Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 10- Libraries and Molasses
Lily's euphoria was interrupted quite suddenly one Sunday morning while taking a shower. the cool refreshing water, with which she had been shampooing her hair, turned to molasses. the gooey brown stuff stuck all over her body and in her hair, and it took hours to get off.
She knew instantly who to blame.
The girls schemed for hours about how best to exact their revenge, but they failed to come up with an adequate prank. It was Dora who came up with the idea to write to John for advice on this matter. After he had given Lily that ticket, her attitude towards James' older brother had improved a lot.
She wrote a letter that evening, and the response arrived the next morning.
"So here's what you do," Lily read out loud to her friends. "First I will send him a letter, pretending to be Wheezy Zonko, the man who owns Zonko's Magical Joke Shop. the letter will say that he has been chosen to be featured in Zonko's Crazy Wizard of the Year Calendar. You will need an inside man to pretend to have entered him in the contest. then you hire a photographer, I know a guy named Fertund Filibuster who will be perfect for the job. You can contact him through the sweet shop. Have James pose in some embarrassing manner. then magically enlarge the photo and replace it for the painting that guards the Gryffindor Common room."
Brittany giggled. "It sounds like a good plan. I can just imagine a picture of James in the nude guarding our portrait hole!"
"It's going to be hard to pull off, but I think we can handle it." Lily spoke bravely.
And it was hard to pull off. Brittany managed to bribe some fifth years to talk to the photographer for them, while Dora worked on Peter. It seemed that Peter's loyalties were the easiest to sway. Lily's job was to make sure that every thing went as planned. She coordinated everyone's efforts.
On Thursday, James received the letter from Zonkos, and Peter admitted to entering him in the contest. On Saturday, James showed up for a special photo shoot, on campus with Dumbledore's permission of course. John had gone to Dumbledore, and it was true that the Wizard did love a good joke.
The joke consumed almost a week of the girls' time, and it drained their monetary assets completely, but it was all worth it when one morning the entire Gryffindor house awoke to find the portrait of the fat lady replaced with one of James in his skivvies with his makeup done up like a girl's.
Lily made sure she was there when James came upon the lovely portrait. And she got to see his face turn pale, as his fellow Gryffindors, and assorted well-wishers from other houses burst into laughter. She almost would have felt sorry for him, had he not gotten molasses in her hair.
That evening, Sirius approached Lily and comically bowed and kissed her hand.
"I am in awe of you skill!" he confessed boldly. "A prank like that takes wisdom beyond my years. Tell me oh great one, how did you come up with a prank that creative?"
Lily admitted her outside source, and Sirius laughed. "John really has taken a liking to you. I've known him my whole life, and he and James are really close, but always fighting. They're brothers, that says it all."
Lily thought of Petunia. there was no bond there, just tension and fear. Sometimes Lily was not sure who was the one who was afraid, but mostly it felt like herself.
"They seem to get along so well though. So much better than me and my sister at least." she laughed.
"I'm an only child." Sirius explained. "But James, he is like a brother to me. We have been as close as you can imagine, since we were just babies."
"So I guess you are going to go back to him and tell him everything I just told you." Lily sighed.
"You guessed it." he smiled winningly.
Lily stuck out her tongue defiantly. "Oh well, it was still a good prank."
Near the end of November, Remus began to look pale and sickly. This had happened twice already this school year, and his friends were becoming worried. Even the girls had their doubts about Remus' alleged health. Whenever anyone would question him, he became defensive and vague, trying to change the subject and accuse them of picking on him.
Dora too, was having her share of difficulties. She was still struggling through her school work, not having much talent in the magic department. Despite the fact that Lily tutored her almost every night, Dora still was barely passing some of her classes.
"Oh it's no use!" Dora cried on afternoon, after failing for the fifth time to transfigure a pillowcase into a blanket. "I'll never learn to do anything right! I might as well just quit."
She broke down into noisy sobs and collapsed onto her friend's shoulder.
"Come on Dora, you have to keep trying! I know you can do it, maybe transfiguration just isn't your best subject." Lily soothed.
"I don't have a best subject! I'm horrible at everything!"
"Don't be silly. You're great at History of Magic, and Herbology." Lily tried to calm her down. "You just need to practice more. It will be all right. Lets take a break for now, we can do more later."
One morning Remus was not in class, and Sirius and James said that they had been told he was in the hospital wing. they both looked worried.
Later that day, during flying lessons, James and Sirius engaged themselves in a game of chicken, and were cheered on by half the class. The cheers were led by Professor Reclarus. Neither boy appeared to have much common sense, and on the third bout, they collided.
Reclarus only laughed gleefully. "Oh what fun! I'll have to send the two of you to the hospital wing."
Dora and Brittany looked worried, but Lily only rolled her eyes. "Somehow, I have a feeling that those two will be just fine."
But secretly, she felt a tiny pang of worry when she heard Sirius groaning on the ground and James clutching his leg. Well, she thought defensively, it was their own fault they were hurt. James and Sirius had already caused quite enough pain in Lily's life.
The next morning, James and Sirius were at breakfast, looking a bit pale and preoccupied. they were sitting together with Peter, and whispering conspiratorially. When Lily walked by she thought she heard something about Remus.
Dora heard it too, and rushed over to the group of boys.
"Did you guys see Remus last night? Is he doing okay?" Her voice had a strange strained note to it.
James and Sirius shot each other odd looks, but Peter blurted out right away, "they didn't see him in the hospital ward! Remus wasn't there! James thinks that . . ."
He was cut off quickly by Sirius' elbow and James cut in quickly, "that Lily is too nosy. Mind your own business girls!"
Lily flounced off haughtily, wondering about Remus. She considered stopping by the Hospital ward herself, but could not think of a reason to go.
Classes were tense all day. Lily was debating whether or not to fake a headache to get into the sick ward, and the boys were plotting secretively through all the classes. Lily hated being left out.
James settled Lily's silent debate during charms class, when he accidentally enlarged her nose quite a bit. Embarrassed and angry, Lily stormed off to the hospital ward, forgetting completely that she was headed towards her ultimate destination, and with a legitimate excuse no less. But James had got to her, and with her embarrassment over her huge nose, she failed to notice that a certain Gryffindor was not in the hospital wing.
In fact, she was halfway back to her dorm when the fact hit her that Remus was not there. James and Sirius had been right. Where was Remus Lupin?
Lily didn't even consider letting this lie. the very next day she interrogated James, then Sirius, then finally Peter. Her first two subjects proved a bit stubborn. the third time she stuck gold.
"Well, um . . . James said. . . I'm not supposed to tell, but. . ." Peter trailed off, looking a bit nervous.
Lily knew very well how to turn a person's nervousness to her advantage. "Don't you worry. Peter, James and Sirius will never find out. Plus, I really want to know what they said, and you seem like you would know what's going on. You always seem so smart Peter," Lily purred.
Sure enough Peter gave in after that little display. "Remus is a werewolf," Peter blurted out. "Well, at least that's what James and Sirius think."
Lily rolled her eyes. She figured that Peter didn't know the truth. the whole werewolf thing seemed like a lie planted by the two boys. They probably knew better than to confide in Peter.
"Are you sure that's what they said?" Lily asked skeptically.
Peter nodded. "Sirius said that Remus is always gone on the full moon, and is allergic to silver, so that means he is werewolf."
"Boys!" Lily muttered in annoyance, upset that the mystery was solved. there was nothing wrong with Remus Lupin. James and Sirius were just playing games. Who would actually believe that dumb story about a werewolf anyway?
Although Lily did not buy the whole werewolf idea, she was worried about Remus when he returned to class covered in scratches. Now that she though about it, she remembered seeing such abrasions on him last month after his disappearance. He had said he was going to visit his family. Perhaps that was where he had gone this time as well, thought Lily. She wondered if he came from an abusive family.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Lily complained to Brittany.
"Lily!" Brittany sounded exasperated. "When will you learn to mind your own business?"
"Where would be the fun in that?" Lily made a face.
With Remus and the battle of the sexes to occupy their minds, none of the Gryffindors were expecting the Slytherins to strike.
One morning at breakfast, Lily was engaged in a quality conversation with Dora. Brittany too, was present, but her mind seemed to be in other places. Suddenly a great commotion arose from the first year boys.
Sirius and James were jumping around wildly, feathers sprouting out of their arms, while Remus shrunk down to miniature size, his mouth shrinking and hardening into a narrow beak. In the place where Peter had been sitting, there was now a frantic chicken, squawking and carrying about madly. Lily watched in horror and fascination as the other boys continued to transform.
Soon, all that was left of the troublesome four were a group of barnyard animals. Lily watched in amazement, until she noticed Malfoy and Terrance exchanging high fives. Lily narrowed her eyes.
It was quite a bit of fun watching the chicken that had been Sirius go after the now terrified form of Severus Snape. The chickens all seemed strangely intent on pecking his eyes out.
Even more amusing, to the Gryffindors at least, was watching Professor Ludwick, attempt to break up the pecking fest by trying to restrain all four chickens and escort them to his office to deliver detentions to the troublesome animals.
After much chaos, Dumbledore restored the chickens to their natural form. Peter continued to peck at Severus with his chin, long after he had returned to human form. Both Snape and Malfoy had to be escorted to the Hospital wing due to massive chicken related injuries.
Later that day in potions, Terrance pulled Lily aside while Malfoy and James were going at it.
"You might want to reconsider the company you keep if you want to go far in this school," Terrance warned venomously. "If you aren't careful you might get dragged down with them."
Lily only shrugged and jerked away. "Better them than a greasy Slytherin like you!"
She then went back to her seat to argue with James. Given the choice, she would pick James's company over Terrance's no matter how annoying the messy haired Gryffindor could be. James and his friends could be annoying, but Terrance made her skin crawl.
As December set in, so did the cold. Lily began to spend more and more time indoors, forsaking her usual havens. One day, the castle awoke to see flakes of snow drifting down past the windowsills. That day, after lessons all the student braved the outdoors to partake in a good old fashioned snowball fight. Well, at least it was semi-old fashioned.
Lily was reluctant to join in, but Brittany wouldn't let her just sit indoors on such a momentous event.
"Come on Lily! It'll be fun. You need to have some fun sometimes you know?" Brittany urged.
Lily scrunched up her nose in indecision. "I don't know. . . It's so cold out side and I don't want to get soaked in snow."
At that moment Sirius showed up. Well actually, he kind of sprinted down the hallway and collided into the group of girls head first. Dora and Brittany toppled over, and Brittany dropped her bag.
"Geez Sirius! You're a maniac," Brittany exclaimed.
"No time to chat. Snow fight!" Sirius half shouted as he dashed away.
Brittany helped her friends to their feet and managed to coerce them to join in.
It turned out to be a great time. Lily got thoroughly soaked, but managed to get some good hits in. She hit James smack in the center of his face with one, and was pursued by the energetic avenger for nearly five minutes before she surrendered and emerged with her hands in the air. James, lacking all gentlemanly instincts grabbed her around the waist and dropped a huge snowball down the back of her robes, leaving Lily writhing in the snow and screaming threats at James.
Sirius crept up at that point and just as James turned around he pelted a snowball at him, hard and then took off running and laughing like a madman.
The chaos lasted for hours, and periodically Lily would creep inside, stealthily avoiding filch, the strict young caretaker, and warm herself up before heading back out to seek revenge on whoever was near.
Just after sunset, Dumbledore joined in, and proved to be one of the more aggressive snowballers. He managed to get the better of Sirius, which was quite an accomplishment, as Sirius caused about as much damage as a small hurricane.
Eventually Professor Feldman came out and began to usher students back into their dormitories. Even Dumbledore agreed that the day was over. A few students, such as Sirius and Brittany had overdone things quite a bit, and were suffering from various degrees of pneumonia and frostbite.
After several doses of Madame Klase's warm up potion, Lily and her friends journeyed up to their dormitories where they lay awake, breathing in the atmosphere of winter, and dreaming of the fun times to come.
The next day, Lily slept late and was awakened by Jackie Lyda, a curly black haired first year who shared her dorm.
"You might want to get up. Charms Class starts in ten minutes." Jackie warned.
Lily jumped out of bed, annoyed that Brittany and Dora had not woken her when they left. Grumbling, she pulled on a clean set of robes and for good measure threw on her cloak. Lily took a minute to run her fingers through her hair and brush her teeth before rushing down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, and then out into the hall.
She was in such a hurry that she almost didn't see Peter magically suspended from the sword of one of the castle's suits of armor. She probably would have missed him if he had not been calling out to her.
When Lily saw him, her face turned red with anger. Peter was hanging from his underwear, which had been pulled up wedgie-style, and was crying pathetically and calling out for help. She felt sorry for the poor boy, who often seemed to be target for older kids and Slytherins to pick on. Peter always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Lily wanted to hurt whoever had done this immensely.
Just then Sirius, James and Remus came around a corner, walking quickly and whispering conspiratorially.
"Hurry up guys we're going to be late for class," Remus sighed.
"Remus my man. Haven't you noticed by now? We are always late." Sirius replied casually.
The three boys stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Peter. At first Lily thought they might make fun of him. She soon saw how wrong she was when James and Remus quickly helped him down.
"Who did this Peter?" James asked the sobbing boy.
Peter wiped the side of his plump hand against his cheek as if to hide his crying and looked down embarrassed. "Well you see, it was one of the buh. . .bih. . . bigger boys," Peter stuttered nervously, as if he thought that James might hit him, "the Slytherin Quidditch Captain I think, and a few of his friends."
"The Slytherin Captain, you must mean Barty Crouch. Well the barmy little asshole!" Sirius muttered. "Don't worry Pete. We'll get him for you. It turns out we don't like Slytherins very much. And Crouch is the worst sort of Slytherin."
Peter stared up at Sirius and James in admiration. "Wo. . . Wou. . . Would you really?"
James glanced at Sirius and then at Remus. "Well yeah. In fact, why don't you help us? I'm sure between the four of us, we can come up with a pretty good prank."
Lily smiled at the boys. She hadn't expected this from them and she was beginning to wonder if there might be more to them than troublemakers. "Are you okay Peter?" she asked worriedly.
Peter nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. they do much worse usually. One time they. . ." he suddenly seemed to be embarrassed by his confession and returned his gaze to the floor.
"Well come on then, we'll be late for Charms if we don't hurry. Yes Sirius, I know you are always late, but we have Lily, Peter and I to think about today so I suggest we get going."
Somehow Lily was confused. James and Sirius could be so cruel sometimes, mainly when dealing with Severus. The way that the three boys had treated Peter was unexpected to say the least.
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 10- Libraries and Molasses
Lily's euphoria was interrupted quite suddenly one Sunday morning while taking a shower. the cool refreshing water, with which she had been shampooing her hair, turned to molasses. the gooey brown stuff stuck all over her body and in her hair, and it took hours to get off.
She knew instantly who to blame.
The girls schemed for hours about how best to exact their revenge, but they failed to come up with an adequate prank. It was Dora who came up with the idea to write to John for advice on this matter. After he had given Lily that ticket, her attitude towards James' older brother had improved a lot.
She wrote a letter that evening, and the response arrived the next morning.
"So here's what you do," Lily read out loud to her friends. "First I will send him a letter, pretending to be Wheezy Zonko, the man who owns Zonko's Magical Joke Shop. the letter will say that he has been chosen to be featured in Zonko's Crazy Wizard of the Year Calendar. You will need an inside man to pretend to have entered him in the contest. then you hire a photographer, I know a guy named Fertund Filibuster who will be perfect for the job. You can contact him through the sweet shop. Have James pose in some embarrassing manner. then magically enlarge the photo and replace it for the painting that guards the Gryffindor Common room."
Brittany giggled. "It sounds like a good plan. I can just imagine a picture of James in the nude guarding our portrait hole!"
"It's going to be hard to pull off, but I think we can handle it." Lily spoke bravely.
And it was hard to pull off. Brittany managed to bribe some fifth years to talk to the photographer for them, while Dora worked on Peter. It seemed that Peter's loyalties were the easiest to sway. Lily's job was to make sure that every thing went as planned. She coordinated everyone's efforts.
On Thursday, James received the letter from Zonkos, and Peter admitted to entering him in the contest. On Saturday, James showed up for a special photo shoot, on campus with Dumbledore's permission of course. John had gone to Dumbledore, and it was true that the Wizard did love a good joke.
The joke consumed almost a week of the girls' time, and it drained their monetary assets completely, but it was all worth it when one morning the entire Gryffindor house awoke to find the portrait of the fat lady replaced with one of James in his skivvies with his makeup done up like a girl's.
Lily made sure she was there when James came upon the lovely portrait. And she got to see his face turn pale, as his fellow Gryffindors, and assorted well-wishers from other houses burst into laughter. She almost would have felt sorry for him, had he not gotten molasses in her hair.
That evening, Sirius approached Lily and comically bowed and kissed her hand.
"I am in awe of you skill!" he confessed boldly. "A prank like that takes wisdom beyond my years. Tell me oh great one, how did you come up with a prank that creative?"
Lily admitted her outside source, and Sirius laughed. "John really has taken a liking to you. I've known him my whole life, and he and James are really close, but always fighting. They're brothers, that says it all."
Lily thought of Petunia. there was no bond there, just tension and fear. Sometimes Lily was not sure who was the one who was afraid, but mostly it felt like herself.
"They seem to get along so well though. So much better than me and my sister at least." she laughed.
"I'm an only child." Sirius explained. "But James, he is like a brother to me. We have been as close as you can imagine, since we were just babies."
"So I guess you are going to go back to him and tell him everything I just told you." Lily sighed.
"You guessed it." he smiled winningly.
Lily stuck out her tongue defiantly. "Oh well, it was still a good prank."
Near the end of November, Remus began to look pale and sickly. This had happened twice already this school year, and his friends were becoming worried. Even the girls had their doubts about Remus' alleged health. Whenever anyone would question him, he became defensive and vague, trying to change the subject and accuse them of picking on him.
Dora too, was having her share of difficulties. She was still struggling through her school work, not having much talent in the magic department. Despite the fact that Lily tutored her almost every night, Dora still was barely passing some of her classes.
"Oh it's no use!" Dora cried on afternoon, after failing for the fifth time to transfigure a pillowcase into a blanket. "I'll never learn to do anything right! I might as well just quit."
She broke down into noisy sobs and collapsed onto her friend's shoulder.
"Come on Dora, you have to keep trying! I know you can do it, maybe transfiguration just isn't your best subject." Lily soothed.
"I don't have a best subject! I'm horrible at everything!"
"Don't be silly. You're great at History of Magic, and Herbology." Lily tried to calm her down. "You just need to practice more. It will be all right. Lets take a break for now, we can do more later."
One morning Remus was not in class, and Sirius and James said that they had been told he was in the hospital wing. they both looked worried.
Later that day, during flying lessons, James and Sirius engaged themselves in a game of chicken, and were cheered on by half the class. The cheers were led by Professor Reclarus. Neither boy appeared to have much common sense, and on the third bout, they collided.
Reclarus only laughed gleefully. "Oh what fun! I'll have to send the two of you to the hospital wing."
Dora and Brittany looked worried, but Lily only rolled her eyes. "Somehow, I have a feeling that those two will be just fine."
But secretly, she felt a tiny pang of worry when she heard Sirius groaning on the ground and James clutching his leg. Well, she thought defensively, it was their own fault they were hurt. James and Sirius had already caused quite enough pain in Lily's life.
The next morning, James and Sirius were at breakfast, looking a bit pale and preoccupied. they were sitting together with Peter, and whispering conspiratorially. When Lily walked by she thought she heard something about Remus.
Dora heard it too, and rushed over to the group of boys.
"Did you guys see Remus last night? Is he doing okay?" Her voice had a strange strained note to it.
James and Sirius shot each other odd looks, but Peter blurted out right away, "they didn't see him in the hospital ward! Remus wasn't there! James thinks that . . ."
He was cut off quickly by Sirius' elbow and James cut in quickly, "that Lily is too nosy. Mind your own business girls!"
Lily flounced off haughtily, wondering about Remus. She considered stopping by the Hospital ward herself, but could not think of a reason to go.
Classes were tense all day. Lily was debating whether or not to fake a headache to get into the sick ward, and the boys were plotting secretively through all the classes. Lily hated being left out.
James settled Lily's silent debate during charms class, when he accidentally enlarged her nose quite a bit. Embarrassed and angry, Lily stormed off to the hospital ward, forgetting completely that she was headed towards her ultimate destination, and with a legitimate excuse no less. But James had got to her, and with her embarrassment over her huge nose, she failed to notice that a certain Gryffindor was not in the hospital wing.
In fact, she was halfway back to her dorm when the fact hit her that Remus was not there. James and Sirius had been right. Where was Remus Lupin?
Lily didn't even consider letting this lie. the very next day she interrogated James, then Sirius, then finally Peter. Her first two subjects proved a bit stubborn. the third time she stuck gold.
"Well, um . . . James said. . . I'm not supposed to tell, but. . ." Peter trailed off, looking a bit nervous.
Lily knew very well how to turn a person's nervousness to her advantage. "Don't you worry. Peter, James and Sirius will never find out. Plus, I really want to know what they said, and you seem like you would know what's going on. You always seem so smart Peter," Lily purred.
Sure enough Peter gave in after that little display. "Remus is a werewolf," Peter blurted out. "Well, at least that's what James and Sirius think."
Lily rolled her eyes. She figured that Peter didn't know the truth. the whole werewolf thing seemed like a lie planted by the two boys. They probably knew better than to confide in Peter.
"Are you sure that's what they said?" Lily asked skeptically.
Peter nodded. "Sirius said that Remus is always gone on the full moon, and is allergic to silver, so that means he is werewolf."
"Boys!" Lily muttered in annoyance, upset that the mystery was solved. there was nothing wrong with Remus Lupin. James and Sirius were just playing games. Who would actually believe that dumb story about a werewolf anyway?
Although Lily did not buy the whole werewolf idea, she was worried about Remus when he returned to class covered in scratches. Now that she though about it, she remembered seeing such abrasions on him last month after his disappearance. He had said he was going to visit his family. Perhaps that was where he had gone this time as well, thought Lily. She wondered if he came from an abusive family.
"It just doesn't make any sense," Lily complained to Brittany.
"Lily!" Brittany sounded exasperated. "When will you learn to mind your own business?"
"Where would be the fun in that?" Lily made a face.
With Remus and the battle of the sexes to occupy their minds, none of the Gryffindors were expecting the Slytherins to strike.
One morning at breakfast, Lily was engaged in a quality conversation with Dora. Brittany too, was present, but her mind seemed to be in other places. Suddenly a great commotion arose from the first year boys.
Sirius and James were jumping around wildly, feathers sprouting out of their arms, while Remus shrunk down to miniature size, his mouth shrinking and hardening into a narrow beak. In the place where Peter had been sitting, there was now a frantic chicken, squawking and carrying about madly. Lily watched in horror and fascination as the other boys continued to transform.
Soon, all that was left of the troublesome four were a group of barnyard animals. Lily watched in amazement, until she noticed Malfoy and Terrance exchanging high fives. Lily narrowed her eyes.
It was quite a bit of fun watching the chicken that had been Sirius go after the now terrified form of Severus Snape. The chickens all seemed strangely intent on pecking his eyes out.
Even more amusing, to the Gryffindors at least, was watching Professor Ludwick, attempt to break up the pecking fest by trying to restrain all four chickens and escort them to his office to deliver detentions to the troublesome animals.
After much chaos, Dumbledore restored the chickens to their natural form. Peter continued to peck at Severus with his chin, long after he had returned to human form. Both Snape and Malfoy had to be escorted to the Hospital wing due to massive chicken related injuries.
Later that day in potions, Terrance pulled Lily aside while Malfoy and James were going at it.
"You might want to reconsider the company you keep if you want to go far in this school," Terrance warned venomously. "If you aren't careful you might get dragged down with them."
Lily only shrugged and jerked away. "Better them than a greasy Slytherin like you!"
She then went back to her seat to argue with James. Given the choice, she would pick James's company over Terrance's no matter how annoying the messy haired Gryffindor could be. James and his friends could be annoying, but Terrance made her skin crawl.
As December set in, so did the cold. Lily began to spend more and more time indoors, forsaking her usual havens. One day, the castle awoke to see flakes of snow drifting down past the windowsills. That day, after lessons all the student braved the outdoors to partake in a good old fashioned snowball fight. Well, at least it was semi-old fashioned.
Lily was reluctant to join in, but Brittany wouldn't let her just sit indoors on such a momentous event.
"Come on Lily! It'll be fun. You need to have some fun sometimes you know?" Brittany urged.
Lily scrunched up her nose in indecision. "I don't know. . . It's so cold out side and I don't want to get soaked in snow."
At that moment Sirius showed up. Well actually, he kind of sprinted down the hallway and collided into the group of girls head first. Dora and Brittany toppled over, and Brittany dropped her bag.
"Geez Sirius! You're a maniac," Brittany exclaimed.
"No time to chat. Snow fight!" Sirius half shouted as he dashed away.
Brittany helped her friends to their feet and managed to coerce them to join in.
It turned out to be a great time. Lily got thoroughly soaked, but managed to get some good hits in. She hit James smack in the center of his face with one, and was pursued by the energetic avenger for nearly five minutes before she surrendered and emerged with her hands in the air. James, lacking all gentlemanly instincts grabbed her around the waist and dropped a huge snowball down the back of her robes, leaving Lily writhing in the snow and screaming threats at James.
Sirius crept up at that point and just as James turned around he pelted a snowball at him, hard and then took off running and laughing like a madman.
The chaos lasted for hours, and periodically Lily would creep inside, stealthily avoiding filch, the strict young caretaker, and warm herself up before heading back out to seek revenge on whoever was near.
Just after sunset, Dumbledore joined in, and proved to be one of the more aggressive snowballers. He managed to get the better of Sirius, which was quite an accomplishment, as Sirius caused about as much damage as a small hurricane.
Eventually Professor Feldman came out and began to usher students back into their dormitories. Even Dumbledore agreed that the day was over. A few students, such as Sirius and Brittany had overdone things quite a bit, and were suffering from various degrees of pneumonia and frostbite.
After several doses of Madame Klase's warm up potion, Lily and her friends journeyed up to their dormitories where they lay awake, breathing in the atmosphere of winter, and dreaming of the fun times to come.
The next day, Lily slept late and was awakened by Jackie Lyda, a curly black haired first year who shared her dorm.
"You might want to get up. Charms Class starts in ten minutes." Jackie warned.
Lily jumped out of bed, annoyed that Brittany and Dora had not woken her when they left. Grumbling, she pulled on a clean set of robes and for good measure threw on her cloak. Lily took a minute to run her fingers through her hair and brush her teeth before rushing down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, and then out into the hall.
She was in such a hurry that she almost didn't see Peter magically suspended from the sword of one of the castle's suits of armor. She probably would have missed him if he had not been calling out to her.
When Lily saw him, her face turned red with anger. Peter was hanging from his underwear, which had been pulled up wedgie-style, and was crying pathetically and calling out for help. She felt sorry for the poor boy, who often seemed to be target for older kids and Slytherins to pick on. Peter always seemed to get the short end of the stick. Lily wanted to hurt whoever had done this immensely.
Just then Sirius, James and Remus came around a corner, walking quickly and whispering conspiratorially.
"Hurry up guys we're going to be late for class," Remus sighed.
"Remus my man. Haven't you noticed by now? We are always late." Sirius replied casually.
The three boys stopped dead in their tracks when they saw Peter. At first Lily thought they might make fun of him. She soon saw how wrong she was when James and Remus quickly helped him down.
"Who did this Peter?" James asked the sobbing boy.
Peter wiped the side of his plump hand against his cheek as if to hide his crying and looked down embarrassed. "Well you see, it was one of the buh. . .bih. . . bigger boys," Peter stuttered nervously, as if he thought that James might hit him, "the Slytherin Quidditch Captain I think, and a few of his friends."
"The Slytherin Captain, you must mean Barty Crouch. Well the barmy little asshole!" Sirius muttered. "Don't worry Pete. We'll get him for you. It turns out we don't like Slytherins very much. And Crouch is the worst sort of Slytherin."
Peter stared up at Sirius and James in admiration. "Wo. . . Wou. . . Would you really?"
James glanced at Sirius and then at Remus. "Well yeah. In fact, why don't you help us? I'm sure between the four of us, we can come up with a pretty good prank."
Lily smiled at the boys. She hadn't expected this from them and she was beginning to wonder if there might be more to them than troublemakers. "Are you okay Peter?" she asked worriedly.
Peter nodded vigorously. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. they do much worse usually. One time they. . ." he suddenly seemed to be embarrassed by his confession and returned his gaze to the floor.
"Well come on then, we'll be late for Charms if we don't hurry. Yes Sirius, I know you are always late, but we have Lily, Peter and I to think about today so I suggest we get going."
Somehow Lily was confused. James and Sirius could be so cruel sometimes, mainly when dealing with Severus. The way that the three boys had treated Peter was unexpected to say the least.