Living A Legend
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 18- Marvin Gaye and Best Men
To Jackie's great disappointment, Lily did not receive any more gifts from her secret admirer. "Oh I'm sure he'll give you something tomorrow!" Jackie would predict dreamily.
"Let's hope not!" was Lily's characteristic response.
The days passed by, and then the weeks, and finally Jackie began to give up, much to Lily's relief. Jackie was a born romantic, and Lily was most definitely not. It was bad enough she had to wear the ring, but Lily couldn't bear the thought of any more fuss.
Now that spring had come, most students, including Brittany, Lily and Dora, spent as much time outdoors as possible. Lily was quite fond of playing freeze tag with many other students in her year. Jackie had taken to playing with the threesome and it became a popular pastime for many students.
Occasionally Remus and Peter would take part, but James and Sirius spent every waking hour zooming about on their broomsticks, somehow managing to avoid being caught with their own brooms.
After Sirius had served his second detention filing papers for Ludwick, he seemed more intent than ever to never leave his broomstick. He and James had invented a game, in which the two of them hit a bludger back and forth at each other.
Both boys aspired to become beaters next year. While James had much better reflexes, and was faster and quicker than Sirius, Sirius could hit the bludger with such strength and force that the two were an even match.
Though they got knocked off their brooms occasionally, neither boy suffered many major injuries from the game. Lily suspected it was only a matter of time before one or both of them would be killed or expelled.
The girls frequently walked about the Hogwarts grounds, enjoying the weather and inventing games to play. Somehow the girl's games were slightly less deadly than those of the Marauders.
One day, while the girls were seeing who could levitate a pebble above the lake the longest, they were approached by Gilderoy Lockhart, a handsome blond second year.
"Well hello girls! I don't believe we've met. I'm Gilderoy Lockhart of course, I daresay you know my name," the boy blathered good naturedly, his wide smile never leaving his face.
Brittany, Lily and Dora stared at a loss for words, either struck dumb by Gilderoy's beauty, or by his self righteous tone. Jackie however quickly extended a hand and introduced herself.
"I'm Jackie Lyda, and these girls are Lily, Brittany and Dora. How nice to make your acquaintance Gilderoy."
"Yes, yes it must be a real treat for the four of you. Have you heard about the time I invented wands? It was a great accomplishment for a young lad of nine," Gilderoy mused fondly.
"Wands?" Lily asked skeptically, not sure whether she liked Gilderoy very much.
"Oh yes, wands! Before I invented them wizards were running about using sticks. Shabby way to control your magic if I may say so. One day I said to myself, why do people use those horrid sticks? And that is when I invented them. Of course, it was a great deal of work and it could only have been accomplished by a genius like myself, but I do say it was worth it!" Gilderoy finished happily, running his fingers through his perfect hair for the twelfth time.
"But wands have been around for ages! You couldn't possibly have invented them," Dora interrupted politely.
"Oh Dora, don't be ridiculous! So tell me Gilderoy, were you at the Valentines feast?" Jackie asked cunningly, batting her lashes furiously.
"Oh no, my dear girl!" Gilderoy looked disgusted. "I went to the ball, of course. Can you imagine, a strapping man like myself not being asked to the ball by an older student? Ha!"
Lily giggled. "A strapping man? Are you sure you're not just a bit over zealous?
For once Gilderoy stared blankly, obviously not comprehending the word. "Zealous? Yes of course, I have always been a very zealous fellow. Not to mention handsome, smart and all around fabulous!"
Jackie sighed dreamily, Dora giggled, Brittany batted her eyelashes and Lily snorted.
At the red-head's reaction to Gilderoy's declaration, the blond youth looked startled. Finally he cleared his throat and spoke, "I forgive you Miss Lily, despite your horrible display, because Gilderoy Lockhart is a forgiving fellow."
Lily rolled her eyes and stood to leave her friends to watch the blond boy in admiration.
That night around the common room fire, Lily sat with Dora, watching Jackie and Brittany flirting madly with Gilderoy Lockhart. Lily rolled her eyes and turned to Dora with a grimace.
"I just don't understand it," Lily complained, "it's like they go crazy every time they see a cute boy!"
Dora nodded. "I would have expected this from Jackie, but not from Brittany. Well, you have to admit that he is kind of cute."
Lily turned on her friend with a venomous glare. "So what? That doesn't make him some kind of god or something. All he is, is a self centered stupid boy!"
Dora yawned and shrugged. "I guess. I'm really tired Lily, I'm going to bed."
Lily sat by herself for several minutes before she grew bored and ventured over to the corner where the four marauders were doubtless plotting their next scheme.
"Go away Lily," James said instantly, as she approached.
Remus shot a glare at James and then turned to Lily. "Don't listen to him, you can stay. We were finished with that conversation anyway.
"Do you guys know Gilderoy Lockhart?" Lily asked curiously, ignoring James.
Sirius laughed, "Oh, you mean that big headed second year over there, stealing your friends?"
Lily nodded, glaring in the blond boy's direction, "the very same."
"Why aren't you under his spell Lily? It seems that every other girl is," James teased.
Lily glared at James. "Because I hate him almost as much as I hate you!"
Sirius laughed. "Do you want us to get him Lily? Gilderoy, I mean, not James. Perhaps we can come up with something which will make your friends forget about him," Sirius spoke excitedly.
Lily's eyes lit up. "Could you? I mean the other day, he was telling us how he invented wands! And those two totally bought into it, can you believe it?"
"Well they are girls after all," James interrupted snidely.
"Shut up James!" Lily yelled a bit loudly.
She blushed when most of the students in the common room turned toward her at this outburst. Most muttered something about stupid firsties and turned away.
With a red face, Lily turned to Sirius and said in a very soft voice, "You will do something to him, won't you? Make it something humiliating, that will bring him back to earth."
Sirius bowed mockingly and smiled, "Of course, my lady, Sirius Black and the Marauders at your service. Pranks are our specialty after all and we are always glad for the opportunity to pull one."
Lily smiled at Sirius and Remus before turning to glare at James. "Good night you guys, I'm going to bed. And thank you in advance for pulling the prank for me."
"We're glad you came to us Lily, instead of attempting something amateur yourself," Sirius called as Lily walked away.
The boys stayed up late, planning out the details for their latest plot.
"I still don't see why we're helping Lily," James protested wearily.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Come on James, helping Lily is just an excuse. You can't tell me that Gilderoy guy doesn't make you want to barf. Think of it as helping mankind, not just Lily. Everyone will benefit by us teaching that git a lesson."
"I agree," Remus chimed laconically. "But I'm tired. I say we go to bed and work on the details tomorrow."
James awoke in a place he had never seen before. He was surrounded by menacing figures, clad in robes. He recognized Barty Crouch and a few other of the older Slytherins. They had formed a ring. James inched closer, not able to see inside the ring.
A girl's scream brought his attention to the center of the ring. James flinched and began to approach the circle cautiously.
Strangely enough, the robed figures paid no attention to James as he crept along. Bravely, he pushed past them, and saw into the center of the sinister circle.
Inside was one robed figure, his hood obscuring his face from view, he had a wand pointed at a girl lying on the ground. James realized that they could only be death eaters.
"Lily!" James called in horror.
She was covered in blood, and lying limply on the ground as the robed wizard laughed menacingly.
"Lily, Lily!" James called out again.
Suddenly something grabbed him, and shook him awake roughly.
James opened his eyes, still calling out Lily's name and saw Sirius, Remus and Peter standing above him and laughing. James blinked groggily, and realized that he had been dreaming. He groaned, anticipating the teasing yet to come and buried his head in his pillow.
"You all right there mate?" Remus asked with a laugh. "You were swinging your arms around and calling out for Lily."
Sirius instantly fell into a swoon and began imitating the sleeping James, "Lily! Oh Lily my love!"
James flushed red, "I did not say my love! I dreamed that some death eaters had got her, that's all."
Peter giggled and joined in the taunting, "James and Lily sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage, than comes babies in a baby carriage!"
"Hey James, can I be the best man?" Sirius asked seriously.
James was confused, "Huh?" he responded.
"At your wedding. And can I sing? You've heard me sing before James, wouldn't it be lovely?" Sirius begged.
James laughed at this, he had heard Sirius sing many times before, and the result was somewhat frightening. "I'll tell you what Sirius, if Lily and I ever get married, I'll let you be my best man, and you can sing. But that would never happen in a million years because we both hate each other, and dude, you can't sing."
At this, Sirius pretended to be deeply offended and stalked off to his own bed.
The next morning Lily finally managed to hijack her friends away from Gilderoy, and persuade them to join her for breakfast.
No sooner had they sat down than Sirius squeezed in between Lily and Brittany and flung his arm around the red head. "So Lily, last night James had a dream about you. I've decided that the two of you are going to get married someday. I'm going to be the best man at your wedding. I'll be singing as well of course. I'm thinking perhaps, from the eyes of a child, or Marvin Gaye, since it will probably be a muggle wedding, Let's get it on," Sirius sung this last part and began to launch himself into a full scale ear wrenching performance of the song.
Lily ducked and plugged her ears, and finally James jumped up and with a well aimed stunning spell, knocked Sirius senseless.
The horror of Sirius's charade over, Brittany braved a giggle. "What was that about? Did he say something about James dreaming about Lily?"
Lily's eyes narrowed dangerously and James turned a bright shade of red.
"It wasn't. . . like that," James stammered. "I dreamed that you were being killed by some Death Eaters."
"Oh lovely, James is dreaming about me dying!" Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. "And why, Sirius, does that mean we are getting married?"
Sirius stood shakily, still feeling dizzy from James's stunning spell. "Oh Lily, don't mind him, you should have seen how upset he was. He was calling out your name, like this,"
Lily began to sense more danger of another Sirius scene, but she didn't have time to brace herself before Sirius threw himself to the floor and began flinging his arms about and crying out "Lily! Lovely Lily! Oh Lily baby! Lily!"
Lily turned bright red as Sirius began to scream louder and louder. James buried his head in his arms and Brittany and the others exploded in laughter.
"LILY I LOVE YOU!" Sirius screamed.
Lily finally had endured enough and she ran out of the hall, trying to ignore the stares of students around her. It reminded her oddly of the day she had found out that John had died.
Sirius was not one to let a good joke go when it had gone to far. By mid afternoon, the whole school knew about James's dream and Sirius's role in the predicted up-coming wedding.
The two were teased about it constantly. While James just laughed and retaliated in kind, Lily was left completely defenseless. The only thing she could do when faced with taunting was to get angry and scream.
The problem came to a head during history of magic, when Sirius had been conspicuously holding up pictures of stick figures labeled James (the groom) and Lily (the bride) when Professor Bin's back was turned. Sirius had drawn hearts around the figures.
After a few minutes of furious drawing, Sirius held up the scroll to reveal a new figure labeled 'Sirius (the best man)', with what appeared to be a microphone in his hand, and the words 'lets get it on' coming out of a speech bubble above his head.
The entire class, aside from James and Lily, was trying hard to stifle their laughter, but eventually Bins caught on.
"Now children," he chided in his monotone voice. "Richard the third was a very influential wizard and I think he deserves your attention. Whatever is going on?"
Sirius stood and took the blame. "I'm sorry Professor, it's just that we are all so excited about the upcoming wedding."
"Wedding?" Droned Bins predictably.
"James and Lily's. I am going to be the best man, and sing at the wedding. It's already all planned out," Sirius announced with a smile. James and Lily glared but the rest of the class laughed.
"As fascinating as this all is, it has nothing at all to do with Richard the third," Bins concluded and went back to his speech.
After class, Lily approached Sirius and shoved him into a wall.
Sirius winced, "Upset at my choice of songs? You can suggest another one if you like."
"Sirius! Stop it! It's not funny any more. You're just as bad as James!" Lily fumed.
"Calm down Lily! You really shouldn't hate your fianc's best friend. Besides, we may need your help in our prank on Gilderoy," Sirius tried to make peace.
"He's not my fiancé, and I don't care about the stupid prank! Why can't you just leave me alone?"
Lily stormed away to vent to Brittany, but to her disappointment Brittany was with Jackie, and when Lily approached, it was obvious that they were gushing about Gilderoy. Lily threw up her hands in frustration and went to the library instead, to distract herself by working on her latest report on the uses of bird summoning charms.
Book 1- A Clash of Wills
Chapter 18- Marvin Gaye and Best Men
To Jackie's great disappointment, Lily did not receive any more gifts from her secret admirer. "Oh I'm sure he'll give you something tomorrow!" Jackie would predict dreamily.
"Let's hope not!" was Lily's characteristic response.
The days passed by, and then the weeks, and finally Jackie began to give up, much to Lily's relief. Jackie was a born romantic, and Lily was most definitely not. It was bad enough she had to wear the ring, but Lily couldn't bear the thought of any more fuss.
Now that spring had come, most students, including Brittany, Lily and Dora, spent as much time outdoors as possible. Lily was quite fond of playing freeze tag with many other students in her year. Jackie had taken to playing with the threesome and it became a popular pastime for many students.
Occasionally Remus and Peter would take part, but James and Sirius spent every waking hour zooming about on their broomsticks, somehow managing to avoid being caught with their own brooms.
After Sirius had served his second detention filing papers for Ludwick, he seemed more intent than ever to never leave his broomstick. He and James had invented a game, in which the two of them hit a bludger back and forth at each other.
Both boys aspired to become beaters next year. While James had much better reflexes, and was faster and quicker than Sirius, Sirius could hit the bludger with such strength and force that the two were an even match.
Though they got knocked off their brooms occasionally, neither boy suffered many major injuries from the game. Lily suspected it was only a matter of time before one or both of them would be killed or expelled.
The girls frequently walked about the Hogwarts grounds, enjoying the weather and inventing games to play. Somehow the girl's games were slightly less deadly than those of the Marauders.
One day, while the girls were seeing who could levitate a pebble above the lake the longest, they were approached by Gilderoy Lockhart, a handsome blond second year.
"Well hello girls! I don't believe we've met. I'm Gilderoy Lockhart of course, I daresay you know my name," the boy blathered good naturedly, his wide smile never leaving his face.
Brittany, Lily and Dora stared at a loss for words, either struck dumb by Gilderoy's beauty, or by his self righteous tone. Jackie however quickly extended a hand and introduced herself.
"I'm Jackie Lyda, and these girls are Lily, Brittany and Dora. How nice to make your acquaintance Gilderoy."
"Yes, yes it must be a real treat for the four of you. Have you heard about the time I invented wands? It was a great accomplishment for a young lad of nine," Gilderoy mused fondly.
"Wands?" Lily asked skeptically, not sure whether she liked Gilderoy very much.
"Oh yes, wands! Before I invented them wizards were running about using sticks. Shabby way to control your magic if I may say so. One day I said to myself, why do people use those horrid sticks? And that is when I invented them. Of course, it was a great deal of work and it could only have been accomplished by a genius like myself, but I do say it was worth it!" Gilderoy finished happily, running his fingers through his perfect hair for the twelfth time.
"But wands have been around for ages! You couldn't possibly have invented them," Dora interrupted politely.
"Oh Dora, don't be ridiculous! So tell me Gilderoy, were you at the Valentines feast?" Jackie asked cunningly, batting her lashes furiously.
"Oh no, my dear girl!" Gilderoy looked disgusted. "I went to the ball, of course. Can you imagine, a strapping man like myself not being asked to the ball by an older student? Ha!"
Lily giggled. "A strapping man? Are you sure you're not just a bit over zealous?
For once Gilderoy stared blankly, obviously not comprehending the word. "Zealous? Yes of course, I have always been a very zealous fellow. Not to mention handsome, smart and all around fabulous!"
Jackie sighed dreamily, Dora giggled, Brittany batted her eyelashes and Lily snorted.
At the red-head's reaction to Gilderoy's declaration, the blond youth looked startled. Finally he cleared his throat and spoke, "I forgive you Miss Lily, despite your horrible display, because Gilderoy Lockhart is a forgiving fellow."
Lily rolled her eyes and stood to leave her friends to watch the blond boy in admiration.
That night around the common room fire, Lily sat with Dora, watching Jackie and Brittany flirting madly with Gilderoy Lockhart. Lily rolled her eyes and turned to Dora with a grimace.
"I just don't understand it," Lily complained, "it's like they go crazy every time they see a cute boy!"
Dora nodded. "I would have expected this from Jackie, but not from Brittany. Well, you have to admit that he is kind of cute."
Lily turned on her friend with a venomous glare. "So what? That doesn't make him some kind of god or something. All he is, is a self centered stupid boy!"
Dora yawned and shrugged. "I guess. I'm really tired Lily, I'm going to bed."
Lily sat by herself for several minutes before she grew bored and ventured over to the corner where the four marauders were doubtless plotting their next scheme.
"Go away Lily," James said instantly, as she approached.
Remus shot a glare at James and then turned to Lily. "Don't listen to him, you can stay. We were finished with that conversation anyway.
"Do you guys know Gilderoy Lockhart?" Lily asked curiously, ignoring James.
Sirius laughed, "Oh, you mean that big headed second year over there, stealing your friends?"
Lily nodded, glaring in the blond boy's direction, "the very same."
"Why aren't you under his spell Lily? It seems that every other girl is," James teased.
Lily glared at James. "Because I hate him almost as much as I hate you!"
Sirius laughed. "Do you want us to get him Lily? Gilderoy, I mean, not James. Perhaps we can come up with something which will make your friends forget about him," Sirius spoke excitedly.
Lily's eyes lit up. "Could you? I mean the other day, he was telling us how he invented wands! And those two totally bought into it, can you believe it?"
"Well they are girls after all," James interrupted snidely.
"Shut up James!" Lily yelled a bit loudly.
She blushed when most of the students in the common room turned toward her at this outburst. Most muttered something about stupid firsties and turned away.
With a red face, Lily turned to Sirius and said in a very soft voice, "You will do something to him, won't you? Make it something humiliating, that will bring him back to earth."
Sirius bowed mockingly and smiled, "Of course, my lady, Sirius Black and the Marauders at your service. Pranks are our specialty after all and we are always glad for the opportunity to pull one."
Lily smiled at Sirius and Remus before turning to glare at James. "Good night you guys, I'm going to bed. And thank you in advance for pulling the prank for me."
"We're glad you came to us Lily, instead of attempting something amateur yourself," Sirius called as Lily walked away.
The boys stayed up late, planning out the details for their latest plot.
"I still don't see why we're helping Lily," James protested wearily.
Sirius rolled his eyes, "Come on James, helping Lily is just an excuse. You can't tell me that Gilderoy guy doesn't make you want to barf. Think of it as helping mankind, not just Lily. Everyone will benefit by us teaching that git a lesson."
"I agree," Remus chimed laconically. "But I'm tired. I say we go to bed and work on the details tomorrow."
James awoke in a place he had never seen before. He was surrounded by menacing figures, clad in robes. He recognized Barty Crouch and a few other of the older Slytherins. They had formed a ring. James inched closer, not able to see inside the ring.
A girl's scream brought his attention to the center of the ring. James flinched and began to approach the circle cautiously.
Strangely enough, the robed figures paid no attention to James as he crept along. Bravely, he pushed past them, and saw into the center of the sinister circle.
Inside was one robed figure, his hood obscuring his face from view, he had a wand pointed at a girl lying on the ground. James realized that they could only be death eaters.
"Lily!" James called in horror.
She was covered in blood, and lying limply on the ground as the robed wizard laughed menacingly.
"Lily, Lily!" James called out again.
Suddenly something grabbed him, and shook him awake roughly.
James opened his eyes, still calling out Lily's name and saw Sirius, Remus and Peter standing above him and laughing. James blinked groggily, and realized that he had been dreaming. He groaned, anticipating the teasing yet to come and buried his head in his pillow.
"You all right there mate?" Remus asked with a laugh. "You were swinging your arms around and calling out for Lily."
Sirius instantly fell into a swoon and began imitating the sleeping James, "Lily! Oh Lily my love!"
James flushed red, "I did not say my love! I dreamed that some death eaters had got her, that's all."
Peter giggled and joined in the taunting, "James and Lily sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes marriage, than comes babies in a baby carriage!"
"Hey James, can I be the best man?" Sirius asked seriously.
James was confused, "Huh?" he responded.
"At your wedding. And can I sing? You've heard me sing before James, wouldn't it be lovely?" Sirius begged.
James laughed at this, he had heard Sirius sing many times before, and the result was somewhat frightening. "I'll tell you what Sirius, if Lily and I ever get married, I'll let you be my best man, and you can sing. But that would never happen in a million years because we both hate each other, and dude, you can't sing."
At this, Sirius pretended to be deeply offended and stalked off to his own bed.
The next morning Lily finally managed to hijack her friends away from Gilderoy, and persuade them to join her for breakfast.
No sooner had they sat down than Sirius squeezed in between Lily and Brittany and flung his arm around the red head. "So Lily, last night James had a dream about you. I've decided that the two of you are going to get married someday. I'm going to be the best man at your wedding. I'll be singing as well of course. I'm thinking perhaps, from the eyes of a child, or Marvin Gaye, since it will probably be a muggle wedding, Let's get it on," Sirius sung this last part and began to launch himself into a full scale ear wrenching performance of the song.
Lily ducked and plugged her ears, and finally James jumped up and with a well aimed stunning spell, knocked Sirius senseless.
The horror of Sirius's charade over, Brittany braved a giggle. "What was that about? Did he say something about James dreaming about Lily?"
Lily's eyes narrowed dangerously and James turned a bright shade of red.
"It wasn't. . . like that," James stammered. "I dreamed that you were being killed by some Death Eaters."
"Oh lovely, James is dreaming about me dying!" Lily groaned and rolled her eyes. "And why, Sirius, does that mean we are getting married?"
Sirius stood shakily, still feeling dizzy from James's stunning spell. "Oh Lily, don't mind him, you should have seen how upset he was. He was calling out your name, like this,"
Lily began to sense more danger of another Sirius scene, but she didn't have time to brace herself before Sirius threw himself to the floor and began flinging his arms about and crying out "Lily! Lovely Lily! Oh Lily baby! Lily!"
Lily turned bright red as Sirius began to scream louder and louder. James buried his head in his arms and Brittany and the others exploded in laughter.
"LILY I LOVE YOU!" Sirius screamed.
Lily finally had endured enough and she ran out of the hall, trying to ignore the stares of students around her. It reminded her oddly of the day she had found out that John had died.
Sirius was not one to let a good joke go when it had gone to far. By mid afternoon, the whole school knew about James's dream and Sirius's role in the predicted up-coming wedding.
The two were teased about it constantly. While James just laughed and retaliated in kind, Lily was left completely defenseless. The only thing she could do when faced with taunting was to get angry and scream.
The problem came to a head during history of magic, when Sirius had been conspicuously holding up pictures of stick figures labeled James (the groom) and Lily (the bride) when Professor Bin's back was turned. Sirius had drawn hearts around the figures.
After a few minutes of furious drawing, Sirius held up the scroll to reveal a new figure labeled 'Sirius (the best man)', with what appeared to be a microphone in his hand, and the words 'lets get it on' coming out of a speech bubble above his head.
The entire class, aside from James and Lily, was trying hard to stifle their laughter, but eventually Bins caught on.
"Now children," he chided in his monotone voice. "Richard the third was a very influential wizard and I think he deserves your attention. Whatever is going on?"
Sirius stood and took the blame. "I'm sorry Professor, it's just that we are all so excited about the upcoming wedding."
"Wedding?" Droned Bins predictably.
"James and Lily's. I am going to be the best man, and sing at the wedding. It's already all planned out," Sirius announced with a smile. James and Lily glared but the rest of the class laughed.
"As fascinating as this all is, it has nothing at all to do with Richard the third," Bins concluded and went back to his speech.
After class, Lily approached Sirius and shoved him into a wall.
Sirius winced, "Upset at my choice of songs? You can suggest another one if you like."
"Sirius! Stop it! It's not funny any more. You're just as bad as James!" Lily fumed.
"Calm down Lily! You really shouldn't hate your fianc's best friend. Besides, we may need your help in our prank on Gilderoy," Sirius tried to make peace.
"He's not my fiancé, and I don't care about the stupid prank! Why can't you just leave me alone?"
Lily stormed away to vent to Brittany, but to her disappointment Brittany was with Jackie, and when Lily approached, it was obvious that they were gushing about Gilderoy. Lily threw up her hands in frustration and went to the library instead, to distract herself by working on her latest report on the uses of bird summoning charms.