Chapter Twenty: Valentine's Day
A/N: Parts of this chapter get a little corny, and you will roll your eyes, especially if you remember that the characters are only 11. I may write it out later, but I hate to scrap it all...Please just keep in mind that I learned my lesson from it, and it gets better after this! Thanks!
The next day, the Marauders met the caretaker at the entrance to serve their detentions. Austin didn't look at any of his friends; he just stared at his feet, waiting in stony silence. Pringle met them soon after they arrived and he found a different task for each of them to complete separately. Sirius was sent to polish the trophies and awards, Peter had to scrub the floor of the Potions dungeon (which unfortunately was covered in dragon dung from that day's lesson), Remus was sent to help Professor Carter catch some creatures for tomorrow's lesson, James had to clean the owlery and Austin got to serve his detention with Hagrid.
Austin was relieved when Pringle assigned him to work with Hagrid, he figured he'd have it pretty easy and he didn't have to be around his back stabbing 'friends'. Unfortunately, Hagrid wanted Austin to help him to tame his quintaped, which proved to be dangerous to Austin's fingers. He worked carefully and quietly until Hagrid interrupted his thoughts.
"You feelin' ok, Austin?" Hagrid looked concerned. "You've bin awfully quiet."
Austin continued his work without looking up. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"I tried to get Pringle to let you all come 'elp me," Hagrid said. "It's too bad he split you all up."
Austin didn't reply, he only shrugged and jerked his hand away from the quintaped's fangs quickly.
"Ah," Hagrid said softly. "Somethin 'appened with your friends, did it?"
Nodding, Austin gave up all pretenses and looked at Hagrid with tears in his eyes. "They've been making plans without me, and not even realizing that they're leaving me out."
Hagrid put a large hand on Austin shoulders and smiled sympathetically. "I know 'ow you feel. I felt left out at school sometimes, too. I thought kids avoided me because of my size, but I was imagining most of it. I was the only one leaving myself out."
Austin sputtered angrily, "But I don't think they've been leaving me out, I KNOW they've left me out!"
"I'm sure it was an accident, Austin, if they're really yer friends. Give 'em another chance," Hagrid replied calmly. "Keep your chin up, you have to keep your wits about you if you want to handle Martin."
Austin nodded fiercely and turned his attention back to the creature he was tending.
After the group completed their detentions, they met wearily in their common room. James and Austin looked at each other and began to speak at the same time. They both stopped and James said, "Go ahead."
Austin took a deep breath. "I had a talk with Hagrid about how I thought you were treating me, by leaving me out. It made me feel like you guys didn't want to be my friends. I realize now that it was an accident, and I don't want to spend my last few months here mad at my best friends." Austin smiled. "But I warn you, if it happens again, I'll leave you for Snape."
Everyone laughed, thankful to be friends again. Austin spoke up again. "What were you going to say, James?"
"That if you didn't accept our apology our next great prank would be played on you," James said smiling so broadly everyone knew at once that he was joking.
"In that case," Austin gleefully replied, "I'm very glad we made up. I don't know what horrible things your mind is capable of coming up with." For the next few minutes, they stayed up, talking and joking, but when Peter yawned loudly, they decided it was time for bed.
The next couple of weeks went by quickly, but pleasantly. Austin was not holding a grudge, and for the most part, neither was Lily. She spent less time with the group, creating friendships with some Ravenclaw girls, but she still loved to hang out with the boys. Remus was really busy with schoolwork, but whenever he had some free time, he had a lot on his mind. He still wondered what was going on between him and Lily (there hadn't been any time to talk to her), how to allow his friends to be with him when he transformed, how Hagrid and Martin were doing and how Arabella was doing.
One morning in the beginning of February, James and Remus were brushing their teeth before breakfast when James asked, "Whatever happened with you and Lily?"
Remus shook his head. "I don't know. We've been so busy since I told you guys and I haven't gotten a chance to talk to her yet."
"Aw, mate, you can't just leave it at that kiss!" James cried, spitting toothpaste everywhere.
Blushing, Remus asked, "What should I do then?"
James thought a moment while he wiped toothpaste off of his robe, then answered, "Well, Valentine's Day is next week. You could do something really special for her then, and ask her."
"That's a great idea! Will you help me think of something?" Remus asked, excited.
"Sure," James replied. "But we had better get to breakfast before we're late!" He quickly waved his wand and the rest of the toothpaste was removed from the walls and floor and they joined the rest of the Marauders in the common room.
Over the next week, James and Remus often had their heads together, discussing plans for Lily's Valentine's surprise. They even stayed after Defense Against the Dark Arts to get Professor Carter to do a favor for them. The 13th of February, the school was getting caught up in hopeful anticipation, especially the older students. They were positively buzzing about who would send who a valentine. Most of the first and second years weren't nearly as excited (they were mostly still convinced the opposite sex had cooties), so some of Remus' friends wondered why he seemed so anxious.
At dinner that night, Lily ate with the Marauders. She was cheerfully discussing the possibility that Hufflepuff's prefect might be receiving a wonderful Valentine from Ravenclaw's prefect, when a note was delivered to her. She opened it curiously, then turned to her friends worriedly.
"It's from Professor Carter," she whispered. "He wants to meet with me tomorrow after dinner to discuss the grindylow test we took last week." She looked up from the parchment and continued. "I thought I had done well on it," she said. "But this doesn't sound good."
Sirius spoke up, "You don't know it's bad, Lil. You knew that stuff inside out. I bet he just wants you to help him write a harder test."
Lily looked at him skeptically and said, "Yeah, and Snape is going to be a professor at Hogwarts."
In the middle of taking a drink when Lily said this, Sirius almost snorted water out of his nose. "I think you've got a million times better chance of acing that test than that idiot has of ever becoming a professor," he said, once he had stopped laughing hysterically.
This forced Lily to smile and admit that Sirius was probably right. But she remained worried, so Remus changed the subject in an effort to take her mind off of it. After dinner, Lily excused herself to go sit by the Ravenclaw fire with some of her new friends. Remus hoped she wasn't running off to sulk, but he quickly forgot about Lily's troubles as the Marauders planned a lovely Valentine's day surprise for the Slytherin house.
The next night, Remus and the Marauders skipped dinner. Remus snuck off to Professor Carter's room while James, Sirius, Peter, and Austin set off on a mission to find the Slytherin common room and pull off their prank. They had narrowed down the list of probable locations to two and had looked up some useful spells for finding hollow spaces behind walls.
Remus took his time preparing the room and as dinner was finishing, he turned the lights in the room off and sat in a desk waiting. A few minutes later there was a soft knock at the door and Lily's voice floated through the dim room. "Professor Carter?" she said softly. Hearing no answer, she pushed the door open and several spots in the room began to glow with soft light, illuminating Lily's confused features. She came all of the way into the room, closing the door behind her. More lights came on, revealing lilies scattered over every surface of the room, and Remus sitting quietly, soaking in Lily's look of astonishment.
Lily opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Remus rose from his seat and took Lily's hands in his. "Do you like it?" he asked her softly.
She looked around, still in amazement. "I love it!" she exclaimed. "You did this all for me?" Remus nodded and she embraced him. "Thank you," she breathed in his ear. She kissed him lightly on the cheek as she pulled away.
"Are those candles in those lanterns?" she asked Remus curiously.
He shook his head. "Nope. They're fairies."
Lily gasped and moved closer to inspect one. "They are! How did you manage all of this?"
"I just asked Professor Carter if I could use his room and James and I acquired all of the necessary supplies."
"That must have been a lot of work," Lily said in wonder.
"It was worth it to see the look on your face," Remus said. "I needed to ask you what was going on with us, so I thought I should do something special for you at the same time."
'Well this is special, alright," Lily said. "Let's sit down and talk." She took his hand in one of hers and picked up one pure white lily with the other. She gazed closely at it, smiling, then tickled Remus' nose with it.
He smiled back at her, feeling very calm and peaceful. She smiled back, a more serious smile than before. "I like you a lot, Remus," she began.
"I like you, too, Lily," he answered eagerly.
"Thanks," she said shyly, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I really do like you, but I don't want to be your girlfriend. We're so busy and young and..." she paused, watching Remus' face nervously. "I just want to enjoy spending time with you and the other guys. But I really feel something here and maybe down the road, the time will be right." She studied his kind face carefully, trying to judge his reaction.
Remus breathed a sigh of relief and Lily relaxed again. "That's fine," he replied. "I wasn't sure what I wanted out of this now, but as long as I get to be around you and know that you like me, I'm content." He paused a moment then looked at her piercingly and the words shot like bullets from his mouth. "Will I still be allowed to do special things like this for you?"
With one look at his mock seriousness, Lily dissolved in a fit of giggles. "Like I would tell anyone to stop treating me well!"
After enjoying a hearty laugh, Remus looked at the clock and remarked, "We might want to get going, I think the boys are going to have a great story to tell us when we get back."
Lily asked excitedly what was going on, but Remus refused to tell. He just raised his eyebrows and tried to look mysterious. Lily gave up and gathered a bouquet of lilies to take with her ("I can't possibly take them all, but I need something to remind me of this night!") and they walked together down the ancient stone hallways of Hogwarts.
As they were approaching the hall where the Gryffindor tower was located, they heard sounds of a stampede behind them. It turned out to be only James, Peter, Sirius, and Austin. They were breathing heavily, but James managed to yell, "Library! Now! We've been there the whole time!"
The six of them turned and walked briskly to the library, where they collapsed in the corner and tried to pretend they'd been there for hours.
Lily's face was flush with excitement. "What have you guys been up to?"
Sirius smiled evilly. "We left the Slytherins a little Valentine's present. Just wait, we'll hear about it."
Sure enough, a third year Hufflepuff burst into the library, shouting, "Somebody decorated the Slytherin common room with real animal hearts!"
The librarian stood up and scolded the loud student, but he was already out of the room, spreading the good news elsewhere. Lily looked at James and Sirius in astonishment. "Real animal hearts?" she asked.
"Sounds neat, let's check it out!" Sirius answered loudly and led the group out into the hallway. They soon discovered a large group of people in a hallway, forming a circle around some very distressed Slytherin girls. Some of them were crying; the rest looked furious.
"We just came in after dinner," one of the furious girls, who just happened to be one of Snape's group, began. "And there were all of these disgusting, bloody hearts floating around, dripping on the floor."
"Who did it?" some one in the crowd asked.
"When we find out, they will pay," Severus Snape spoke up. "No one messes with Slytherin."
"Some kid in the library told me it was the Marauders," Lily said matter-of- factly.
Snape tried to hide the confusion that clogged his evil brain, but Lily picked up on it and filled him in. "They were the ones who arranged for Nearly Headless Nick's feast."
"But who are they?" Snape demanded, moving closer to Lily. "Tell me, you stupid Muggle girl, or you'll regret it!" By that time, he was an inch from her face, but she didn't have time to react before Remus and James acted on their anger and tackled Snape to the ground.
Snape stopped struggling and they both stood, ready to attack again, but Lily stopped them. "That's enough, boys. This waste of skin isn't worth your time." Saying that, she turned and left the crowd. The Marauders followed, leaving Snape standing flabbergasted in the center of a circle filled with wailing Slytherin girls. After a moment of confused silence, the whole crowd started talking at once; excited and angry voices mixing so that no words could be heard. The Marauders silently slipped away, while no one was paying any attention to them. As soon as they were out of earshot, Remus turned to them and repeated dumbly, "Animal hearts?"
Sirius, James, Peter and Austin laughed hysterically, almost falling over onto the floor of the hallway. "For Valentine's Day," James gasped between chuckles.
"Brilliant," Remus exclaimed ecstatically. "I love it!"
"Thanks," Sirius replied. "Let's go find Lily and thank her for her fine performance."
Everyone agreed to this suggestion, so they set off to find her. They searched all over, but didn't find her. "She must have gone back to her common room," Remus deduced. "Which reminds me, was it hard to find the Slytherin's tower?" "Nope," James answered, as they headed for the Gryffindor tower. "I'm surprised everyone in the school hasn't found each other's rooms by now. All we had to do was narrow down the probable locations, then use the Hollowus Locatum spell to find the hollow space that was the Slytherin common room."
"Well, that should help us find secret passages, right?" Remus asked.
Sirius nodded. "The things you can do with the information in the library!" He smiled and they reached the portrait of the fat lady. "Cockroach cluster."
The door swung open and the group entered their common room, where several older Gryffindor students were having a small celebration. They were standing around laughing and eating.
"What's this for?" James asked curiously.
"To celebrate the Slytherins getting what they deserve," one of the girls answered, smiling.
"I'll drink to that!" James replied, taking a glass of punch. The girl laughed, and invited everyone to join in, which they gladly did. It got quite late before the small party broke up, but not one of the students minded. It had certainly been a Valentine's Day to remember.
A/N: Parts of this chapter get a little corny, and you will roll your eyes, especially if you remember that the characters are only 11. I may write it out later, but I hate to scrap it all...Please just keep in mind that I learned my lesson from it, and it gets better after this! Thanks!
The next day, the Marauders met the caretaker at the entrance to serve their detentions. Austin didn't look at any of his friends; he just stared at his feet, waiting in stony silence. Pringle met them soon after they arrived and he found a different task for each of them to complete separately. Sirius was sent to polish the trophies and awards, Peter had to scrub the floor of the Potions dungeon (which unfortunately was covered in dragon dung from that day's lesson), Remus was sent to help Professor Carter catch some creatures for tomorrow's lesson, James had to clean the owlery and Austin got to serve his detention with Hagrid.
Austin was relieved when Pringle assigned him to work with Hagrid, he figured he'd have it pretty easy and he didn't have to be around his back stabbing 'friends'. Unfortunately, Hagrid wanted Austin to help him to tame his quintaped, which proved to be dangerous to Austin's fingers. He worked carefully and quietly until Hagrid interrupted his thoughts.
"You feelin' ok, Austin?" Hagrid looked concerned. "You've bin awfully quiet."
Austin continued his work without looking up. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"I tried to get Pringle to let you all come 'elp me," Hagrid said. "It's too bad he split you all up."
Austin didn't reply, he only shrugged and jerked his hand away from the quintaped's fangs quickly.
"Ah," Hagrid said softly. "Somethin 'appened with your friends, did it?"
Nodding, Austin gave up all pretenses and looked at Hagrid with tears in his eyes. "They've been making plans without me, and not even realizing that they're leaving me out."
Hagrid put a large hand on Austin shoulders and smiled sympathetically. "I know 'ow you feel. I felt left out at school sometimes, too. I thought kids avoided me because of my size, but I was imagining most of it. I was the only one leaving myself out."
Austin sputtered angrily, "But I don't think they've been leaving me out, I KNOW they've left me out!"
"I'm sure it was an accident, Austin, if they're really yer friends. Give 'em another chance," Hagrid replied calmly. "Keep your chin up, you have to keep your wits about you if you want to handle Martin."
Austin nodded fiercely and turned his attention back to the creature he was tending.
After the group completed their detentions, they met wearily in their common room. James and Austin looked at each other and began to speak at the same time. They both stopped and James said, "Go ahead."
Austin took a deep breath. "I had a talk with Hagrid about how I thought you were treating me, by leaving me out. It made me feel like you guys didn't want to be my friends. I realize now that it was an accident, and I don't want to spend my last few months here mad at my best friends." Austin smiled. "But I warn you, if it happens again, I'll leave you for Snape."
Everyone laughed, thankful to be friends again. Austin spoke up again. "What were you going to say, James?"
"That if you didn't accept our apology our next great prank would be played on you," James said smiling so broadly everyone knew at once that he was joking.
"In that case," Austin gleefully replied, "I'm very glad we made up. I don't know what horrible things your mind is capable of coming up with." For the next few minutes, they stayed up, talking and joking, but when Peter yawned loudly, they decided it was time for bed.
The next couple of weeks went by quickly, but pleasantly. Austin was not holding a grudge, and for the most part, neither was Lily. She spent less time with the group, creating friendships with some Ravenclaw girls, but she still loved to hang out with the boys. Remus was really busy with schoolwork, but whenever he had some free time, he had a lot on his mind. He still wondered what was going on between him and Lily (there hadn't been any time to talk to her), how to allow his friends to be with him when he transformed, how Hagrid and Martin were doing and how Arabella was doing.
One morning in the beginning of February, James and Remus were brushing their teeth before breakfast when James asked, "Whatever happened with you and Lily?"
Remus shook his head. "I don't know. We've been so busy since I told you guys and I haven't gotten a chance to talk to her yet."
"Aw, mate, you can't just leave it at that kiss!" James cried, spitting toothpaste everywhere.
Blushing, Remus asked, "What should I do then?"
James thought a moment while he wiped toothpaste off of his robe, then answered, "Well, Valentine's Day is next week. You could do something really special for her then, and ask her."
"That's a great idea! Will you help me think of something?" Remus asked, excited.
"Sure," James replied. "But we had better get to breakfast before we're late!" He quickly waved his wand and the rest of the toothpaste was removed from the walls and floor and they joined the rest of the Marauders in the common room.
Over the next week, James and Remus often had their heads together, discussing plans for Lily's Valentine's surprise. They even stayed after Defense Against the Dark Arts to get Professor Carter to do a favor for them. The 13th of February, the school was getting caught up in hopeful anticipation, especially the older students. They were positively buzzing about who would send who a valentine. Most of the first and second years weren't nearly as excited (they were mostly still convinced the opposite sex had cooties), so some of Remus' friends wondered why he seemed so anxious.
At dinner that night, Lily ate with the Marauders. She was cheerfully discussing the possibility that Hufflepuff's prefect might be receiving a wonderful Valentine from Ravenclaw's prefect, when a note was delivered to her. She opened it curiously, then turned to her friends worriedly.
"It's from Professor Carter," she whispered. "He wants to meet with me tomorrow after dinner to discuss the grindylow test we took last week." She looked up from the parchment and continued. "I thought I had done well on it," she said. "But this doesn't sound good."
Sirius spoke up, "You don't know it's bad, Lil. You knew that stuff inside out. I bet he just wants you to help him write a harder test."
Lily looked at him skeptically and said, "Yeah, and Snape is going to be a professor at Hogwarts."
In the middle of taking a drink when Lily said this, Sirius almost snorted water out of his nose. "I think you've got a million times better chance of acing that test than that idiot has of ever becoming a professor," he said, once he had stopped laughing hysterically.
This forced Lily to smile and admit that Sirius was probably right. But she remained worried, so Remus changed the subject in an effort to take her mind off of it. After dinner, Lily excused herself to go sit by the Ravenclaw fire with some of her new friends. Remus hoped she wasn't running off to sulk, but he quickly forgot about Lily's troubles as the Marauders planned a lovely Valentine's day surprise for the Slytherin house.
The next night, Remus and the Marauders skipped dinner. Remus snuck off to Professor Carter's room while James, Sirius, Peter, and Austin set off on a mission to find the Slytherin common room and pull off their prank. They had narrowed down the list of probable locations to two and had looked up some useful spells for finding hollow spaces behind walls.
Remus took his time preparing the room and as dinner was finishing, he turned the lights in the room off and sat in a desk waiting. A few minutes later there was a soft knock at the door and Lily's voice floated through the dim room. "Professor Carter?" she said softly. Hearing no answer, she pushed the door open and several spots in the room began to glow with soft light, illuminating Lily's confused features. She came all of the way into the room, closing the door behind her. More lights came on, revealing lilies scattered over every surface of the room, and Remus sitting quietly, soaking in Lily's look of astonishment.
Lily opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Remus rose from his seat and took Lily's hands in his. "Do you like it?" he asked her softly.
She looked around, still in amazement. "I love it!" she exclaimed. "You did this all for me?" Remus nodded and she embraced him. "Thank you," she breathed in his ear. She kissed him lightly on the cheek as she pulled away.
"Are those candles in those lanterns?" she asked Remus curiously.
He shook his head. "Nope. They're fairies."
Lily gasped and moved closer to inspect one. "They are! How did you manage all of this?"
"I just asked Professor Carter if I could use his room and James and I acquired all of the necessary supplies."
"That must have been a lot of work," Lily said in wonder.
"It was worth it to see the look on your face," Remus said. "I needed to ask you what was going on with us, so I thought I should do something special for you at the same time."
'Well this is special, alright," Lily said. "Let's sit down and talk." She took his hand in one of hers and picked up one pure white lily with the other. She gazed closely at it, smiling, then tickled Remus' nose with it.
He smiled back at her, feeling very calm and peaceful. She smiled back, a more serious smile than before. "I like you a lot, Remus," she began.
"I like you, too, Lily," he answered eagerly.
"Thanks," she said shyly, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "I really do like you, but I don't want to be your girlfriend. We're so busy and young and..." she paused, watching Remus' face nervously. "I just want to enjoy spending time with you and the other guys. But I really feel something here and maybe down the road, the time will be right." She studied his kind face carefully, trying to judge his reaction.
Remus breathed a sigh of relief and Lily relaxed again. "That's fine," he replied. "I wasn't sure what I wanted out of this now, but as long as I get to be around you and know that you like me, I'm content." He paused a moment then looked at her piercingly and the words shot like bullets from his mouth. "Will I still be allowed to do special things like this for you?"
With one look at his mock seriousness, Lily dissolved in a fit of giggles. "Like I would tell anyone to stop treating me well!"
After enjoying a hearty laugh, Remus looked at the clock and remarked, "We might want to get going, I think the boys are going to have a great story to tell us when we get back."
Lily asked excitedly what was going on, but Remus refused to tell. He just raised his eyebrows and tried to look mysterious. Lily gave up and gathered a bouquet of lilies to take with her ("I can't possibly take them all, but I need something to remind me of this night!") and they walked together down the ancient stone hallways of Hogwarts.
As they were approaching the hall where the Gryffindor tower was located, they heard sounds of a stampede behind them. It turned out to be only James, Peter, Sirius, and Austin. They were breathing heavily, but James managed to yell, "Library! Now! We've been there the whole time!"
The six of them turned and walked briskly to the library, where they collapsed in the corner and tried to pretend they'd been there for hours.
Lily's face was flush with excitement. "What have you guys been up to?"
Sirius smiled evilly. "We left the Slytherins a little Valentine's present. Just wait, we'll hear about it."
Sure enough, a third year Hufflepuff burst into the library, shouting, "Somebody decorated the Slytherin common room with real animal hearts!"
The librarian stood up and scolded the loud student, but he was already out of the room, spreading the good news elsewhere. Lily looked at James and Sirius in astonishment. "Real animal hearts?" she asked.
"Sounds neat, let's check it out!" Sirius answered loudly and led the group out into the hallway. They soon discovered a large group of people in a hallway, forming a circle around some very distressed Slytherin girls. Some of them were crying; the rest looked furious.
"We just came in after dinner," one of the furious girls, who just happened to be one of Snape's group, began. "And there were all of these disgusting, bloody hearts floating around, dripping on the floor."
"Who did it?" some one in the crowd asked.
"When we find out, they will pay," Severus Snape spoke up. "No one messes with Slytherin."
"Some kid in the library told me it was the Marauders," Lily said matter-of- factly.
Snape tried to hide the confusion that clogged his evil brain, but Lily picked up on it and filled him in. "They were the ones who arranged for Nearly Headless Nick's feast."
"But who are they?" Snape demanded, moving closer to Lily. "Tell me, you stupid Muggle girl, or you'll regret it!" By that time, he was an inch from her face, but she didn't have time to react before Remus and James acted on their anger and tackled Snape to the ground.
Snape stopped struggling and they both stood, ready to attack again, but Lily stopped them. "That's enough, boys. This waste of skin isn't worth your time." Saying that, she turned and left the crowd. The Marauders followed, leaving Snape standing flabbergasted in the center of a circle filled with wailing Slytherin girls. After a moment of confused silence, the whole crowd started talking at once; excited and angry voices mixing so that no words could be heard. The Marauders silently slipped away, while no one was paying any attention to them. As soon as they were out of earshot, Remus turned to them and repeated dumbly, "Animal hearts?"
Sirius, James, Peter and Austin laughed hysterically, almost falling over onto the floor of the hallway. "For Valentine's Day," James gasped between chuckles.
"Brilliant," Remus exclaimed ecstatically. "I love it!"
"Thanks," Sirius replied. "Let's go find Lily and thank her for her fine performance."
Everyone agreed to this suggestion, so they set off to find her. They searched all over, but didn't find her. "She must have gone back to her common room," Remus deduced. "Which reminds me, was it hard to find the Slytherin's tower?" "Nope," James answered, as they headed for the Gryffindor tower. "I'm surprised everyone in the school hasn't found each other's rooms by now. All we had to do was narrow down the probable locations, then use the Hollowus Locatum spell to find the hollow space that was the Slytherin common room."
"Well, that should help us find secret passages, right?" Remus asked.
Sirius nodded. "The things you can do with the information in the library!" He smiled and they reached the portrait of the fat lady. "Cockroach cluster."
The door swung open and the group entered their common room, where several older Gryffindor students were having a small celebration. They were standing around laughing and eating.
"What's this for?" James asked curiously.
"To celebrate the Slytherins getting what they deserve," one of the girls answered, smiling.
"I'll drink to that!" James replied, taking a glass of punch. The girl laughed, and invited everyone to join in, which they gladly did. It got quite late before the small party broke up, but not one of the students minded. It had certainly been a Valentine's Day to remember.