Disclaimer: Does anybody actually read the disclaimers? Because shouldn't people already know that people using Fanfiction are 'borrowing' ideas from other people? Oh well, just in case I suppose I should say it again-Harry Potter isn't mine.

Hey everyone! Here is another chapter of this lovely and charming story! I'm kind of sad though because I'm not getting many reviews so if you're reading this review! Then, when you're done reviewing, go tell all your friends about my story and make them read it and review and then they'll tell more people who will tell more people and it will keep going and going until I have a billion and one reviews! Anywho, here's another chapter so enjoy!

Chapter 23: Sudden Inspiration

It was a few days later that Lily remembered that Hogwarts would be having a talent show in two and a half weeks to celebrate the holidays.

"We should do something for the talent show," she suggested to the other first-year Gryffindor girls at breakfast one morning.

"But what could we do?" asked Karen, as she poured a generous amount of syrup on her pancakes.

Lily shrugged, "I dunno," she said between spoonfuls of oatmeal, "I thought maybe we could sing a Christmas carol or something."

"But which one?" asked Carol, as she helped herself to more oatmeal, "There's so many to chose from!"

"What about "O Little Town of Bethlehem"?" suggested Julie, "That's fairly well known."

"It's also religious," Megan pointed out, between bites of her pancakes, "We don't want to offend anyone incase someone doesn't like those types of songs."

"This is true," Julie agreed, "Erin, can you please pass the orange juice?"

"Here," Erin said, as she passed the pitcher to Julie, "But what are we going to do for music?"

"I can play the piano," Brittany said.

"I can play some stuff too," Megan said as she reached for more toast, "I'm already playing with Alex, Katie and Zack."

"Since when?" asked Lily.

"Since ten minutes ago," Megan said, "Pass the peanut butter please."

"What are you guys going to do?" asked Kristin as she handed Megan the peanut butter.

Megan shrugged, "I dunno," she said, as she spread the peanut butter on her toast, "Zack said something about Led Zepplin or Kiss but Katie said there was no way she'd play that in front of the entire school but Alex really wants to do an Eric Clapton song so we'll see."

"What are you playing this time?" Brittany inquired, "I get the feeling you're not going to have a piano for songs like those."

"Apparently I'm playing guitar," Megan said with a shrug, "Cause Zack has to play the drums since he can't really do much else, which means Katie will play bass and then Alex may or may not play guitar."

"You never told me you played guitar," Lily said in surprise.

"You never asked," said Megan, "Besides, it's not like I'm very good. I only started learning last year. But back to what we should be doing, picking out our own song. Any more ideas?"

"How about "Frosty the Snowman"?" asked Erin.

"Nah, too kiddie," said Karen.

" "Silver Bells"?" suggested Julie.

"Too old," said Kristin, "We should pick something really fun to do, not something that'll put everybody to sleep."

"What about "Jingle Bells"?" suggested Carol, "That's lively."

"Too short," said Lily, "What about "Rudolph"?"

"That could work," Megan said, "Oh! Wait! I know! "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer"! That song is hilarious!"

"I know that song!" Lily said, "And you're right, it is hilarious!"

"Isn't it kind of offensive towards grandmothers?" asked Kristin.

"Not really," said Megan.

"Why don't we vote?" suggested Lily, "All in favour of "Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer" say aye!"

"Aye!" everyone said.

"Aye-aye Capitan!" Megan said, earning a laugh from everyone.

"So it's settled then," Lily said, "When do you guys want to start practicing it?"

"How about after classes today?" suggested Brittany, "Since we have Transfiguration I can ask McGonagall about getting a piano when we sign up for the show."

"She'll probably just conjure one up in the common room," said Megan.

"Wait!" said Karen, "We shouldn't practice where everyone will see us!"

"Maybe we can use and empty classroom then," suggested Lily, "I'm sure in a place this big there has to be at least one room we can use."

And indeed there was. After talking with Professor McGonagall following Transfiguration, the girls were lead to an unused classroom that they could use as a practice space. Before she left, and much to the delight of Brittany, Professor McGonagall transfigured one of the desks into a full blown grand piano for their use.

"Wow," breathed Brittany as she ran her fingers over the keys once McGonagall had left, "This is amazing!"

Even Lily who knew next to nothing about music was impressed. They girls spent the next hour practicing the words with Brittany who already knew the entire song since it was one of her favourite carols.

"My grandparents really like it," she explained.

Upon returning to the common room after practicing, the girls were greeted by the boys.

"And where were all of you?" asked James, his arms folded across his chest.

"None of your business!" snapped Lily.

"A little touchy are we," James said with raised eyebrows, "Perhaps you were up to no good, is that it?"

"No it's not Potter!" Lily snapped. By now a few of the older Gryffindors were looking over in interest. It was beginning to come quite common to see Lily and James bicker.

"Well then why won't you tell us?" James asked, his voice rising like Lily's, "If it's not something bad you shouldn't have any reason not to tell us, right guys?"

But Lily didn't wait for the boys to respond.

"Why do you need to know?" retorted Lily, "It has nothing to do with you so quite being so nosey!" And with that, she stormed upstairs to her room where she fell back on her bed.

Her friends followed quickly behind her and entered the room slowly.

"That Potter is horrible!" Lily nearly shouted when she saw her friends enter.

"He's just teasing Lily," Karen said, "You should just ignore him."

"How?" Lily asked as she sat up to look at her friends who were now seated on the nearby beds as well, "He's so nosey and annoying all the time!"

"Lily, you've barely given the guy a chance," Julie said, "You almost always seem to fight with him now days."

"Well he's a stupid git so excuse me if I'm not particularly fond of him," Lily said huffily. Why were her friends against her? They shouldn't be defending that Potter but should be trashing him with her.

Lily noticed Megan roll her eyes and smirk.

"And what pray tell is so funny?" she snapped.

"Nothing," Megan replied, but she was still smiling, "I'd better go owl my mum to tell her I need my guitar. I'll be back in a little bit." Megan grabbed a quill and some parchment then left for the owlery.

"And I should probably get that Potions homework done," Julie said.

"Me too," Brittany said, "It looks so hard."

Soon, all the other girls had left to do homework or other things so Lily was left in her room alone to think.

"Stupid Potter," she muttered to herself, "Thinks he's so important and that everyone should tell him everything whenever he wants to know it. If he paid half as much attention to his school work he'd actually have decent marks on his own but no, he copies Remus and Remus actually lets him! Why do boys have to be so bloody infuriating!"

Lily sighed and pulled out her history homework. She considered going down to the common room but that Potter was probably still down there being a nuisance again and she didn't feel like working in the library so instead she decided to work on her bed. She had just started work on her essay about Uric the Oddball when she heard a sudden explosion of noise from the common room. Leaving her things on her bed, she raced downstairs to see what was going on.

When she entered the common room she saw, and smelt, what all the commotion was about.

Lily had never smelt something so foul in her entire life and immediately knew who had to be behind it.

"Stupid Potter," she muttered as she pinched her nose, in hopes of avoiding the smell.

She looked around and noticed that James and the other boys was in fact being severely lectured by several angry prefects while many people dashed out of the room in hopes of finding breathable air.

"What happened?" Lily asked as she made her way over to where Karen and Carol were.

"The boys 'accidentally' set off a bunch of dungbombs," Karen said, "They're so stupid because if you're going to do something like that you do it to the Slytherins, not to your own house."

"They are so immature!" Lily said in frustration.

"I can't breathe!" Carol wheezed, "Can we please leave?"

"Sure, it's almost time for dinner anyway," Karen said as she looked up at the clock.

The three girls headed towards the portrait hole. As they were heading down to the Great Hall the met up with Megan who was returning from the owlery.

"Dungbombs in the common room?" Megan asked with raised eyebrows as she approached.

"How'd you know?" asked Carol.

"Because you smell funny," Megan said, "Here, let me help you with that." She pulled out her wand and mutter a spell and suddenly a strong gust of wind encircled the girls, blowing away the offending odor. "Much better," Megan said as she pocketed her wand, "Now I take it you were heading down for dinner?"

"Where else?" Lily said and the four continued down to the hall.

They entered to discover that some of the other Gryffindors had not managed to rid themselves of the smell and that several Slytherins seemed to find it highly amusing.

"This is a school!" Bellatrix shouted, "Not a farm!"

"Hey Bella!" Megan yelled back, "You would be an expert on manure wouldn't you since you live on a farm but especially since your mum's a cow and all, eh?"

Bellatrix looked murderous and several Slytherins glared at Megan who waved back cheerfully.

"Watch your mouth Johnston," one of the older boys from Slytherins snapped, "If you don't, your family could suffer from some ill-fortune."

"Oh, I'm real scared now Rosier," Megan said sarcastically, "But next time you want to threaten someone try and be a bit more creative OK? I understand it's hard for you because of how far your head is up your butt but at least try to be a little original now and again alright?"

The Slytherins were now looking absolutely furious and probably would've hexed Megan a million times over had Alex not intervened.

"Megan," he said warningly.

"What?" Megan said innocently, "I was only having a nice little chat with our dear friends the Slytherins."

"Megan, stop egging them on," Alex said looking exasperated, "Mum's already worried enough because of what happened to the Adams OK? Just please try and keep your mouth shut for once. You may not be afraid of the Slytherins but a lot of their families are very powerful in the Ministry and we don't want them angry."

"Fine," Megan said reluctantly, "I'll be good."

"Good," Alex said, "Now excuse me, I have to go talk to Professor McGonagall about having someone clean the common room."

"He's right Megan," Karen said as the girls sat down, "If you keep pestering the Slytherins like that you're going to end up getting hurt."

"As if I'm scared of the Slytherins," Megan said as she rolled her eyes, "I don't see what the big deal is, I always harass them-" she jerked her thumb towards the Slytherin table "-if I didn't they'd wonder what the heck was going on."

Lily suddenly felt chilled, as if she'd just been warned about something. Either that or it was an after effect of the dungbombs.

"Megan," she said, "You should be careful. I don't like how casual all the Slytherins have been acting about the accident and it's making me nervous."

Megan gave her a strange look, "And why's that?" she asked so only Lily could hear.

"I don't know," Lily replied, "It's just that....."

"Just what?" Megan prodded.

"I don't know," Lily said slowly, "It feels like the Slytherins know something the rest of us don't, something important."

Megan studied Lily for a minute, her face an unreadable mask. "I'll be right back," she said as she stood up and headed over to where Alex was now sitting having finished talking with Professor McGonagall. Lily watched as the two conversed. Alex looked worried and seemed to be avoiding Megan's questions but that only made Megan angry. He seemed to try to calm her down but without success and she looked about ready to explode. Lily strained her ears to listen to what they were saying.

".... not a child! Why won't anyone tell me these things?" Megan hissed, her voice rising as she talked.

Alex made shushing gestures and Lily couldn't hear what he said.

"..... care, I .......to know what's going on! Everyone's hiding ..... would you rather I ....... why won't you tell me about ....." Megan continued but she had lowered her voice a little so Lily only heard parts of what she said.

Again, Alex made shushing gestures but Megan wasn't finished and began using some colourful language that turned a few heads.

Alex now looked furious.

"That was uncalled for!" he said sharply, "I should give you detention!"

"Go ahead!" Megan shot back, "I'm sure mum and dad would really appreciate that, especially since you're supposed to be looking out for me and all. I'm sure they'll also like to know about how you and Libby have been snogging in the Astronomy Tower the past few days after curfew."

Alex looked horrified and looked around to see how many people had heard. A few nearby girls giggled and a couple of the boys gave him a thumbs up in response.

"Megan!" he said in embarrassment.

"As if everybody didn't already know about it," Megan said as she rolled her eyes.

Alex sighed then said something in a low voice and Megan grinned. She hugged him around the middle then returned to her seat.

Lily raised her eyebrows and looked at Megan. "I take it he's going to tell you later," she said.

"Of course," Megan said, "What big brother can deny his little sister anything?" she said, "Now let's eat! I'm starving!"

"Why am I not surprised?" Lily said with a laugh.

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And I'm done yet another chapter! FYI, no I don't actually play the guitar but I've always sort of wanted to and this is fiction so I decided what the heck, why not? I do actually play the piano a bit though, took lessons for a few years then quit to pursue my athletics (primarily soccer and track). However, I quit enjoy drama and acting and all that good stuff so I figured I should do something in the talent show, despite the fact that my singing and dancing abilities are somewhat lacking. Anywho, enough rambling, I'm done now so please review because reviews make me feel special and all warm and fuzzy inside!

~*~MeGaN~*~

P.S. The more reviews I get the more incentive I have to write more chapters! (Hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)