Living A Legend
Book 2- The Price of Glory
Chapter 9- First Dates and Wake Up Calls
On one chilly afternoon James finally got to fulfill his study date dreams with Marci Alouise. The two met out on the Quidditch pitch after James had finished with his very first official practice as a beater. Marci had not brought a single book, but only a checkered blanket and a basket filled with who knows what.
Gingerly, the small blond first year spread the blanket over the damp grass and sat down cross legged, beckoning James to join her.
With his shoulders thrown back in what he presumed was a masculine pose, James strutted forward. He opened his mouth to make a witty comment, but unfortunately for his ego, he tripped over the edge of the blanket and went sprawling.
This evoked even more giggling from the tiny blond.
Retaining whatever dignity he could manage, James quickly threw himself into a casual seated position, as if he had taken a dive willfully just to obtain maximum comfort.
"So," James spoke coolly, "let the study date begin."
"Well, I wasn't really sure what to bring… but I thought I would teach you a reviving charm my grandmother taught me as a little girl. That is why I brought this basket," Marci began.
James peered anxiously through the opening of the basket as Marci reached in a slim arm and withdrew a pink vase filled with several dried red roses.
"They look dead," James commented astutely.
"Yes, well, they are not dead, only almost. This spell can not give life to dead things, but can help small flowers bloom, or sick animals thrive. Potentially, it could give strength to humans too, but I do not think there is a wizard or witch alive who is powerful enough to do that."
Marci carefully fingered her wand and with a flick chimed "Encontre Vitalis!".
The withered red petals began to straighten and then curve. The deep burgundy color turned to a blood red hue and little beads of moisture began to appear on the soft surface of the rose.
James raised an eyebrow. "Impressive."
"Do you want to try?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"Of course I do."
Marci pulled yet another rose out of the basket, carefully avoiding the thorns, and placed it gently in James' hand.
Lacking any sense of timing or sensitivity, James snatched the rose and with much wand waving fervor shouted the charm. This time, the rose not only bloomed, but seemed to double in size, as if it were bursting from the inside. Even the petals seemed thicker.
Marci gasped. "You do it even better than I! That rose is beautiful!"
Taking his cue, James thrust the rose forward. "For you, my lady," he proclaimed dramatically.
Marci was so pleased that tears came to the corners of her eyes. She nearly forgot that it was she who had provided the floral material in the first place.
So preoccupied were James and Sirius, with Quidditch practices and thoughts of females, that both boys completely forgot about their Goblin oppression scrolls for Professor Binns.
As a result, the following History of Magic class was a bit tense. After lecturing for over an hours, Binns hobbled from desk to desk, demanding the parchment they had supposedly completed.
Binns reached Sirius first.
"Where is your parchment Mr. Black?" Binns asked blandly.
Sirius looked up at Binns for a moment, with the look of a cornered animal. Then he burst into very dramatic and very fake tears.
"Oh, don't you know, I can tell what you are about. You are only harassing me because my great great grandfather was a Goblin!" Sirius wailed.
Binns looked nonplussed. "Your scroll, Mr. Black. I need your essay on Goblin oppression."
At this point, Sirius leapt on top of his desk, not for the first time, and proceeded to yell to the class.
"Help! Help! I am being oppressed!" Sirius called wildly.
As usual, James could not resist joining in.
"What do we want?" James cried loudly.
"Freedom!" Sirius answered vehemently.
"When do we want it?" James continued.
"Now!" finished Sirius.
Before long the majority of the class was absorbed in the chant. James noticed that Lily was one of the only ones abstaining. The red head was sitting facing the blackboard with her arms folded tightly across her chest and an irritated expression on her face.
In the end, Binns went with the old standby to restore order. He assigned James, Sirius, Remus and Peter detentions, although Remus and Peter had only been guilty of chanting along with the rest of the class. Still, the fact that they were Marauders seemed enough to warrant punishment.
The task was not a very unpleasant one. They boys were forced to spend the night completely cleaning the Gryffindor common room, without magic. There were a lot of filthy corners to scrub, but it was nothing compared to the dungeons, which James had been compelled to clean with Lily the year before.
The four Marauders were finished around two AM. Remus was in favor of going straight to bed, but the others were still full of energy, even Peter.
"I say we give the girls a little wake up call. I know exactly where the second year girls dorm is, I see Lily going there all the time," Peter blathered.
"Good idea mate," James commended him. "The only thing is… we ought to do the thing properly. Sirius, hand me that bucket of dirty water."
Sirius laughed and peered into the bucket, making a face. "This stuff is perfect. There are heaps of mold in here."
"And spiders," Remus chimed in.
Bucket in hand, James led the way towards the staircase leading up to the girls dorm. The others followed happily. About five steps up, the stairs suddenly collapsed and James and friends found themselves in a pile at the bottom, covered in the slimy contents of the bucket.
The resulting cursing and yelling was enough to send several sleepy looking students out into the hall to laugh and wonder at the fate of the four Marauders. Among them was Marci, who took the opportunity to giggle and blush. James blushed even harder, humiliated that Marci had seen him in such a hopeless position.
"Why do you suppose the stairs did that?" James wondered aloud.
"Oh I forgot about that. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History. The stairs to the girls dormitories are enchanted so as to keep untrustworthy boys away," Remus informed.
"Untrustworthy? Pstah! We are getting in one way or another," insisted Sirius boldly.
In the end, the mishap cost them an extra hour cleaning up, but James and Sirius were determined to finish what they had started. The girls deserved a wake up call, and a wake up call they were going to get.
As none of the Marauders were in possession of any wands, they had a challenge ahead of them. They spent a while trying to get up the stairs at a run, but after numerous failed attempts, the boys were forced to change their strategy.
It was Remus who finally had a stroke of brilliance and darted off, emerging a few minutes later with a thick coil of rope.
"It was in the storage closet with the cleaning supplies. I thought I saw some rope earlier, and I suppose this will make things a great deal easier.
The rope, while valuable in theory, was a hard thing to use effectively.
First James tied one end of the rope in a lasso fashion, and attempted to toss it over a jut in the top of the banister. All of the Marauders had tried it a few times before Sirius finally got the loop secured. The next challenge proved even more difficult. Somehow, all four boys had to climb up the rope and over the banister. Both James and Sirius had an easy time scaling the wall, and Remus got up without too much difficulty. However, Peter couldn't seem to climb more than a foot before loosing his grip and sliding back down the rope.
"My hands are burning something terrible! This rope is an awful idea, it was pure luck that you three got up," Peter complained miserably.
"Let's just leave him, he is obviously not going to make it up in one piece," Sirius sneered. "Besides, we wouldn't want the rope to burn your hands Pete!"
Peter's face turned bright red. James could not tell if the clumsy boy was embarrassed or just angry, but he didn't really want to find out.
"Come on Sirius. We are Marauders. All for one and one for all," James interjected. "Grab on to the rope, Peter, and the three of us will hoist you up. Only be careful not to let go this time or your backside will be awfully sore tomorrow."
It took the strenuous efforts of Remus, Sirius and James to get Peter high enough for him to scramble over. All four boys were panting and sweating by the time he reached the top of the stairwell.
"We did it!" Sirius cried. "Now, to the dormitory!"
"Wait," James sighed, "we forgot the bucket.
Remus pulled a few threads off of his worn hat and declared that whom-so-ever pulled the shortest thread from his fist would have to go down and get it. Peter lost, but it was Remus who ended up actually making the trek down. Deftly, he tied the end of the rope around the bucket and Sirius hoisted it up smoothly, lowering the rope so Remus could rejoin them at the top.
The debate raged for several minutes over which dormitory to hit. Sirius was in favor of the first years, hoping to humiliate Bellatrix, but James vetoed the idea, not wanting Marci to get caught in the turmoil. Finally James and Sirius settled on the second year girls, mostly for the sake of hitting an old target, Lily. James did have a grudge against her, she had bruised his ego by failing to accept his hairy peace offering.
Slyly, Sirius cracked open the door and the boys slid inside silently.
James silently tried to determine which bed was Lily's. He crept from bed to bed, peering through the heavy drapery at each sleeping form. Sirius was in favor of going straight for Brittany, whose bed was by the door, but James insisted on holding out for a certain redhead.
After several tries, James threw open the curtains of the desired bed, revealing a familiar form. He paused for a minute, taking in the redhead's appearance. She did not have her scarf on for once, and her choppy hair was in terrible disarray. Lily's creamy white skin was marred by one glaring imperfection, in the form of a massive bruise that James recognized at Nymphadora's handiwork. Her dark red bedspread was drawn down, revealing one slender shoulder covered in a simple blue nightgown.
James stared dreamily at her for a moment more before he was pulled rapidly from his repose. Sirius, frustrated by his friend's lack of action, had taken it upon himself to toss the bucket of filth on the sleeping girl.
Lily woke with a scream and a wild kick, twisting her soaked comforter and sliding out of bed on to the floor.
"Wake up call!" Sirius called cheerfully.
The red head gasped and continued to struggle to free herself from the oppressively heavy blanket. She coughed and sputtered and finally managed to stand, her wild hair dripping with glorious rays of filth and venom. Taking a moment to comprehend what had just occurred, Lily stared at the filth covering her body. Also in her immediate sight, unfortunately for him, was James. The be-speckled young wizard was covered in grime, almost as badly as she was, although James's was dry.
With a wild war cry, Lily leapt on top of James, her emotions beyond words, and began a wild campaign of fists, claws and kicks that ended only when Remus attempted to pull her from him. When she was finally removed from James's haggard person, Lily was still spitting and hissing, literally reduced to an animal like creature with rage. James was bleeding from the nose.
By this time, the other girls in the dorm had emerged from their domed beds and were watching the spectacle with various degrees of shock, horror and amusement.
When Jackie saw that some of the sludge had sloshed onto her trunk of robes, she ran screaming from the room.
By this time, all of the anger in Lily had drained out, and she simply collapsed to the floor, crying. Dora and Brittany quickly joined her supportively, their loyalty extending to the point of being willing to come into contact with the slime covering their intemperate friend.
James winced once more at the tears and was overcome with a sort of reluctant remorse. "Lily, lighten up… it was just a joke."
Sirius laughed even harder, but James attempted to pat Lily awkwardly on the shoulder with one hand, while nursing his bloody nose with the other hand. The red head quickly slapped his hand away.
"Leave her alone, you jerk!" Brittany cried.
Just then, Jackie returned, toting a sleepy looking Professor Lacy.
One look at the chaos inside the dormitory and Lacy's eyes widened dangerous and all of the tiredness was gone from them.
"What is going on in here? Boys in the girl's dormitory, a mess everywhere, and all the shouting! I would like an explanation!" the professor demanded.
A few minutes later, Lily was left to shower, while her roommates cleaned up the mess.
The Marauders did not get off so easily. James found his nosebleed neglected, as the four guilty wizards were escorted by a livid Professor Lacy to Dumbledore's office to await their fate.
"I never expected this sort of behavior from you four! Certainly you are troublemakers, but this is beyond anything I have ever seen with a Gryffindor. I am ashamed of you! It will be a wonder if you are not all expelled!" the normally patient Professor exclaimed fervently.
Peter started to cry and Sirius kicked him contemptuously. "Stop being a baby," Sirius demanded.
James was too busy trying to hold back the torrent of blood escaping from his nose to defend Peter, and Remus looked as if his world had just crashed down around him. Expelled. The word, once spoken, reverberated in all their heads painfully, adding to the tension.
Finally, they reached a statue that James knew led to Dumbledore's office.
"Licorice Whips," Lacy hissed impatiently, practically shoveling the four boys into the openings.
She left them in the waiting room while she spoke to the Headmaster. James recognized Fawkes the phoenix whom he had met on a previous exploit inside Dumbledore's office. He tried to distract himself by gazing at all of the amusing oddities in the room, but James' mind kept drifting back to the same disquieting thought. He could not help but think about how disappointed John would have been if he had known that James would never graduate from Hogwarts. By the time that Dumbledore and Lacy emerged, James had thoroughly convinced himself of his impending expulsion.
Book 2- The Price of Glory
Chapter 9- First Dates and Wake Up Calls
On one chilly afternoon James finally got to fulfill his study date dreams with Marci Alouise. The two met out on the Quidditch pitch after James had finished with his very first official practice as a beater. Marci had not brought a single book, but only a checkered blanket and a basket filled with who knows what.
Gingerly, the small blond first year spread the blanket over the damp grass and sat down cross legged, beckoning James to join her.
With his shoulders thrown back in what he presumed was a masculine pose, James strutted forward. He opened his mouth to make a witty comment, but unfortunately for his ego, he tripped over the edge of the blanket and went sprawling.
This evoked even more giggling from the tiny blond.
Retaining whatever dignity he could manage, James quickly threw himself into a casual seated position, as if he had taken a dive willfully just to obtain maximum comfort.
"So," James spoke coolly, "let the study date begin."
"Well, I wasn't really sure what to bring… but I thought I would teach you a reviving charm my grandmother taught me as a little girl. That is why I brought this basket," Marci began.
James peered anxiously through the opening of the basket as Marci reached in a slim arm and withdrew a pink vase filled with several dried red roses.
"They look dead," James commented astutely.
"Yes, well, they are not dead, only almost. This spell can not give life to dead things, but can help small flowers bloom, or sick animals thrive. Potentially, it could give strength to humans too, but I do not think there is a wizard or witch alive who is powerful enough to do that."
Marci carefully fingered her wand and with a flick chimed "Encontre Vitalis!".
The withered red petals began to straighten and then curve. The deep burgundy color turned to a blood red hue and little beads of moisture began to appear on the soft surface of the rose.
James raised an eyebrow. "Impressive."
"Do you want to try?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"Of course I do."
Marci pulled yet another rose out of the basket, carefully avoiding the thorns, and placed it gently in James' hand.
Lacking any sense of timing or sensitivity, James snatched the rose and with much wand waving fervor shouted the charm. This time, the rose not only bloomed, but seemed to double in size, as if it were bursting from the inside. Even the petals seemed thicker.
Marci gasped. "You do it even better than I! That rose is beautiful!"
Taking his cue, James thrust the rose forward. "For you, my lady," he proclaimed dramatically.
Marci was so pleased that tears came to the corners of her eyes. She nearly forgot that it was she who had provided the floral material in the first place.
So preoccupied were James and Sirius, with Quidditch practices and thoughts of females, that both boys completely forgot about their Goblin oppression scrolls for Professor Binns.
As a result, the following History of Magic class was a bit tense. After lecturing for over an hours, Binns hobbled from desk to desk, demanding the parchment they had supposedly completed.
Binns reached Sirius first.
"Where is your parchment Mr. Black?" Binns asked blandly.
Sirius looked up at Binns for a moment, with the look of a cornered animal. Then he burst into very dramatic and very fake tears.
"Oh, don't you know, I can tell what you are about. You are only harassing me because my great great grandfather was a Goblin!" Sirius wailed.
Binns looked nonplussed. "Your scroll, Mr. Black. I need your essay on Goblin oppression."
At this point, Sirius leapt on top of his desk, not for the first time, and proceeded to yell to the class.
"Help! Help! I am being oppressed!" Sirius called wildly.
As usual, James could not resist joining in.
"What do we want?" James cried loudly.
"Freedom!" Sirius answered vehemently.
"When do we want it?" James continued.
"Now!" finished Sirius.
Before long the majority of the class was absorbed in the chant. James noticed that Lily was one of the only ones abstaining. The red head was sitting facing the blackboard with her arms folded tightly across her chest and an irritated expression on her face.
In the end, Binns went with the old standby to restore order. He assigned James, Sirius, Remus and Peter detentions, although Remus and Peter had only been guilty of chanting along with the rest of the class. Still, the fact that they were Marauders seemed enough to warrant punishment.
The task was not a very unpleasant one. They boys were forced to spend the night completely cleaning the Gryffindor common room, without magic. There were a lot of filthy corners to scrub, but it was nothing compared to the dungeons, which James had been compelled to clean with Lily the year before.
The four Marauders were finished around two AM. Remus was in favor of going straight to bed, but the others were still full of energy, even Peter.
"I say we give the girls a little wake up call. I know exactly where the second year girls dorm is, I see Lily going there all the time," Peter blathered.
"Good idea mate," James commended him. "The only thing is… we ought to do the thing properly. Sirius, hand me that bucket of dirty water."
Sirius laughed and peered into the bucket, making a face. "This stuff is perfect. There are heaps of mold in here."
"And spiders," Remus chimed in.
Bucket in hand, James led the way towards the staircase leading up to the girls dorm. The others followed happily. About five steps up, the stairs suddenly collapsed and James and friends found themselves in a pile at the bottom, covered in the slimy contents of the bucket.
The resulting cursing and yelling was enough to send several sleepy looking students out into the hall to laugh and wonder at the fate of the four Marauders. Among them was Marci, who took the opportunity to giggle and blush. James blushed even harder, humiliated that Marci had seen him in such a hopeless position.
"Why do you suppose the stairs did that?" James wondered aloud.
"Oh I forgot about that. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History. The stairs to the girls dormitories are enchanted so as to keep untrustworthy boys away," Remus informed.
"Untrustworthy? Pstah! We are getting in one way or another," insisted Sirius boldly.
In the end, the mishap cost them an extra hour cleaning up, but James and Sirius were determined to finish what they had started. The girls deserved a wake up call, and a wake up call they were going to get.
As none of the Marauders were in possession of any wands, they had a challenge ahead of them. They spent a while trying to get up the stairs at a run, but after numerous failed attempts, the boys were forced to change their strategy.
It was Remus who finally had a stroke of brilliance and darted off, emerging a few minutes later with a thick coil of rope.
"It was in the storage closet with the cleaning supplies. I thought I saw some rope earlier, and I suppose this will make things a great deal easier.
The rope, while valuable in theory, was a hard thing to use effectively.
First James tied one end of the rope in a lasso fashion, and attempted to toss it over a jut in the top of the banister. All of the Marauders had tried it a few times before Sirius finally got the loop secured. The next challenge proved even more difficult. Somehow, all four boys had to climb up the rope and over the banister. Both James and Sirius had an easy time scaling the wall, and Remus got up without too much difficulty. However, Peter couldn't seem to climb more than a foot before loosing his grip and sliding back down the rope.
"My hands are burning something terrible! This rope is an awful idea, it was pure luck that you three got up," Peter complained miserably.
"Let's just leave him, he is obviously not going to make it up in one piece," Sirius sneered. "Besides, we wouldn't want the rope to burn your hands Pete!"
Peter's face turned bright red. James could not tell if the clumsy boy was embarrassed or just angry, but he didn't really want to find out.
"Come on Sirius. We are Marauders. All for one and one for all," James interjected. "Grab on to the rope, Peter, and the three of us will hoist you up. Only be careful not to let go this time or your backside will be awfully sore tomorrow."
It took the strenuous efforts of Remus, Sirius and James to get Peter high enough for him to scramble over. All four boys were panting and sweating by the time he reached the top of the stairwell.
"We did it!" Sirius cried. "Now, to the dormitory!"
"Wait," James sighed, "we forgot the bucket.
Remus pulled a few threads off of his worn hat and declared that whom-so-ever pulled the shortest thread from his fist would have to go down and get it. Peter lost, but it was Remus who ended up actually making the trek down. Deftly, he tied the end of the rope around the bucket and Sirius hoisted it up smoothly, lowering the rope so Remus could rejoin them at the top.
The debate raged for several minutes over which dormitory to hit. Sirius was in favor of the first years, hoping to humiliate Bellatrix, but James vetoed the idea, not wanting Marci to get caught in the turmoil. Finally James and Sirius settled on the second year girls, mostly for the sake of hitting an old target, Lily. James did have a grudge against her, she had bruised his ego by failing to accept his hairy peace offering.
Slyly, Sirius cracked open the door and the boys slid inside silently.
James silently tried to determine which bed was Lily's. He crept from bed to bed, peering through the heavy drapery at each sleeping form. Sirius was in favor of going straight for Brittany, whose bed was by the door, but James insisted on holding out for a certain redhead.
After several tries, James threw open the curtains of the desired bed, revealing a familiar form. He paused for a minute, taking in the redhead's appearance. She did not have her scarf on for once, and her choppy hair was in terrible disarray. Lily's creamy white skin was marred by one glaring imperfection, in the form of a massive bruise that James recognized at Nymphadora's handiwork. Her dark red bedspread was drawn down, revealing one slender shoulder covered in a simple blue nightgown.
James stared dreamily at her for a moment more before he was pulled rapidly from his repose. Sirius, frustrated by his friend's lack of action, had taken it upon himself to toss the bucket of filth on the sleeping girl.
Lily woke with a scream and a wild kick, twisting her soaked comforter and sliding out of bed on to the floor.
"Wake up call!" Sirius called cheerfully.
The red head gasped and continued to struggle to free herself from the oppressively heavy blanket. She coughed and sputtered and finally managed to stand, her wild hair dripping with glorious rays of filth and venom. Taking a moment to comprehend what had just occurred, Lily stared at the filth covering her body. Also in her immediate sight, unfortunately for him, was James. The be-speckled young wizard was covered in grime, almost as badly as she was, although James's was dry.
With a wild war cry, Lily leapt on top of James, her emotions beyond words, and began a wild campaign of fists, claws and kicks that ended only when Remus attempted to pull her from him. When she was finally removed from James's haggard person, Lily was still spitting and hissing, literally reduced to an animal like creature with rage. James was bleeding from the nose.
By this time, the other girls in the dorm had emerged from their domed beds and were watching the spectacle with various degrees of shock, horror and amusement.
When Jackie saw that some of the sludge had sloshed onto her trunk of robes, she ran screaming from the room.
By this time, all of the anger in Lily had drained out, and she simply collapsed to the floor, crying. Dora and Brittany quickly joined her supportively, their loyalty extending to the point of being willing to come into contact with the slime covering their intemperate friend.
James winced once more at the tears and was overcome with a sort of reluctant remorse. "Lily, lighten up… it was just a joke."
Sirius laughed even harder, but James attempted to pat Lily awkwardly on the shoulder with one hand, while nursing his bloody nose with the other hand. The red head quickly slapped his hand away.
"Leave her alone, you jerk!" Brittany cried.
Just then, Jackie returned, toting a sleepy looking Professor Lacy.
One look at the chaos inside the dormitory and Lacy's eyes widened dangerous and all of the tiredness was gone from them.
"What is going on in here? Boys in the girl's dormitory, a mess everywhere, and all the shouting! I would like an explanation!" the professor demanded.
A few minutes later, Lily was left to shower, while her roommates cleaned up the mess.
The Marauders did not get off so easily. James found his nosebleed neglected, as the four guilty wizards were escorted by a livid Professor Lacy to Dumbledore's office to await their fate.
"I never expected this sort of behavior from you four! Certainly you are troublemakers, but this is beyond anything I have ever seen with a Gryffindor. I am ashamed of you! It will be a wonder if you are not all expelled!" the normally patient Professor exclaimed fervently.
Peter started to cry and Sirius kicked him contemptuously. "Stop being a baby," Sirius demanded.
James was too busy trying to hold back the torrent of blood escaping from his nose to defend Peter, and Remus looked as if his world had just crashed down around him. Expelled. The word, once spoken, reverberated in all their heads painfully, adding to the tension.
Finally, they reached a statue that James knew led to Dumbledore's office.
"Licorice Whips," Lacy hissed impatiently, practically shoveling the four boys into the openings.
She left them in the waiting room while she spoke to the Headmaster. James recognized Fawkes the phoenix whom he had met on a previous exploit inside Dumbledore's office. He tried to distract himself by gazing at all of the amusing oddities in the room, but James' mind kept drifting back to the same disquieting thought. He could not help but think about how disappointed John would have been if he had known that James would never graduate from Hogwarts. By the time that Dumbledore and Lacy emerged, James had thoroughly convinced himself of his impending expulsion.