Chapter Seven: Drama with Lilly
James had only been asleep three hours, before he had to get up and add
ingredients to the potion, "Three drops of that, two drops of this" James
said too himself. When James had finished he found it hard to get back to
sleep, because of Wormtail's snoring, so he decided to go down stairs, to
get some peace and quiet. Halfway down the stairs James heard the familiar
sob of Lilly Evans. Deciding to be more sensitive than he usually is, James
approached her cautiously, but before he could get a word in she snapped,
"Don't tell me, I woke poor James Potter up, oh dear, now he wont look so
gorgeous in the morning!" James stared; quite shocked at Lilly's words,
then his normal character came back into action, "So you think I'm gorgeous
do you?" He said smirking. Lilly looked up at him with her green eyes, her
stare made James cower as she gave him a deadly look, "No, Potter, I was
merely stating that, oh it doesn't matter" Lilly snapped. James smirked to
himself, but his smile faded when Lilly put her face in her hands and
started to cry again, "Okay, I know you don't like me, and I think you've
guessed that I like you, so that's why I hate, seeing you like this," James
said in his normal tone that he used around Lilly, "I just want to try and
help" James added in a moody, sulky voice,
"You know how you can help, Potter? You can march back up those stairs and pretend as though you never ever, set eyes on me!" Lilly said aggressively. James stayed put, "I cant, what if I see you tomorrow? Then what do I do" James asked chancing his luck, obviously Lilly wasn't the type of person who became nice, sweet and lovely when she was upset.
"Don't do this to me, please don't, don't play stupid games with me, Potter" Lilly said crying slightly harder.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll stop, just please, tell me what's wrong" James said trying his best to use his hazel eyes as a weapon, to his surprise they worked, Lilly giggled slightly,
"James I know this sounds totally stupid, and probably darn right mean, but I cant, I just really don't feel like telling anyone, I'm sorry," Lilly said sadly
"Oh, okay, yeah, I understand" James said, he didn't have a clue why she wasn't going to tell him but he had herd Moony say that girls took their time to tell people stuff, so it was only a matter of time, James thought. Even thought most people would of taken what Lilly had just said to be a subtle goodbye, James stayed put, "Can I ask you something?" James asked Lilly, who was wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
"You just did she said pulling her sleeve away from her eyes, James smiled,
"Fine, can I ask you something else? After this question I mean" James corrected, Lilly nodded,
"Why did you come here, its not as though you need to catch up on your schoolwork" James asked as he levitated a tissue box over from the windowsill and handed Lilly a tissue. Lilly paused when he finished asking his question, she bit her lip, and James suspected that she was thinking about whether she should tell him or not, she did, "Well, Lou was going, you know who Lou is right?" Lilly asked before continuing, James nodded, Lilly continued, "Well, she was going, and Laura, you know who Laura is don't you?" Lilly asked again, James nodded, and Lilly once again continued, "Well Laura was thinking about going, so I decided that well, since me and my sister don't get on very well, I decided to be here with the rest of the gang, and anyway, it doesn't hurt to do some more school work" Lilly said, James had the feeling that she wasn't being a hundred present truthful, but he didn't press the subject, "So what about you, why are you here? I can't see one of the famous Marauders wanting to be at school, what's your story?" She asked him
"I didn't choose to be here, I, I, well, I got to many detentions this year, and Dumbledore made me stay behind, that's why Pad-, Sirius, Remus and Peter are here as well, coz of me" James said, he conveniently forgot to mention that the reason this summer school thing was on was because of him, but he didn't really want Lilly to know that. "Lilly, there you are, we were so worried" Laura exclaimed running down the stairs in a pink dressing gown.
"We thought you might have done a runner." Lou exclaimed running down in her blue pyjamas behind Laura, to hug Lilly,
"'A runner'?" James asked
"Oh, sorry Potter, I err didn't see you there" Laura said suddenly seeing James, Lou grinned at him, and then at Lilly, then she snapped back into focus,
"Are you alright?" She asked Lilly
"Err, yeah, I'm, err, I'm fine" Lilly said standing up, she looked pale under the light and she was holding her head, she toppled over slightly, and James and Laura caught her, "Err, Lill's, I'm guessing you should stay off the firewhisky" Lou said, Lilly laughed slightly, but stopped and held her head again. James helped her to the staircase then said goodnight to Lilly, Laura and Lou, "Night Potter" Laura said to him,
"Call him James, he called you Laura, Night, James" Lou said pronouncing his name very clearly, Lilly laughed,
"Yeah, night James" she said. When James was back in bed, the potion safe under his bed he had the best dream of his life, when he woke up a few hours later, he couldn't remember the details, only that he, Lilly, Lou, Laura, Peter, Sirius and Remus had all been in a room, but not at the same time. "I can tell you, I wouldn't mind that dream happening again," James told his friends at Breakfast. When Breakfast was over, the Gryffindor's were to be doing Drama, the Ravenclaw's to be doing Music, the Slytherin's to be doing Quidditch and the Hufflepuff's to be doing proper lessons,
"I'd tell ya, I'd pay money to watch Snivellus on a broom" Peter told his friends when they were lined up in the hall waiting for Professor Drummond to appear.
"The most complex thing about Drama, and acting in general, is to be able to dazzle, and astound your audience" Professor Drummond said suddenly appearing out of a broom closet, and scaring half the class, "As you will find out, the key to success, is to dazzle your audience. Dazzle them, and they will be yours" He continued in is dramatic voice, "Now, who here has had previous experience in acting?" he asked, only one person in the class raised their hand, that was Lou, "Young lady, your name please?" He asked Lou
"Lou Stevenson, sir" She replied, for some reason, and James couldn't figure out why, Laura and Lilly were smirking.
"Ah, yes, please tell me your experience or qualifications" He asked her, Lou went bright red and started muttering plays, commercials and classes she had done, Professor Drummond looked quite taken aback, and so did the rest of the class, "Oh, sir, she also was an extra on the muggle film called Jaw's last year, weren't you, Lou?" Laura asked grinning and making Lou go red, but she nodded,
"And, Lou is going to be in another muggle film next year, aren't you Lou? Something called Star Wars, isn't that right Lou?" Lilly said giving Laura a high five, Lou muttered something that sounded like a yes. Professor Drummond looked surprised, "Please wait behind after class, Miss Stevenson." Lou nodded and glared at her friends and started muttering under her breath so no one could hear. "Now, since hardly anyone has very much practice in Muggle drama. I would like to start off with the basics, could anyone tell me three points of importance when acting?" He asked the class, everyone looked at Lou, who was staring determinedly at the floor, "Miss Stevenson, am I to believe you not to be paying attention?" Drummond asked her,
"No sir. Three crucial points are to be clear and speak loudly, make eye contact and be confident" She said, still looking very interestedly at the floor, Drummond nodded,
"Very good,"
"Sir, it also helps if you picture the audience in their underwear" Sirius said out loud. Professor Drummond chuckled,
"That also helps. Now, I have a way with working with people, and it seems to work, I always, always make people work together, and they always work with the opposite sex. Now, I want you to pair off, boy and girl, and await your instructions, while I go and talk to Professor Dumbledore, you better be paired when I get back" He said warningly. The hall suddenly erupted with talk, "Lou, have you really been in Jaws?" Sebbins asked her, she nodded,
"I feel sorry for her," Remus said,
"What are you going to do about it? Lilly can be quite evil, you know that James?" Peter said, James glared at him, and Peter suddenly fell silent,
"I'm going to find a partner," Peter said hastily. Sirius chuckled, and left as well. Peter went over to a girl named Penelope (Penny) and they became partners. It then struck James that what a great way to get to know Lilly better than to ask her to be his partner, so he walked over there, and to his amazement, Sirius said to Laura, "Hey, Laura, you got a partner?" Laura shock her head, "Please go my partner, I don't want to go with Sebbins, he scares me" Laura said in a panicked voice, Sirius looked quite taken aback, since James figured he had gone to ask her and she asked him, "Yeah, sure, I was going to ask you anyways" Sirius said in a way that made him look so effortlessly elegant, on the other side of Sirius, Remus ask her an off topic question before asking her the real one, James thought,
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I just didn't really want people to know," She laughed.
"Have you got a partner?" He asked her. Lou shook her head and did a fake pout making Remus laugh, "Will you go my partner then?" He asked
"Of course" She replied. Great, thought James, now I have to ask Lilly, or I'll have no one to go with, Please don't turn me down, please don't turn me down, James pleaded with himself.
"Hey, Lilly. Go my partner?" James asked when he came face to face with Lilly, oh real smooth; make her feel special, that was so, so stupid of me, James thought to himself,
"Sure" Lilly's voice said somewhere back in reality,
"What?" he asked, not really hearing her?
"Yeah I'll go partners with you," She repeated again
"Oh, right, cool" James said smiling. When Professor Drummond came back into the class about five minuets later he was smiling,
"Well done, I see you have all paired off, now, since we are starting with the basics, we shall just start with arranging all the emotions. I want you to think of all the emotions that are important in Acting, begin now please." Professor Drummond commanded. James did really care about what they were doing, but he did care about what Lilly thought about him, so he kept his voice quiet about how easy he thought this was. Professor Drummond had them doing this all the way up to break, then after break, they had to show their emotions to him, and by the end of the day, most people were pretty sick of showing their emotions, until he made them do a 'Emotional performance to the class' at about four o'clock, when they only had an hour left of class. "Do you want to do a love one?" James asked Lilly smirking, she rolled her eyes, but before she could truthfully answer, Professor Drummond told them that he would be telling them what emotion they would be doing. "Awwwww James's bubbles has burst" Lilly said in a mock tone of voice. When it was their turn to do their 'Performance', James wasn't too happy, because they had to do a scene of rage. Lilly on the other hand, had tons of experience with James, managed to pull it off fantastically, and got an O. While James pleaded with Drummond that it was impossible to act angry at Lilly, as he fancied her like crazy, James finally gave up his case when Professor Drummond reminded him, in front of the whole class, that Lilly managed to do the scene perfectly, so he should probably stop, 'fancying Lilly, like crazy.' At dinner Sirius had asked them what they thought of Professor Drummond, "I think he should stop treating us like kids, I mean, no offence, but I think I know my emotions" Peter said
"Yes. And Mr Petigrew, I believe you have not learnt to bottle up your emotions, have you dear boy?" Professor Drummond said smiling. Peter just shock his head and stuttered, professor Drummond said no more, but just swept away like a hawk. James, Sirius and Remus were chuckling silently to themselves, "Hey, you two, what made you want to go partners with Laura and Lou?" James asked them suddenly, looking at Remus and Sirius,
"Well, Lou was pretty upset, and she didn't have a partner, and she did get me an O, so I'm not complaining" Remus said casually,
"Okay, what about you Padfoot?" James asked Sirius,
"I was rescuing Laura from the hands of Sebbins, I don't want to hear him brag about how he got a pretty partner in drama, do I?" Sirius said with his nose wrinkled up. The Marauders laughed,
"Black, I hate you!" Someone said to Sirius as they walked passed, "I had a chance with her and you blew it for me!" Sebbins said
"What are you on about? Oh, and I hate you too" Sirius said loathingly
"You took Laura as a partner, just to see me miserable" Sebbins said Sirius, who had just finished off his dinner, said in reply, "No, Sebbins, I took Laura as a partner, so not to see, her, miserable" Sirius said giving Sebbins a fake smile and making his way back to his dormitory, the rest of the Marauders in tow.
"Class, Padfoot, class" Peter exclaimed when they were in the common room, Peter always got like this when Sirius did something like this, when James did something in Quidditch, and when Remus did some really quick thinking, after a while though, James thought, It gets slightly boring, but he could live with it. At eleven o'clock, when most of the common room was empty, James was on duty to add the powdered cockroaches to the potion, "Be right back" He told them. Two more days and then I can get some proper sleep, James thought to himself. James waited an extra few seconds to make sure the potion fizzed up like it was supposed to, it did. Then he went back down stairs. To his surprise he saw that Sirius, Remus and Peter had three girls around him, to his greater shock, he saw they were, Lilly, Lou and Laura, Lilly of whom was sitting in his chair.
"Oh sorry James, I'll move" Lilly said seeing him
"No, its okay, stay were you are" James replied, wanting a chance to show off, and he did. James conjured a chair from across the room and sat down. Laura and Lou giggled, but Lilly glared at them and they shut up, James had the distinct impression that Laura and Lou were a lot like Remus, Peter and himself, they tend to do stuff that Lilly asked for, just like they did for Sirius, Interesting, James thought.
"What do you think we'll be doing tomorrow?" Laura asked the group, they all shock their heads
"I hope its music" Lou said
"Why? Are you good?" Remus asked
"No, but its an excuse to get back at Laura, and hopefully we'll do swimming with professor Midgeal, then I can get back at Lilly" Lou said grinning evilly
"How?" Peter asked
"Lilly's really, really good at swimming, has won countless gold medals, and Laura here, can play..." Lou cut off, she was counting on her fingers, looking up at the ceiling, "I never knew the ceiling was that colour" She said suddenly, the gang laughed, "Sorry. Anyway. Laura plays nine instruments, no, sorry... Ten" Lou said grinning evilly at Laura, who blushed and looked up at the ceiling,
"You know Lou, your right, the ceiling is kind of different" Laura said staring at the spot Lou had. The gang all laughed. The conversation changed from, Lou's embarrassment, to: Summer school in general, music, something Snape had said to the girls, (Which made James, Remus, Sirius and Peter all go want to find him and kill him) and the last conversation topic was the dance the girls had heard Dumbledore was throwing. "He's throwing a Dance?" Sirius asked Laura who told them about it, "Yeah. Well, that's what we heard" Lilly said
"When is it?" Peter asked
"Last week of term. I mean, summer school," Laura said
"Plenty of time" James said
"Plenty of time for what?" Lou asked him
"Plenty of time to get Lilly to say yes to go to the dance with me, and to kill any other guys who approach her" James said winking at Lilly.
"Yeah, what ever James. What ever." Lilly said
"What makes him think he'd have to try" Laura whispered into Lou's ear so Lilly didn't hear but James did.
"So who have you all got plans to go with, obviously not you James, coz we all know about you" Sirius said, James smirked and winked at Lilly again who smiled slightly and rolled her eyes.
"Come on, spit it out! Tell me. Who are we going to tell, oh come on, its not as if I would care if you all wanted to go with me" Sirius said jokingly. To James's surprise though, Lou leaned over to Lilly, and whispered something and they both laughed hard, James unfortunately, didn't hear what it was. None of the girls would tell any of them whom they wanted to go with, and none of the boys told whom they wanted to go with. At one o'clock they finally called it a night, and went off to bed, "Oh, Lilly, if were in partners, your going with me" James called out to Lilly. Lilly smiled but nodded, Yes! James thought. Following his lead, Sirius called out to Laura, "Will you need saving again from Sebbins tomorrow?" She laughed and nodded,
"If you don't mind" "As if I would," Sirius said winking at her
"Lou, if you cant find anyone you want to go with, will you go with me?" Remus asked Lou. She went the tiniest bit red, but it was dark, so only the boys could see, and they smirked at each other. Remus had never had the same air of confidence that Sirius and James had, neither did peter for that matter, "Yeah, sure" Lou said. The boys then went up the stairs, and the first thing anyone said was
"How the hell do you do it?" Peter demanded when they were in bed
"Do what, Wormtail?" James asked
"Get those girls wrapped round your finger?" Peter asked
"Confidence my friend, confidence" Sirius "Try it out with that Penny girl, she's quite cute," Sirius suggested
"Alright, I will" Peter said. Ten minuets later, they were all fast asleep, all except James. His head was filled of Lilly, things Lilly had said. He didn't understand why she was being like this, was it because he was being slightly more sensitive? He asked himself, "No mate, it's because your not jinxing anyone you see and don't like" A voice in the back of his head said. James then fell asleep on that thought.
"You know how you can help, Potter? You can march back up those stairs and pretend as though you never ever, set eyes on me!" Lilly said aggressively. James stayed put, "I cant, what if I see you tomorrow? Then what do I do" James asked chancing his luck, obviously Lilly wasn't the type of person who became nice, sweet and lovely when she was upset.
"Don't do this to me, please don't, don't play stupid games with me, Potter" Lilly said crying slightly harder.
"Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'll stop, just please, tell me what's wrong" James said trying his best to use his hazel eyes as a weapon, to his surprise they worked, Lilly giggled slightly,
"James I know this sounds totally stupid, and probably darn right mean, but I cant, I just really don't feel like telling anyone, I'm sorry," Lilly said sadly
"Oh, okay, yeah, I understand" James said, he didn't have a clue why she wasn't going to tell him but he had herd Moony say that girls took their time to tell people stuff, so it was only a matter of time, James thought. Even thought most people would of taken what Lilly had just said to be a subtle goodbye, James stayed put, "Can I ask you something?" James asked Lilly, who was wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
"You just did she said pulling her sleeve away from her eyes, James smiled,
"Fine, can I ask you something else? After this question I mean" James corrected, Lilly nodded,
"Why did you come here, its not as though you need to catch up on your schoolwork" James asked as he levitated a tissue box over from the windowsill and handed Lilly a tissue. Lilly paused when he finished asking his question, she bit her lip, and James suspected that she was thinking about whether she should tell him or not, she did, "Well, Lou was going, you know who Lou is right?" Lilly asked before continuing, James nodded, Lilly continued, "Well, she was going, and Laura, you know who Laura is don't you?" Lilly asked again, James nodded, and Lilly once again continued, "Well Laura was thinking about going, so I decided that well, since me and my sister don't get on very well, I decided to be here with the rest of the gang, and anyway, it doesn't hurt to do some more school work" Lilly said, James had the feeling that she wasn't being a hundred present truthful, but he didn't press the subject, "So what about you, why are you here? I can't see one of the famous Marauders wanting to be at school, what's your story?" She asked him
"I didn't choose to be here, I, I, well, I got to many detentions this year, and Dumbledore made me stay behind, that's why Pad-, Sirius, Remus and Peter are here as well, coz of me" James said, he conveniently forgot to mention that the reason this summer school thing was on was because of him, but he didn't really want Lilly to know that. "Lilly, there you are, we were so worried" Laura exclaimed running down the stairs in a pink dressing gown.
"We thought you might have done a runner." Lou exclaimed running down in her blue pyjamas behind Laura, to hug Lilly,
"'A runner'?" James asked
"Oh, sorry Potter, I err didn't see you there" Laura said suddenly seeing James, Lou grinned at him, and then at Lilly, then she snapped back into focus,
"Are you alright?" She asked Lilly
"Err, yeah, I'm, err, I'm fine" Lilly said standing up, she looked pale under the light and she was holding her head, she toppled over slightly, and James and Laura caught her, "Err, Lill's, I'm guessing you should stay off the firewhisky" Lou said, Lilly laughed slightly, but stopped and held her head again. James helped her to the staircase then said goodnight to Lilly, Laura and Lou, "Night Potter" Laura said to him,
"Call him James, he called you Laura, Night, James" Lou said pronouncing his name very clearly, Lilly laughed,
"Yeah, night James" she said. When James was back in bed, the potion safe under his bed he had the best dream of his life, when he woke up a few hours later, he couldn't remember the details, only that he, Lilly, Lou, Laura, Peter, Sirius and Remus had all been in a room, but not at the same time. "I can tell you, I wouldn't mind that dream happening again," James told his friends at Breakfast. When Breakfast was over, the Gryffindor's were to be doing Drama, the Ravenclaw's to be doing Music, the Slytherin's to be doing Quidditch and the Hufflepuff's to be doing proper lessons,
"I'd tell ya, I'd pay money to watch Snivellus on a broom" Peter told his friends when they were lined up in the hall waiting for Professor Drummond to appear.
"The most complex thing about Drama, and acting in general, is to be able to dazzle, and astound your audience" Professor Drummond said suddenly appearing out of a broom closet, and scaring half the class, "As you will find out, the key to success, is to dazzle your audience. Dazzle them, and they will be yours" He continued in is dramatic voice, "Now, who here has had previous experience in acting?" he asked, only one person in the class raised their hand, that was Lou, "Young lady, your name please?" He asked Lou
"Lou Stevenson, sir" She replied, for some reason, and James couldn't figure out why, Laura and Lilly were smirking.
"Ah, yes, please tell me your experience or qualifications" He asked her, Lou went bright red and started muttering plays, commercials and classes she had done, Professor Drummond looked quite taken aback, and so did the rest of the class, "Oh, sir, she also was an extra on the muggle film called Jaw's last year, weren't you, Lou?" Laura asked grinning and making Lou go red, but she nodded,
"And, Lou is going to be in another muggle film next year, aren't you Lou? Something called Star Wars, isn't that right Lou?" Lilly said giving Laura a high five, Lou muttered something that sounded like a yes. Professor Drummond looked surprised, "Please wait behind after class, Miss Stevenson." Lou nodded and glared at her friends and started muttering under her breath so no one could hear. "Now, since hardly anyone has very much practice in Muggle drama. I would like to start off with the basics, could anyone tell me three points of importance when acting?" He asked the class, everyone looked at Lou, who was staring determinedly at the floor, "Miss Stevenson, am I to believe you not to be paying attention?" Drummond asked her,
"No sir. Three crucial points are to be clear and speak loudly, make eye contact and be confident" She said, still looking very interestedly at the floor, Drummond nodded,
"Very good,"
"Sir, it also helps if you picture the audience in their underwear" Sirius said out loud. Professor Drummond chuckled,
"That also helps. Now, I have a way with working with people, and it seems to work, I always, always make people work together, and they always work with the opposite sex. Now, I want you to pair off, boy and girl, and await your instructions, while I go and talk to Professor Dumbledore, you better be paired when I get back" He said warningly. The hall suddenly erupted with talk, "Lou, have you really been in Jaws?" Sebbins asked her, she nodded,
"I feel sorry for her," Remus said,
"What are you going to do about it? Lilly can be quite evil, you know that James?" Peter said, James glared at him, and Peter suddenly fell silent,
"I'm going to find a partner," Peter said hastily. Sirius chuckled, and left as well. Peter went over to a girl named Penelope (Penny) and they became partners. It then struck James that what a great way to get to know Lilly better than to ask her to be his partner, so he walked over there, and to his amazement, Sirius said to Laura, "Hey, Laura, you got a partner?" Laura shock her head, "Please go my partner, I don't want to go with Sebbins, he scares me" Laura said in a panicked voice, Sirius looked quite taken aback, since James figured he had gone to ask her and she asked him, "Yeah, sure, I was going to ask you anyways" Sirius said in a way that made him look so effortlessly elegant, on the other side of Sirius, Remus ask her an off topic question before asking her the real one, James thought,
"Yeah, I'll be fine, I just didn't really want people to know," She laughed.
"Have you got a partner?" He asked her. Lou shook her head and did a fake pout making Remus laugh, "Will you go my partner then?" He asked
"Of course" She replied. Great, thought James, now I have to ask Lilly, or I'll have no one to go with, Please don't turn me down, please don't turn me down, James pleaded with himself.
"Hey, Lilly. Go my partner?" James asked when he came face to face with Lilly, oh real smooth; make her feel special, that was so, so stupid of me, James thought to himself,
"Sure" Lilly's voice said somewhere back in reality,
"What?" he asked, not really hearing her?
"Yeah I'll go partners with you," She repeated again
"Oh, right, cool" James said smiling. When Professor Drummond came back into the class about five minuets later he was smiling,
"Well done, I see you have all paired off, now, since we are starting with the basics, we shall just start with arranging all the emotions. I want you to think of all the emotions that are important in Acting, begin now please." Professor Drummond commanded. James did really care about what they were doing, but he did care about what Lilly thought about him, so he kept his voice quiet about how easy he thought this was. Professor Drummond had them doing this all the way up to break, then after break, they had to show their emotions to him, and by the end of the day, most people were pretty sick of showing their emotions, until he made them do a 'Emotional performance to the class' at about four o'clock, when they only had an hour left of class. "Do you want to do a love one?" James asked Lilly smirking, she rolled her eyes, but before she could truthfully answer, Professor Drummond told them that he would be telling them what emotion they would be doing. "Awwwww James's bubbles has burst" Lilly said in a mock tone of voice. When it was their turn to do their 'Performance', James wasn't too happy, because they had to do a scene of rage. Lilly on the other hand, had tons of experience with James, managed to pull it off fantastically, and got an O. While James pleaded with Drummond that it was impossible to act angry at Lilly, as he fancied her like crazy, James finally gave up his case when Professor Drummond reminded him, in front of the whole class, that Lilly managed to do the scene perfectly, so he should probably stop, 'fancying Lilly, like crazy.' At dinner Sirius had asked them what they thought of Professor Drummond, "I think he should stop treating us like kids, I mean, no offence, but I think I know my emotions" Peter said
"Yes. And Mr Petigrew, I believe you have not learnt to bottle up your emotions, have you dear boy?" Professor Drummond said smiling. Peter just shock his head and stuttered, professor Drummond said no more, but just swept away like a hawk. James, Sirius and Remus were chuckling silently to themselves, "Hey, you two, what made you want to go partners with Laura and Lou?" James asked them suddenly, looking at Remus and Sirius,
"Well, Lou was pretty upset, and she didn't have a partner, and she did get me an O, so I'm not complaining" Remus said casually,
"Okay, what about you Padfoot?" James asked Sirius,
"I was rescuing Laura from the hands of Sebbins, I don't want to hear him brag about how he got a pretty partner in drama, do I?" Sirius said with his nose wrinkled up. The Marauders laughed,
"Black, I hate you!" Someone said to Sirius as they walked passed, "I had a chance with her and you blew it for me!" Sebbins said
"What are you on about? Oh, and I hate you too" Sirius said loathingly
"You took Laura as a partner, just to see me miserable" Sebbins said Sirius, who had just finished off his dinner, said in reply, "No, Sebbins, I took Laura as a partner, so not to see, her, miserable" Sirius said giving Sebbins a fake smile and making his way back to his dormitory, the rest of the Marauders in tow.
"Class, Padfoot, class" Peter exclaimed when they were in the common room, Peter always got like this when Sirius did something like this, when James did something in Quidditch, and when Remus did some really quick thinking, after a while though, James thought, It gets slightly boring, but he could live with it. At eleven o'clock, when most of the common room was empty, James was on duty to add the powdered cockroaches to the potion, "Be right back" He told them. Two more days and then I can get some proper sleep, James thought to himself. James waited an extra few seconds to make sure the potion fizzed up like it was supposed to, it did. Then he went back down stairs. To his surprise he saw that Sirius, Remus and Peter had three girls around him, to his greater shock, he saw they were, Lilly, Lou and Laura, Lilly of whom was sitting in his chair.
"Oh sorry James, I'll move" Lilly said seeing him
"No, its okay, stay were you are" James replied, wanting a chance to show off, and he did. James conjured a chair from across the room and sat down. Laura and Lou giggled, but Lilly glared at them and they shut up, James had the distinct impression that Laura and Lou were a lot like Remus, Peter and himself, they tend to do stuff that Lilly asked for, just like they did for Sirius, Interesting, James thought.
"What do you think we'll be doing tomorrow?" Laura asked the group, they all shock their heads
"I hope its music" Lou said
"Why? Are you good?" Remus asked
"No, but its an excuse to get back at Laura, and hopefully we'll do swimming with professor Midgeal, then I can get back at Lilly" Lou said grinning evilly
"How?" Peter asked
"Lilly's really, really good at swimming, has won countless gold medals, and Laura here, can play..." Lou cut off, she was counting on her fingers, looking up at the ceiling, "I never knew the ceiling was that colour" She said suddenly, the gang laughed, "Sorry. Anyway. Laura plays nine instruments, no, sorry... Ten" Lou said grinning evilly at Laura, who blushed and looked up at the ceiling,
"You know Lou, your right, the ceiling is kind of different" Laura said staring at the spot Lou had. The gang all laughed. The conversation changed from, Lou's embarrassment, to: Summer school in general, music, something Snape had said to the girls, (Which made James, Remus, Sirius and Peter all go want to find him and kill him) and the last conversation topic was the dance the girls had heard Dumbledore was throwing. "He's throwing a Dance?" Sirius asked Laura who told them about it, "Yeah. Well, that's what we heard" Lilly said
"When is it?" Peter asked
"Last week of term. I mean, summer school," Laura said
"Plenty of time" James said
"Plenty of time for what?" Lou asked him
"Plenty of time to get Lilly to say yes to go to the dance with me, and to kill any other guys who approach her" James said winking at Lilly.
"Yeah, what ever James. What ever." Lilly said
"What makes him think he'd have to try" Laura whispered into Lou's ear so Lilly didn't hear but James did.
"So who have you all got plans to go with, obviously not you James, coz we all know about you" Sirius said, James smirked and winked at Lilly again who smiled slightly and rolled her eyes.
"Come on, spit it out! Tell me. Who are we going to tell, oh come on, its not as if I would care if you all wanted to go with me" Sirius said jokingly. To James's surprise though, Lou leaned over to Lilly, and whispered something and they both laughed hard, James unfortunately, didn't hear what it was. None of the girls would tell any of them whom they wanted to go with, and none of the boys told whom they wanted to go with. At one o'clock they finally called it a night, and went off to bed, "Oh, Lilly, if were in partners, your going with me" James called out to Lilly. Lilly smiled but nodded, Yes! James thought. Following his lead, Sirius called out to Laura, "Will you need saving again from Sebbins tomorrow?" She laughed and nodded,
"If you don't mind" "As if I would," Sirius said winking at her
"Lou, if you cant find anyone you want to go with, will you go with me?" Remus asked Lou. She went the tiniest bit red, but it was dark, so only the boys could see, and they smirked at each other. Remus had never had the same air of confidence that Sirius and James had, neither did peter for that matter, "Yeah, sure" Lou said. The boys then went up the stairs, and the first thing anyone said was
"How the hell do you do it?" Peter demanded when they were in bed
"Do what, Wormtail?" James asked
"Get those girls wrapped round your finger?" Peter asked
"Confidence my friend, confidence" Sirius "Try it out with that Penny girl, she's quite cute," Sirius suggested
"Alright, I will" Peter said. Ten minuets later, they were all fast asleep, all except James. His head was filled of Lilly, things Lilly had said. He didn't understand why she was being like this, was it because he was being slightly more sensitive? He asked himself, "No mate, it's because your not jinxing anyone you see and don't like" A voice in the back of his head said. James then fell asleep on that thought.