where Sirius sat. She stared at him, blinking her long lashes before bursting out laughing.
"Lily! Bring down the camera, this is priceless!" She yelled up the stairs.
"Did you like my singing?" Sirius asked innocently.
"I thought it was the sound of death" Andromeda replied bluntly.
"Well Merry Christmas to you to!" Sirius said with mock hurt.
Andromeda's face cracked into a grin, "Merry Christmas" she said warmly.
Lily appeared behind Andromeda with an odd expression adorning her features.
"Black there are others in the castle besides your-"
Her eyes lay on Sirius' form beside the Christmas tree.
"Self" she finished her cut off word.
"Why the hell are you wearing a. . . ribbon?"
"Yeah Padfoot, you should have told us you were going to be a cross- dresser; we would have joined in!" Remus said, obviously feeling in very good humour today.
"I'm not a cross-dresser!" Sirius said indignantly. He turned his eyes towards Andromeda.
"I told you I was going to get you the best present ever, didn't I?"
Andromeda lifted and eyebrow and nodded.
"Well what better present then me!" Sirius exclaimed grinning ear to ear.
"Yeah, everything a person could ever hope for" Lily muttered sarcastically.
Andromeda's face took on an evil smile.
"Well then that means, if you're my present and all, then I can do with you" she paused for dramatic affect . . . "Whatever I want"
Sirius' grin faulted for a moment, and then a dawning look of horror overcame his expression.
"Awe mate, you've put your foot right in the shit this time" James said as he tried to suppress his laughter.
"W-well, I hadn't exactly thought of it that way. . ."
"Well I have!" Andromeda said happily, relishing the first time she had finally caught out her cousins so called 'fool proof' plans.
"Now, my first request- wait no- order" she smiled evilly, "Is that I get to be on your team for sno-"
"NO!" Sirius said in horror, "No you can't meddle with snowball fights! Prongs and Moony are always on my team! We're the awesome. . .threesome!"
He looked at her with pleading eyes.
"Come on Annie, it's Christmas, be merciful"
"Oh fine!" she snapped, "Then Miria and Lily are-"
"Oh no! You're not getting me into this!" Lily said putting her hands up.
Miria turned to Lily and whispered in her ear, "Come on Lils, you'll be able to hit Potter as much as you want"
A gleeful smile appeared across Lily's face, one which all three marauders didn't like the look of.
"Ok, I'm in!"
"Yeah, me too!" Miria said excitedly.
"Good!" Andromeda said, smiling proudly at her friends.
"Ok so three against three. That's fair don't you think?"
"Fine with me" James affirmed as the others nodded their agreement.
Sirius looked positively delighted and seeing this expression, Andromeda rounded on him.
"And don't you worry, I have something else in mind for you. . ."
Sirius' smile only widened as she said this.
Andromeda gave him a surprised look and then the three girls crossed the common room to step through the portrait hole.
"Padfoot, why the hell are you smiling?" Remus asked when the girls had left.
"Moony, Moony, Moony, you always smile" he said as if talking to a small child, "It makes them wonder what you're thinking"
Sirius winked jovially before jumping out of his seated position.
James laughed lightly and Remus shook his head unbelievably at his spontaneous companion before all three clambered out of the portrait whole towards the wafting smells of Christmas breakfast.
=*=
"Alright boys, this is it"
"The big one"
"The one we've all been waiting for"
James glared at his two friends.
"Well James, when are you going to learn to stop quoting Daren O'Hare's before match prep talks?" Sirius asked irritably.
"But it's good luck! He gave that prep talk the match that they first used the Hawkshead attacking formation to beat Puddlemere United!" James stated excitedly.
"James! I go for Puddlemere United! Plus, the Kestrels only beat them once!" Remus stated as he balled up another snowball in his gloves and put it on top of their ever-growing pile.
"Puddlemere United?! You just wait Lupin, the Arrows are gonna smash them in the world cup!" Sirius said, obviously feeling the need to back up his own team.
"The Arrows?!" Came a call from across the field of snow. Andromeda stood up from behind her barrier of snow.
"Man I can't wait to see them play the Wasps!" she said gleefully.
"GO THE WASPS!!" Miria shouted punching the air with her fist.
"You're talking about Quidditch over a snowball fight?!" they heard the irritable tone in Lily's voice drift across the field.
"We talk about Quidditch during everything Evans!" Sirius yelled back.
"Is there anything you ever talk about other then that?" She yelled back at him.
"Well James talks about you an awful lot, but other then that-"
James threw the snowball that he was forming at his friends head and Sirius started laughing and threw one back.
"Oh what a good idea, kill yourselves and save us all the work!" Andromeda commented as she watched the two friends fight.
Remus, sure he wasn't going to miss out on the fun, lunged himself at Sirius' back and clung onto him in hopes of making him fall. Sirius staggered around trying to hold Remus' weight as James continued to throw snowballs at him. He then bent over to reach for more ammo and landed face first into the snow with Remus still clinging to his robes.
Andromeda clapped her gloved hands together, smiling as Remus promptly sat on top of Sirius' back.
Sirius brought his head up, spitting out snow and spluttering as he threw his fellow marauder off; Moony surprisingly didn't weigh that much.
"We gonna get this thing started now or what?" Lily yelled across the playing field.
"Ok but there's one rule" Sirius said once he had ridden his mouth of snow.
"What's that?" Miria asked curiously.
"No wands allowed"
"What?!" the three girls yelled in unison.
Sirius just smiled. "What? Did you think you were going to get away with using magic to defeat us? Oh no Evans, I've seen you in charms and you won't be using any of those fancy spells that you know you're an expert at"
Lily put on a pouted expression and folded her arms across her chest. She looked like a little girl who had just been denied to play with her dolls.
"Plus, it lasts for longer when you do it the muggle way" he stated.
"Alright then, lets get on with it so we can prove to these show offs which gender really is the dominant species" Andromeda said as she retreated back behind their snow fort.
"One!" Sirius yelled.
"Two!" James joined in.
"Three!" Remus shouted.
"ATTACK!!"
The two teams ran out into the field that lay between both of their strongholds with snowballs clasped in their hands.
Miria crouched in the girls' fort, throwing snowballs over the top and ducking behind the wall as others headed her way. Her two friends were frantically dodging snowballs from their three opponents as they swiftly scooped the snow from the ground to shape.
Lily dodged a hit aimed at her by Remus and scooped up some more snow which she then aimed back at him, unfortunately he ducked just in time and the snowball flew past him and instead hit James square in the side of the head.
Lily yelled in triumph as she jumped in the air and toppled over as another ball of snow hit her in the gut.
James smirked at her and she quickly picked herself back up.
Sirius and Annie were battling it out as they circled one another, slowly getting closer to each other, and as they stood a metre apart Sirius thrust his snowball right in Andromeda's face. He laughed gleefully and retreated back behind the fort.
Miria and Andromeda soon switched places and Miria continued out to the battle field to take a shot at Remus and James as Sirius threw power hits with expert aim.
James ducked, jumped and dodged snowballs with the amazing agility he had learnt from years of practice on the quidditch pitch but he lacked the strategy that Remus was skilled with, like Lily; he was an expert at thinking on his feet.
After a while, the girls were starting to get exhausted and they new that they would all collapse soon. It was Lily's turn behind the stronghold and she knew that they needed backup. She scanned the grounds and soon her eyes lay on two Ravenclaw girls walking only a short distance away from them.
"Hey! Hey you two over there! Wanna join in?" she yelled over her friends' laughter.
The two girls looked at each other and then nodded and ran over to where Lily was sitting.
One of the girls looked around third year and the other about first.
"Hey thanks" she said as they both sat down beside her.
"My names Lily, it'd be great if you could help us out, these guys are whipping us!"
The smaller girls rosy cheeks formed dimples as she smiled up at the snow fight behind them.
"Sure!" she said happily.
The older girl looked excitedly at Lily and swished back her dark brown hair.
"Hi I'm Monique, this is my 'lil sis, Gwen" she said.
"Kay" Lily obliged, "The only rules are, no magic, and be as ruthless as you can, these guys stop at nothing" she said waving her hand at the three boys now on the field.
Both the girls nodded.
"Now on the count of three, we'll all run out and attack!" she said smiling.
"Ready? One! Two! Three!"
The three of them lunged themselves out of the fort and rampaged onto the field in a flurry.
The five current players looked at them in surprise as they scraped up snow and rounded it into snowballs to throw at them.
Miria and Andromeda yelled in delight as the others shouted in protest but kept throwing.
Remus was worried about the little girl on the field, so when hitting her he didn't throw as hard, but when a snowball hit him with about as much force as Sirius' he spun around to come face to face with the first year and looked at her, surprised as she sped around him and hit another at James.
Sirius ducked as Monique threw a ball of snow at him and jumped back up to find one hit the back of his head. He spun around to see two tall boys dressed in the Ravenclaw colours of blue a short distance away.
"Hey Sirius! Wanna hand?" One of them called.
Sirius' grin widened as they ran over to the commotion.
"Well if it isn't the Prewett twins!"
"Hey guys we got back up!" Sirius called.
James and Remus looked around briefly to see the two seventh years join in. They all grinned mischievously as they met eyes with one another.
"No! No, no, no! That's unfair! Not Gid and Fab!" Miria whined from in the middle of the field.
"Come on Mere, we're not that bad!" Gideon said as he aimed a snowball at Lily.
"Yeah Miria leave the twins alone!" James put in.
"Oh, right, easy for you to say, you didn't date him" Miria pointed towards Gideon, "For two months"
"Miria two months isn't very long" Remus said as she ducked a snowball aimed by Andromeda.
"What are you talking about, two months is ages!" Sirius exclaimed.
"See, that's what you both have in common, you can't keep a relationship together for longer then a week before you start getting restless" Miria said as she threw a snowball towards Gideon.
Gideon grabbed onto his brothers sleeve so he wouldn't topple over as the ball made impact with his gut.
"You never told me you went out with anyone before" Andromeda said looking at Miria, surprised.
Fabian looked over to Andromeda as he threw a snowball at Lily.
"This your cousin Sirius?"
"Yes, who's asking?" Andromeda said as she pulled herself up off the ground where she had fallen.
"Oh, heard a lot about you" Gideon stated as he too turned his eyes towards the black haired girl.
"Fabian Prewett" Fabian introduced as he went over to shake her hand, "And this here is me half wit twin, Gideon" he said pointing towards Gid who smiled and chased back after Miria.
Fabian span around as he felt something sweep past his legs and he looked down to see Gwen grinning evilly up at him. As he was distracted he caught a ball in the gut aimed by Monique.
"Oh no, not you two"
"Please tell me it's not evil Gwen" Gideon almost pleaded.
Gwen laughed and threw a snowball at him.
"Evil?" Lily asked perplexedly.
"This little devil caught us throwing dung bombs up the girls' dormitory stairs and threw them back down and hit us on the head" Fabian explained.
"On purpose" Gideon added.
"Well you deserved it" Gwen justified.
Lily smiled at the small girl, "Good on you!"
Gwen poked her tongue out at Gideon and Gideon childishly poked his back out at her.
The girls' savoir was Gwen, who weaved in and out of the other players, unnoticed amongst the tall boys. She often tripped them over as Monique; with her killer aim hit them hard in the gut.
One by one the players dropped to the ground, exhausted until only Gwen and Sirius were left battling it out to the end.
"Owe! Owe! Come back here you little devil!" Sirius shouted as the smaller girl's snowballs hit him as he was running after her.
Gwen danced out of his reach as she ducked yet another ball thrown by Sirius.
"Well Sirius, it looks like you've met your match" Andromeda said as she watched the expedition from her spot above Lily on the ground.
Sirius turned to look at his cousin in disbelief.
"Sirius Black has not met his- Arrrghhhhh!"
For the split second that the marauder had turned his head Gwen had come up behind him and yanked his legs from underneath him. Sirius toppled over onto the snow in a heap next to James as the girl whooped with glee. He lay in a tangle as the others laughed with her.
Sirius grabbed at her ankles from his place on the ground and she fell down on top of him mid-cackle.
"Ha! Who's laughing now!" he exclaimed triumphantly.
Gwen poked him in the gut and rolled over to sit on his stomach.
"What is it with people and sitting on me?!"
"You just must be very comfy and pudgy Padfoot" James said.
"Then what does that make Peter?" Remus asked.
Everyone laughed at this comment as they lay in the snow, oblivious to the wet ice saturating their heavy clothes.
Lily smiled up at the clouds overhead and closed her eyes for a moment just to store this memory in her mind for years to come. She opened her mouth to say something to Andromeda when a clump of snow was stuffed into her wide open trap. She snapped open her eyes to see James standing above her with a delightful grin upon his face.
"That's for throwing a snowball at me you know where"
Lily pushed herself off the ground with sudden force as she spluttered and leapt towards James who swiftly jumped out of the way. She scooped up some snow from the ground and pegged it at him as he ran backwards with an arrogant smile plastered on his face.
She lunged towards him again but he caught her and heaved her up to throw over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
Lily banged her fists on his back as he walked back over to the laughing group.
"James let me down!!" she screeched.
"Only if you say the magic word" he said teasingly.
"No! I shouldn't have to! Now let me down!!" she said stubbornly.
"Oh come on Lily, just one magic word"
"NO!" she exclaimed pounding his back harder.
"But there are so many of them, all you have to do is choose one"
Lily suddenly stopped pounding.
"Oh, well in that case"
Her hand flew to the pocked of her jeans and just as she was about to retrieve the wand that lay inside, another hand caught her wrist in a strong grip.
"Now Lily, honestly, do you really think I'd let you blow my buddy up on Christmas day?" Sirius asked teasingly.
Lily let our a very exasperated noise from her throat as Sirius reached into her jean pocket and whipped out her wand.
"I'll be keeping this until you-somehow-get free"
Lily reached out her arms in a failed attempt to snatch her wand back but Sirius easily jumped out of her reach, only to once more come a finger-span away from her hands then quickly leap back as she made to grab it. After a few more attempts she gave up and hung limp on James' shoulder, subsiding muttering some very colourful words.
"Dear, dear Evans, your vocabulary seems to have expanded largely since we last fought" James commented as he hitched her higher onto his shoulder.
"It seems so has your weight-"
That was enough for Lily, she quickly acted upon her last resort; she kicked with her foot hard where she knew it would hurt him most; his groin.
"Oof!" James toppled over in pain and Lily fell down with him as he loosened his grip on her.
All the other boys standing around winced and looked at him with either pained faces or great sympathy.
However, all the girls seemed to think it was hilariously funny.
"And that's what I call kicking your ass!" Lily said triumphantly as she leaned over James' crumpled form.
"Evans that was pure evil" Sirius said as he threw Gwen off to lean over his silently gasping fellow marauder.
"Jeez Lily, how hard did you kick!" Fabian asked as he too looked on.
"Too-hard" James said through a sharp intake of breath.
"Ok, how many fingers am I holding up?" Sirius asked.
"Sirius my getting kicked in the groin doesn't affect my vision!" he said exasperatedly swatting his hand away.
"It does when you have tears in your eyes" Remus pointed out.
"I-am not crying!!" James said indignantly.
"Looks like it hurt more then I thought" Lily pondered.
"You have no idea" Gideon commented.
Monique, however, didn't seem to notice James' pain, or took immense joy out of it as she couldn't stop herself from giggling and had to shove her fist in her mouth.
James finally sat up.
"Er. . . Potter, are you alright?" Lily asked a little uncomfortably looking down at his pained face.
"No" he said irritably, "You could have prevented me from ever having children you kicked so hard!"
Lily was about to shout that he deserved it when she processed what he had said.
"Urgh! Potter! Bad mental images!" Lily said with a disgusted face.
"Yes, but the point is you were having mental images" he pointed out, a grin once more spreading across his face.
Lily snorted, "Yeah, whatever, you deserved it!"
"Oh I did, did I?" He asked as he took Remus and Sirius' arms to help pull him back up.
"Who hit me. . . there. . .with a snowball in the first place!"
"Well you were goading me!"
"There's no rules Evans!"
"You were still asking for it!"
"I wasn't asking for it there!"
"Well it's not my fault I have bad aim!"
"Then you should have tried out for chaser to improve it!"
"You know I'm petrified of heights you prat!"
"That's why I suggested it!"
"Seriously, do they ever take a break?" Fabian asked Andromeda.
"Well ever since I came here at the beginning of the year, no, they haven't"
Lily was now yelling about something that James had done to her in their third year and James was commenting smoothly, not once raising his voice.
"You know, you two would make a really good couple" Gideon stated, draping his arms around both of their shoulders.
"I keep telling her tha-"
"You keep your mouth shut Gideon Prewett!" Lily said and pulled away from him to continued with her ranting, obviously determined to prove James wrong.
"Well I don't know about anyone else but it's getting rather chilly out here, I'm going back inside" Miria said as she rubbed her cold arms.
"Mmm, me too" Andromeda said.
They both started to walk back up towards the castle and the others followed, all except for Lily and James.
"WELL YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PUT PINK POTION IN MY HAIR!!"
"But it looked so sexy!"
"I DON'T CARE!!"
"Urgh! They're giving me a headache!" Gwen stated.
"Mmmm" Remus said with pursed lips, "Hey I got an idea!"
Remus' face cracked into a trade marked marauder grin.
"You'll have to do the charm though Sirius, I'm not very good at it"
Sirius grinned; he knew exactly what his friend was talking about.
"My pleasure"
"What?" Monique asked.
"You'll see"
They reached the heavy doors to the castle and pulled them open; they could still hear Lily screeching across the grounds, totally oblivious that they were gone.
Remus and Sirius closed the doors behind them and as the yelling drowned out Sirius leant against them and closed his eyes.
"You hear that?" he asked contently.
"What?" Gwen asked, falling for one of the oldest tricks in the book.
"Silence" he sighed.
"Hurry up Sirius, before they notice!" Remus urged.
"Okay, okay" he said taking out his wand.
"Which one shall it be?" he asked playfully, "Nothing that can counter curse Alohamorah I suppose?"
"Obviously" Remus rolled his eyes.
Fabian caught onto their idea immediately.
"Try Conjunctuous"
"Good idea"
Sirius was just about to whisper the spell when Professor McGonagall came walking out of the great hall.
"And what do you think your doing Mr. Black?" she asked sharply, obviously Christmas hadn't effected her usual snappy behavior.
"Trying to lock Lily and James out so we don't have to listen to their screaming Professor" Sirius said truthfully as he muttered the spell with his tongue between his teeth in concentration.
Professor McGonagall lifted an eyebrow at the group.
"Move out of the way Mr. Black, I know a much better spell then that!"
~*~
Woohoo! I hope you liked it, it was heaps fun to write! PLEASE review, cos I didn't get many last time. And next chapter, dun dun duunnnn!! You get to see what Andromeda has in plan for Sirius. . .hehehe! Thanks to my two new reviewers, LightningFairy and F and G W. Until next time! ^.~
~*~Mystical Dreams