Chapter Fifteen: Exams, Musicals, and Plays.
On Monday, when they were all practicing for the mini Quidditch matches
that were to be held on the last week of term James could not get the
vision off the girls transforming into animals at such ease, out of his
head. He kept muttering, "How did they do it?" to himself.
"Now. The match is on Saturday, is everyone ready?" Professor Midgeal was asking the class, there was a murmur of
"Yes" going round the class,
"Good. Now of you go".
Back in the common room that night, the Marauders and the girls were all practicing their lines for the play they were doing, it was an original one, so if push came to shove, and they forgot their lines, they could make them up. Well, that was what Lou kept telling them. Though her plan backfired when Sirius said there was no point in practising them. James had hit the jackpot with his part in the play, because when they were choosing what they would be doing, he had practically begged Professor Drummond to let him have one scene where he kissed Lilly, so Professor Drummond granted him his wish. Sirius was less than happy at his role though, as he was to be playing an enemy of Laura's, he kept telling both Laura and Drummond that it was impossible to be mad at Laura. Lou had the main role; Lilly had the next lead, as well as Laura. Remus and Peter didn't have a role that contained them being either enemies or lovers with their girlfriends. The play was the next day, and it was a competition between the houses, of whom could do the best play. James wasn't in the slightest bit nervous, in his opinion he couldn't care less. Lou, Laura and Lilly though did care; they all wanted to beat Slythrin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw so much that they didn't stop saying their lines, giving the Marauders a constant headache. Not being selfish, but James only cared about him winning the Quidditch, and when Lilly wasn't trying to persuade him to practice his lines, he was reading up on tactics and moves. James fell asleep quite late, waking up to Lilly's voice; "Now this is what I could get used to," James said pulling her on to the bed.
"James, as much as I would love to stay here with you, but we can't, we have to get ready for the play, its in two hours" Lilly said, pouting.
"Two hours? That's ages" James commented
"Come on James, please" Lilly whined again, flashing him a set of puppy dog eyes and a beautiful smile.
"That Veela really shows up on you there" James said
"James, get up" Lilly said, but she was laughing slightly
"Hey. One more thing" James said, Lilly paused at the door, "Does that mean if we didn't have to get ready for the play you would stay in bed with me?" James asked innocently. Lilly only rolled her eyes,
"Get up James" She said again,
"I'll take that as a yes then" James called out to her, she didn't reply that time. James got changed, had his breakfast, and then went, once again, to revise his lines again with Lilly. "Come on Lilly, we haven't got the kissing scene right yet" James said flashing her a grin, gripping her round the waste and kissing her.
"James, we cant, no offence meant to you. But you don't know your lines, and I'm pretty aware that you know how to kiss" Lilly said after their kiss. James flashed her another grin, and gave in,
"Okay, okay, we'll practice" James said. Lilly smiled brightly,
"You're the best James," She said kissing him,
"I've been telling you that for ages" James told her quietly. Lilly rolled her eyes and started saying here lines. Professor Drummond fetched them about half an hour later. When Lilly, Lou and Laura were all together, they were all panicking, loudly about messing up their lines. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who all herd them, couldn't understand what was so important about it anyway. "Now, Quidditch. That I can understand" Sirius said away from the girls, the boys all agreed,
"Maybe even Music, because if you do a wrong note, people are going to hear you" Peter added, there was yet again, a murmur of agreement from the boys,
"Yeah, but like Lou said, no one apart from Drummond and the cast, are going to notice if we go wrong, because its an original" Remus said, yet again, they all agreed.
"Ten seconds till curtain" Professor Drummond called from behind them, they all got in their places,
"Five seconds" Drummond said again, the girls stopped muttering,
"Three, two, one" He said again, as the curtain rose. James didn't have any lines in the first scene, he just casually observed on the set. 'Looking good', was what he called it. James kept squinting when he looked out at the audience, he couldn't see a thing, because the stage was too lit up for him to see out properly. An hour and a half later, James came off the stage with Lilly, who looked extremely relieved that the play was now over, "We have to change, then go see who won" Lilly said,
"That's obvious, us" Lou said with confidence,
"Yeah, I mean, Slythrin did Romeo and Juliet, we so saw that one coming, everyone always does that play. Hufflepuff did a crap Cabaret, I mean, have you ever seen such bad dancing. Okay, so Ravenclaw's was a bit like ours, in the way it was original, but it was about a lousy farmer, and there were what, three main parts, and about twenty small, and I mean, small parts" Laura said, Sirius chuckled,
"Yeah, Laura's right, we brought down the house" Sirius said kissing Laura. Lilly was now convinced that they had won, thanks to Laura. They all took their places in the audience (the house tables) and waited for Dumbledore's announcement on who had won.
"Fourth place, but still a wonderful re-incarnation, of Romeo and Juliet, is Slythrin" Dumbledore announced.
"See" James herd Laura say up the table, James grinned, [I] Maybe she is right [/I] James thought.
"In third place, thought it was a wonderful, and original piece, Ravenclaw" Dumbledore said,
"I thought that was us then" James herd Lilly say,
"Now, in second place, Hufflepuff" Dumbledore said. James grinned, but before he could say anything, Laura was shouting out to the Gryffindor's, who had all stood up,
"I told you, haha, we beat you, haha," Laura shouted to the other hall, and all the houses looked extremely annoyed that they had lost. Sirius was grappling at Laura, trying to pull her down from her chair, as all the other houses had stood up and looked like they were going to pounce on her and kill her. When Sirius had managed to restrain Laura, Dumbledore made an announcement,
"Yes, yes. Well-done Gryffindor. Your performance, was suburb, I enjoyed every minuet of it" The Gryffindor's all went up with Professor Drummond (who was sitting at the Gryffindor table) and got their trophy's. There was one big one, to be stored in the Trophy room, and thirty-seven smaller trophies, given out to each of the Gryffindor pupils. When everyone was back at the common room, and the commotion had died down, James was trying to get Lilly to spend time with him, but she was refusing, on the grounds that she now had to practice her instrument for tomorrow's recital. James left her and went to study with Sirius, who was only studying because of Laura. Remus and Peter were also, both practicing their instruments.
"What's the main ingredient in a Pollyjuice potion?" Sirius asked as James sat down next to him,
"You know that" James said
"Yeah I know, I'm testing you" Sirius replied,
"Oh, okay. Bomslang skin" James answered, "Who lead the first goblin rebellion, and in what year?" James now asked Sirius,
"Gwalda Huglimp, in 1247" Sirius told him,
"Yip" James said, the rest of the night consisted of everyone apart from James and Sirius playing their instruments, and James and Sirius revising. The musical show was to be at one o'clock, leaving everyone time to get ready, or in James's case, get up. Coming back from breakfast, he noticed that not everyone was as in tune as they should be, especially not the Ravenclaw's. [I] Finally, something they're crap at [/I] James thought to himself as he went by a Ravenclaw sixth year, trying to play the trumpet.
"You should see the Ravenclaw's, that is one bad piece of playing coming from them," James said when he saw Remus in the common room, "Hey Lill's, we'll do great, should of heard the Ravenclaw's!" James added in seeing Lilly. Lilly giggled,
"Yeah, we will, I don't want to chance it though, I'm off to practice again!"
"Psycho, I swear she is. She knows were going to win," Sirius said wearily. There was a murmur of agreement,
"Who's for a little game of Quidditch?" James asked with a grin
"Well, what about revising?" Remus asked him,
"Mooney, Mooney, Money, you must get this straight, all work, no play," Sirius said clapping a hand on Remus's shoulder, "Makes you get poor marks, live a little, mate" Sirius said with a cheeky grin, "Dunno about him, but count me in!" Sirius said again, Peter agreed, and so did Remus, after thinking it over.
All four Marauders trouped out on the Quidditch pitch, brooms in hand, and reedy to play a good game of two on two Quidditch. At the end of the hour when they were all finished. James and Sirius had paired up and beat Remus and Peter, and seceded, and they were now all arguing about someone cheating. "Ach, not a bad match, you didn't get beat that much" James said wiping sweat from his forehead.
"You didn't get beaten by that much, Mr Potter, not beat, you should catch up on your grammar." Professor Midgeal said walking of the stands and on to the pitch,
"Sorry professor, didn't see you there" James replied
"Hmm, so I see. You four should have no problem winning tomorrow. Tell the rest that as well" Midgeal said to them, smiling widely. "Oh, and also, the procedure for tomorrow, is that you will play Slythrin first, then you, okay, well the winners of that match, will play Ravenclaw, then the two losers of those games, will play each other the next day, so you are only against two teams, Slythrin and Ravenclaw, 'cause your going to kick some Slythrin butt" Midgeal said again, grinning this time. The boys laughed at the attitude of their professor, and proceeded back to the dormitories.
"I have to get that one" Laura was saying when the boys entered the common room, Laura, Lilly and Lou were all sitting down on the sofa in the common room, which was virtually empty, reading some sort of magazine,
"What ya looking at?" Sirius asked looking over Laura's shoulder.
"Oh, nothing" Laura said, turning to look at Sirius with her eyes alight, and the twinkle noticeable in her bright blue brown eyes.
"Yeah, sure! Now hand it over," James said raising his wand and saying a few words that led to the magazine being torn out of Lilly, Lou and Laura's reaching grip and flying into James' hand.
"James!" Lilly, Lou and Laura all shouted,
"What?" James asked his trademark grin on his face, "Can't a guy be interested in what his girlfriend is hiding from him?" He added, opening the first page of the glossy magazine,
"What the hell?" Peter exclaimed as he saw the magazine, James felt the same way. The magazine was full of dresses. Each dress was posing for the camera, before moving around again, every now and again, a dress would giggle. "It's the magazine from the dress place in Hogsmeade!" Lilly snapped at the boys, before snatching it out of the boys grip. As Lou, Lilly and Laura excused themselves to their room, the boys all wondered what the hell they were looking at that for.
"Of course!" Remus suddenly said,
"What?" James asked, "Why were they looking at that?"
"The dance, the end of term thing that Lou and that were on about earlier on in the summer Holliday" Remus said. "Its on the last week of term..." Remus said, trailing off
"After the exams, and the Quidditch, and we get a day beforehand to go shopping, and do what we want. Yeah I remember now" Sirius said, "Laura was going on about it sometime last week"
"That means, we only have a week left of summer school, this time in two weeks time, we'll be in class, proper lessons!" Peter said in an unhappy tone.
"Yip" James said disappointment spread across his pale face, "Hey, I have an idea!" James suddenly said,
"Go on, Prongs" Sirius said,
"The girls, we wanna make the last night a good night, yeah?" James said,
"Yeah..." Remus, Peter and Sirius said slowly,
"Well, why don't we split from the dance, not early, but, well, yeah, maybe slightly early, and use the room of requirement as a, well, as a romantic, girly thing, for them, make it special for them, make it perfect for them," James suggested,
"You come up with the soppiest things, Prongs" Sirius said disapprovingly
"No, no Prong's has a point, I mean, think about it Padfoot, if we make the last night, well, second last night at this holiday, then, we'll never get rid of them, and I mean that in a good way, don't you think?" Remus said to the group,
"Well, I guess..." Sirius said, still not sounding optimistic about it,
"What do you mean second last night?" Peter suddenly asked,
"It's the second last night that the dance is on, not the last," Remus said,
"Oh, okay" Peter said, slowly.
"Yeah, yeah, seems like a good idea to me!" Sirius finally said, James smiled,
"Good good. See, I can come up with some good ideas! Now, if you do excuse me, I am going to bed, I have a Quidditch match to win tomorrow morning" James said stiffly,
"Yeah Prongs, we're really going to need to concentrate on that wont we, I mean Slythrin are going to be so hard to beat" Sirius said sarcastically,
"Haha, very funny Padfoot, mind me if I want to do well" James said before going up the stone stairs leading to his dormitory.
The date today was the eighteenth of August, that meant James and the rest of the Marauders had two days before there exams, not to mention a whole weeks worth of the 'bloody things' as Sirius so lightly put it. Then there would be the Hogsmeade trip the next day, and the dance that night, then back to school two days later. James decided that he was going to get all his books when he went to Hogsmeade, he has already cleared it with the girls that they weren't going to be together at the Hogsmeade trip. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were going to be staying away from the girls because they were buying there dresses, and they didn't want the guys to see them, "Its not like it's a flipping wedding gown" Sirius said spitefully when Laura told him. The expression on Sirius' face was incredible. Sirius had never, not got his way in his life. Right now, all four boys and three girls were getting their way in the game of Quidditch. Gryffindor were already up one hundred points to ten in the match against Slythrin. James was going to waiting till they got up one hundred and fifty points up on Slythrin, before he caught the snitch. James wanted to beat them one hundred and fifty points to ten, he had already restrained himself from catching the snitch. James played for the crowds though, and played Malfoy into the ground, literally. James kept diving into the ground, and showing his skills, turn out of the dive just in time to see Malfoy go straight into the mud. "I will kill you Potter, wait till I get you" Malfoy had said to him while he was still hovering just above him. There was a slight twinge in James stomach, something he had never felt when Malfoy made death threats at him, "That'll be the day Malfoy, that'll be the day," James said before swishing off upwards to the air. Although James thought Malfoy could do no harm, after all, James was ahead of him in every subject, but he still couldn't shake the strange feeling in his stomach that he first received when Malfoy said his threat. James managed to hold the feeling off as he waited till Slythrin were one hundred and fifty points behind, and James casually raced after the snitch, his black hair blowing as he flew into the wind, his hazel eyes were fixed on the snitch, soon his hand was as well. Soon he had the whole Gryffindor house and Professor Midgeal around him, clapping him on the back, and telling him that they had them going when he went to crash into the ground. The rest of the team were getting a lot off attention, and everyone was lapping it up. The Marauders and the girls all watched the match that was held later that day, Hufflepuff verses Ravenclaw, and Ravenclaw won fifty- thirty. That meant that Hufflepuff would be playing Slythrin tomorrow, and Gryffindor would be playing Ravenclaw. The team weren't really fussed, as they found Ravenclaw an easy opponent. Lilly, Laura and Lou, much to the boys dismay, spent the rest of the evening locked up in their dormitory's, doing exam revision.
"I never see her!" Remus said in a huffy voice,
"I know, stupid exams." Peter said, matching Remus tone. Remus sent him a glare and Peter hurriedly said, "I'm talking about Penny, not Lou, don't worry" Peter said matching Remus voice,
"Awww, poor ickle Moony and Wormtail, they don't get to see their girlfriends as much as they want! Awww" Sirius said in mock concern, Remus and Peter just glared at them. The boys figured, that without the girls, they should revise, as they couldn't go out to cause havoc, as none of them 'could be bothered'
"What's a Hippogriff?" Peter quizzed the boys, the remaining boys turned to stare at him,
"Wormtail, at least ask decent questions!" Sirius snapped at Peter, who went red, and mumbled a 'sorry.' After twenty minuets of questions, all of which they knew the answer to, they decided to get some food, "To the kitchens!" James exclaimed, hurrying to get the Marauders map. Remus still looked slightly shifty about the whole idea, and complained about getting caught slightly, but he was soon silenced when the house elves were treating him with extremely superiority. All the boys went to bed, stuffed and tiered and looking for a good game of Quidditch tomorrow. Remus asked James nicely the next morning if there was a chance that he could make the game quick, since he wanted to revise a bit for the exam that would start the next morning. James half-heartedly agreed, and the game was over in twenty minuets, Gryffindor winning one hundred and ninety to twenty. All the boys admitted that Ravenclaw gave them a good match, "If they had a quicker seeker, they might have won," Laura was saying.
"Ah, but they don't, do they, we have the best seeker in the world" Sirius said, making James blush as Sirius mucked up his hair. Lilly agreed that James was the best seeker, and went on about how she was so lucky to have him, making James blush even more. As the night grew later, slowly people in the inhabitants of the common room grew smaller and smaller. Lou and Laura decided to go and revise a bit more, "Just for luck" as Laura called it. Remus, Peter and Sirius decided that it would probably be best if they did a little bit of revision as well. James was going to go revise. Only he didn't want to leave Lilly. James and Lilly chatted about everything, they both admitted that they didn't want to go back to school, school. James then had a sudden urge to tell Lilly about what happened with Malfoy, he launched into the whole story, and ended it "...I don't know why I care, he cant do anything." Lilly looked at him sceptically,
"Your probably not as wrong as you think, I mean Lou said it herself, Voldermort is recruiting tons and tons of new people, maybe Malfoy is one of them, and maybe he thinks you already know that." Lilly said, with a worried look on her face. The look instantly disappeared as she looked at James. "Don't worry, your right in saying that he can't do anything to you, anyways, even if he could, your under Dumbledore's watch, and mine. I'm never going to let anything happen to you, ever..." Lilly trailed off, before bringing James' face to hers and kissing him sweetly. James and Lilly spent a lot of the night cuddled up in a tight embrace, hardly saying a word, watching the embers of the fire slowly go out. When the common room was completely dark, and James looked at his watch that said two eighteen, he slowly shook Lilly awake for she had fallen asleep on him. "C'mon Lill's, we've got to get you to bed" James said, shaking her again, she opened her eyes, and in James opinion, and surely many others, she looked so beautiful, asleep on him, her eyes closed, she looked so peaceful, you would have never thought this was the girl James had been annoying since second year. "Its funny what can happen in a few years" James said to a half-awake Lilly,
"Why?" She asked him, her eyes still closed.
"Because five years ago, I never knew the girl of my dreams, did I?" James said to her kissing her softly,
"I guess not, funny to see where we'll be in five years time" Lilly said still sleepily, she had opened her eyes by this time, "I didn't mean like us, like married or anything, I just meant, well you know, you, and me, not necessarily together" Lilly said in a rush, going beet red,
"I dunno, I wouldn't mind that, wouldn't mind it at all..." James said, "Now c'mon, have to get you to bed, I can't carry you up the stairs, without killing you" James said, referring to the stairs that turned to a slope when a male stepped on them. Lilly went rather reluctantly to the girls dormitories, not before she gave James a lingering kiss. James slept that night, with his head full of Lilly, he wondered what it would be like when he got back to lessons, would they still be together, what about in a few years time, all James could tell himself is that he wanted to be with her till he died...That was his last thought before drifting off to an easy slumber.
[I] Who invented Cheering charms? [/I] James read to himself, he was sitting in his charms exam, reading over the paper, he had an hour and a half to do a paper in which he could do in about half an hour. The main part of the charms exam was about cheering charms, when they were invented, what mistakes could go wrong with them and some famous incidents that included them. These were all some of the questions involved in the paper. After the one and half hour exam, everyone had to wait there turn to practice a cheering charm on someone else. James and Sirius went into the room together and each one did a perfect cheering charm on each other. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for poor Peter, who overdid it and made Remus into a giddy fool, he was so 'cheerful' he couldn't stand still, luckily, Remus preformed his charm on Peter first, and he got an 'excellent' from the examiner, although he had to be contained to a room for the rest of the exam time. "I mean its great. I've never been so happy. I love you for this Peter. Ah, isn't this just the best?" Remus was saying, still extremely happy at ten o'clock that night. Although Remus may have been saying that he loved Peter, James, Sirius, Lilly, Laura and especially Lou were less than pleased with Peter. So upset with him, that Peter went to bed, feeling slightly left out, and sick of glares from Sirius and James. Sirius and James followed suit a bit later, after feeling guilty about shutting Peter out, "After all, its not his fault, its not like he meant it, I'm sure it was just nerves earlier on" Sirius had said. Remus stayed up, being to, 'happy to sleep.' Lou stayed with him, after Laura and Lilly decided to go to bed since Remus laugh was annoying them. The Potions exam was on the next day, no mistakes were made it that, they had to make a simple sleeping potion, and test it on the school owls. Lilly highly objected to this, saying it was cruelty to animals, however, her objection made no difference at all. The defence against the dark arts exam was the next day, and they all had to get past a set of Red Caps and be leaded into where a Boggart was. Peter had problems with the Boggart part of the exam, he couldn't stop it, and ran out screaming, he didn't tell any of the other Marauders what he saw, although they were curious. History of Magic was the most boring exam, it was asking all about famous wizards, and held no pattern, nothing on the Goblins like James had studied for, although James still thought he did okay. This was the only exam Remus thought he did less than average in, he said he didn't understand what James Gryffis did, James looked shocked, "c'mon Mooney, they guy has my name, kinnda, well, my first name, you should know that!" James told him half jokingly.
"So what was it then?" Remus asked James, thinking he didn't actually know the answer
"He was the founder of the 'Disposal Of Dangerous Creatures'" James said smartly
"Ah, so he was! How could I forget that?" Remus said bitterly,
"Ach, don't be like that mate, its just one mark off, there's another forty-nine that you gained" Sirius said clapping him on the shoulder. The last two exams they had were on a Saturday and Sunday, Transfiguration was on Saturday, and whatever you choose out of Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes or Muggle Studies. James was out before lunch. James had taken Arithmancy along with Sirius and Remus. Peter on the other hand took Ancient Runes. So James went to find the girls, to celebrate the last exam they had just finished, only to find out that Lilly had chosen to take Ancient Runes and Divination, Lou had taken Arithmancy and Divination and Laura had taken Muggle Studies and Divination, meaning they all had a full day, each with two exams, meaning James couldn't see them until dinner time.
"Now. The match is on Saturday, is everyone ready?" Professor Midgeal was asking the class, there was a murmur of
"Yes" going round the class,
"Good. Now of you go".
Back in the common room that night, the Marauders and the girls were all practicing their lines for the play they were doing, it was an original one, so if push came to shove, and they forgot their lines, they could make them up. Well, that was what Lou kept telling them. Though her plan backfired when Sirius said there was no point in practising them. James had hit the jackpot with his part in the play, because when they were choosing what they would be doing, he had practically begged Professor Drummond to let him have one scene where he kissed Lilly, so Professor Drummond granted him his wish. Sirius was less than happy at his role though, as he was to be playing an enemy of Laura's, he kept telling both Laura and Drummond that it was impossible to be mad at Laura. Lou had the main role; Lilly had the next lead, as well as Laura. Remus and Peter didn't have a role that contained them being either enemies or lovers with their girlfriends. The play was the next day, and it was a competition between the houses, of whom could do the best play. James wasn't in the slightest bit nervous, in his opinion he couldn't care less. Lou, Laura and Lilly though did care; they all wanted to beat Slythrin, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw so much that they didn't stop saying their lines, giving the Marauders a constant headache. Not being selfish, but James only cared about him winning the Quidditch, and when Lilly wasn't trying to persuade him to practice his lines, he was reading up on tactics and moves. James fell asleep quite late, waking up to Lilly's voice; "Now this is what I could get used to," James said pulling her on to the bed.
"James, as much as I would love to stay here with you, but we can't, we have to get ready for the play, its in two hours" Lilly said, pouting.
"Two hours? That's ages" James commented
"Come on James, please" Lilly whined again, flashing him a set of puppy dog eyes and a beautiful smile.
"That Veela really shows up on you there" James said
"James, get up" Lilly said, but she was laughing slightly
"Hey. One more thing" James said, Lilly paused at the door, "Does that mean if we didn't have to get ready for the play you would stay in bed with me?" James asked innocently. Lilly only rolled her eyes,
"Get up James" She said again,
"I'll take that as a yes then" James called out to her, she didn't reply that time. James got changed, had his breakfast, and then went, once again, to revise his lines again with Lilly. "Come on Lilly, we haven't got the kissing scene right yet" James said flashing her a grin, gripping her round the waste and kissing her.
"James, we cant, no offence meant to you. But you don't know your lines, and I'm pretty aware that you know how to kiss" Lilly said after their kiss. James flashed her another grin, and gave in,
"Okay, okay, we'll practice" James said. Lilly smiled brightly,
"You're the best James," She said kissing him,
"I've been telling you that for ages" James told her quietly. Lilly rolled her eyes and started saying here lines. Professor Drummond fetched them about half an hour later. When Lilly, Lou and Laura were all together, they were all panicking, loudly about messing up their lines. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, who all herd them, couldn't understand what was so important about it anyway. "Now, Quidditch. That I can understand" Sirius said away from the girls, the boys all agreed,
"Maybe even Music, because if you do a wrong note, people are going to hear you" Peter added, there was yet again, a murmur of agreement from the boys,
"Yeah, but like Lou said, no one apart from Drummond and the cast, are going to notice if we go wrong, because its an original" Remus said, yet again, they all agreed.
"Ten seconds till curtain" Professor Drummond called from behind them, they all got in their places,
"Five seconds" Drummond said again, the girls stopped muttering,
"Three, two, one" He said again, as the curtain rose. James didn't have any lines in the first scene, he just casually observed on the set. 'Looking good', was what he called it. James kept squinting when he looked out at the audience, he couldn't see a thing, because the stage was too lit up for him to see out properly. An hour and a half later, James came off the stage with Lilly, who looked extremely relieved that the play was now over, "We have to change, then go see who won" Lilly said,
"That's obvious, us" Lou said with confidence,
"Yeah, I mean, Slythrin did Romeo and Juliet, we so saw that one coming, everyone always does that play. Hufflepuff did a crap Cabaret, I mean, have you ever seen such bad dancing. Okay, so Ravenclaw's was a bit like ours, in the way it was original, but it was about a lousy farmer, and there were what, three main parts, and about twenty small, and I mean, small parts" Laura said, Sirius chuckled,
"Yeah, Laura's right, we brought down the house" Sirius said kissing Laura. Lilly was now convinced that they had won, thanks to Laura. They all took their places in the audience (the house tables) and waited for Dumbledore's announcement on who had won.
"Fourth place, but still a wonderful re-incarnation, of Romeo and Juliet, is Slythrin" Dumbledore announced.
"See" James herd Laura say up the table, James grinned, [I] Maybe she is right [/I] James thought.
"In third place, thought it was a wonderful, and original piece, Ravenclaw" Dumbledore said,
"I thought that was us then" James herd Lilly say,
"Now, in second place, Hufflepuff" Dumbledore said. James grinned, but before he could say anything, Laura was shouting out to the Gryffindor's, who had all stood up,
"I told you, haha, we beat you, haha," Laura shouted to the other hall, and all the houses looked extremely annoyed that they had lost. Sirius was grappling at Laura, trying to pull her down from her chair, as all the other houses had stood up and looked like they were going to pounce on her and kill her. When Sirius had managed to restrain Laura, Dumbledore made an announcement,
"Yes, yes. Well-done Gryffindor. Your performance, was suburb, I enjoyed every minuet of it" The Gryffindor's all went up with Professor Drummond (who was sitting at the Gryffindor table) and got their trophy's. There was one big one, to be stored in the Trophy room, and thirty-seven smaller trophies, given out to each of the Gryffindor pupils. When everyone was back at the common room, and the commotion had died down, James was trying to get Lilly to spend time with him, but she was refusing, on the grounds that she now had to practice her instrument for tomorrow's recital. James left her and went to study with Sirius, who was only studying because of Laura. Remus and Peter were also, both practicing their instruments.
"What's the main ingredient in a Pollyjuice potion?" Sirius asked as James sat down next to him,
"You know that" James said
"Yeah I know, I'm testing you" Sirius replied,
"Oh, okay. Bomslang skin" James answered, "Who lead the first goblin rebellion, and in what year?" James now asked Sirius,
"Gwalda Huglimp, in 1247" Sirius told him,
"Yip" James said, the rest of the night consisted of everyone apart from James and Sirius playing their instruments, and James and Sirius revising. The musical show was to be at one o'clock, leaving everyone time to get ready, or in James's case, get up. Coming back from breakfast, he noticed that not everyone was as in tune as they should be, especially not the Ravenclaw's. [I] Finally, something they're crap at [/I] James thought to himself as he went by a Ravenclaw sixth year, trying to play the trumpet.
"You should see the Ravenclaw's, that is one bad piece of playing coming from them," James said when he saw Remus in the common room, "Hey Lill's, we'll do great, should of heard the Ravenclaw's!" James added in seeing Lilly. Lilly giggled,
"Yeah, we will, I don't want to chance it though, I'm off to practice again!"
"Psycho, I swear she is. She knows were going to win," Sirius said wearily. There was a murmur of agreement,
"Who's for a little game of Quidditch?" James asked with a grin
"Well, what about revising?" Remus asked him,
"Mooney, Mooney, Money, you must get this straight, all work, no play," Sirius said clapping a hand on Remus's shoulder, "Makes you get poor marks, live a little, mate" Sirius said with a cheeky grin, "Dunno about him, but count me in!" Sirius said again, Peter agreed, and so did Remus, after thinking it over.
All four Marauders trouped out on the Quidditch pitch, brooms in hand, and reedy to play a good game of two on two Quidditch. At the end of the hour when they were all finished. James and Sirius had paired up and beat Remus and Peter, and seceded, and they were now all arguing about someone cheating. "Ach, not a bad match, you didn't get beat that much" James said wiping sweat from his forehead.
"You didn't get beaten by that much, Mr Potter, not beat, you should catch up on your grammar." Professor Midgeal said walking of the stands and on to the pitch,
"Sorry professor, didn't see you there" James replied
"Hmm, so I see. You four should have no problem winning tomorrow. Tell the rest that as well" Midgeal said to them, smiling widely. "Oh, and also, the procedure for tomorrow, is that you will play Slythrin first, then you, okay, well the winners of that match, will play Ravenclaw, then the two losers of those games, will play each other the next day, so you are only against two teams, Slythrin and Ravenclaw, 'cause your going to kick some Slythrin butt" Midgeal said again, grinning this time. The boys laughed at the attitude of their professor, and proceeded back to the dormitories.
"I have to get that one" Laura was saying when the boys entered the common room, Laura, Lilly and Lou were all sitting down on the sofa in the common room, which was virtually empty, reading some sort of magazine,
"What ya looking at?" Sirius asked looking over Laura's shoulder.
"Oh, nothing" Laura said, turning to look at Sirius with her eyes alight, and the twinkle noticeable in her bright blue brown eyes.
"Yeah, sure! Now hand it over," James said raising his wand and saying a few words that led to the magazine being torn out of Lilly, Lou and Laura's reaching grip and flying into James' hand.
"James!" Lilly, Lou and Laura all shouted,
"What?" James asked his trademark grin on his face, "Can't a guy be interested in what his girlfriend is hiding from him?" He added, opening the first page of the glossy magazine,
"What the hell?" Peter exclaimed as he saw the magazine, James felt the same way. The magazine was full of dresses. Each dress was posing for the camera, before moving around again, every now and again, a dress would giggle. "It's the magazine from the dress place in Hogsmeade!" Lilly snapped at the boys, before snatching it out of the boys grip. As Lou, Lilly and Laura excused themselves to their room, the boys all wondered what the hell they were looking at that for.
"Of course!" Remus suddenly said,
"What?" James asked, "Why were they looking at that?"
"The dance, the end of term thing that Lou and that were on about earlier on in the summer Holliday" Remus said. "Its on the last week of term..." Remus said, trailing off
"After the exams, and the Quidditch, and we get a day beforehand to go shopping, and do what we want. Yeah I remember now" Sirius said, "Laura was going on about it sometime last week"
"That means, we only have a week left of summer school, this time in two weeks time, we'll be in class, proper lessons!" Peter said in an unhappy tone.
"Yip" James said disappointment spread across his pale face, "Hey, I have an idea!" James suddenly said,
"Go on, Prongs" Sirius said,
"The girls, we wanna make the last night a good night, yeah?" James said,
"Yeah..." Remus, Peter and Sirius said slowly,
"Well, why don't we split from the dance, not early, but, well, yeah, maybe slightly early, and use the room of requirement as a, well, as a romantic, girly thing, for them, make it special for them, make it perfect for them," James suggested,
"You come up with the soppiest things, Prongs" Sirius said disapprovingly
"No, no Prong's has a point, I mean, think about it Padfoot, if we make the last night, well, second last night at this holiday, then, we'll never get rid of them, and I mean that in a good way, don't you think?" Remus said to the group,
"Well, I guess..." Sirius said, still not sounding optimistic about it,
"What do you mean second last night?" Peter suddenly asked,
"It's the second last night that the dance is on, not the last," Remus said,
"Oh, okay" Peter said, slowly.
"Yeah, yeah, seems like a good idea to me!" Sirius finally said, James smiled,
"Good good. See, I can come up with some good ideas! Now, if you do excuse me, I am going to bed, I have a Quidditch match to win tomorrow morning" James said stiffly,
"Yeah Prongs, we're really going to need to concentrate on that wont we, I mean Slythrin are going to be so hard to beat" Sirius said sarcastically,
"Haha, very funny Padfoot, mind me if I want to do well" James said before going up the stone stairs leading to his dormitory.
The date today was the eighteenth of August, that meant James and the rest of the Marauders had two days before there exams, not to mention a whole weeks worth of the 'bloody things' as Sirius so lightly put it. Then there would be the Hogsmeade trip the next day, and the dance that night, then back to school two days later. James decided that he was going to get all his books when he went to Hogsmeade, he has already cleared it with the girls that they weren't going to be together at the Hogsmeade trip. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were going to be staying away from the girls because they were buying there dresses, and they didn't want the guys to see them, "Its not like it's a flipping wedding gown" Sirius said spitefully when Laura told him. The expression on Sirius' face was incredible. Sirius had never, not got his way in his life. Right now, all four boys and three girls were getting their way in the game of Quidditch. Gryffindor were already up one hundred points to ten in the match against Slythrin. James was going to waiting till they got up one hundred and fifty points up on Slythrin, before he caught the snitch. James wanted to beat them one hundred and fifty points to ten, he had already restrained himself from catching the snitch. James played for the crowds though, and played Malfoy into the ground, literally. James kept diving into the ground, and showing his skills, turn out of the dive just in time to see Malfoy go straight into the mud. "I will kill you Potter, wait till I get you" Malfoy had said to him while he was still hovering just above him. There was a slight twinge in James stomach, something he had never felt when Malfoy made death threats at him, "That'll be the day Malfoy, that'll be the day," James said before swishing off upwards to the air. Although James thought Malfoy could do no harm, after all, James was ahead of him in every subject, but he still couldn't shake the strange feeling in his stomach that he first received when Malfoy said his threat. James managed to hold the feeling off as he waited till Slythrin were one hundred and fifty points behind, and James casually raced after the snitch, his black hair blowing as he flew into the wind, his hazel eyes were fixed on the snitch, soon his hand was as well. Soon he had the whole Gryffindor house and Professor Midgeal around him, clapping him on the back, and telling him that they had them going when he went to crash into the ground. The rest of the team were getting a lot off attention, and everyone was lapping it up. The Marauders and the girls all watched the match that was held later that day, Hufflepuff verses Ravenclaw, and Ravenclaw won fifty- thirty. That meant that Hufflepuff would be playing Slythrin tomorrow, and Gryffindor would be playing Ravenclaw. The team weren't really fussed, as they found Ravenclaw an easy opponent. Lilly, Laura and Lou, much to the boys dismay, spent the rest of the evening locked up in their dormitory's, doing exam revision.
"I never see her!" Remus said in a huffy voice,
"I know, stupid exams." Peter said, matching Remus tone. Remus sent him a glare and Peter hurriedly said, "I'm talking about Penny, not Lou, don't worry" Peter said matching Remus voice,
"Awww, poor ickle Moony and Wormtail, they don't get to see their girlfriends as much as they want! Awww" Sirius said in mock concern, Remus and Peter just glared at them. The boys figured, that without the girls, they should revise, as they couldn't go out to cause havoc, as none of them 'could be bothered'
"What's a Hippogriff?" Peter quizzed the boys, the remaining boys turned to stare at him,
"Wormtail, at least ask decent questions!" Sirius snapped at Peter, who went red, and mumbled a 'sorry.' After twenty minuets of questions, all of which they knew the answer to, they decided to get some food, "To the kitchens!" James exclaimed, hurrying to get the Marauders map. Remus still looked slightly shifty about the whole idea, and complained about getting caught slightly, but he was soon silenced when the house elves were treating him with extremely superiority. All the boys went to bed, stuffed and tiered and looking for a good game of Quidditch tomorrow. Remus asked James nicely the next morning if there was a chance that he could make the game quick, since he wanted to revise a bit for the exam that would start the next morning. James half-heartedly agreed, and the game was over in twenty minuets, Gryffindor winning one hundred and ninety to twenty. All the boys admitted that Ravenclaw gave them a good match, "If they had a quicker seeker, they might have won," Laura was saying.
"Ah, but they don't, do they, we have the best seeker in the world" Sirius said, making James blush as Sirius mucked up his hair. Lilly agreed that James was the best seeker, and went on about how she was so lucky to have him, making James blush even more. As the night grew later, slowly people in the inhabitants of the common room grew smaller and smaller. Lou and Laura decided to go and revise a bit more, "Just for luck" as Laura called it. Remus, Peter and Sirius decided that it would probably be best if they did a little bit of revision as well. James was going to go revise. Only he didn't want to leave Lilly. James and Lilly chatted about everything, they both admitted that they didn't want to go back to school, school. James then had a sudden urge to tell Lilly about what happened with Malfoy, he launched into the whole story, and ended it "...I don't know why I care, he cant do anything." Lilly looked at him sceptically,
"Your probably not as wrong as you think, I mean Lou said it herself, Voldermort is recruiting tons and tons of new people, maybe Malfoy is one of them, and maybe he thinks you already know that." Lilly said, with a worried look on her face. The look instantly disappeared as she looked at James. "Don't worry, your right in saying that he can't do anything to you, anyways, even if he could, your under Dumbledore's watch, and mine. I'm never going to let anything happen to you, ever..." Lilly trailed off, before bringing James' face to hers and kissing him sweetly. James and Lilly spent a lot of the night cuddled up in a tight embrace, hardly saying a word, watching the embers of the fire slowly go out. When the common room was completely dark, and James looked at his watch that said two eighteen, he slowly shook Lilly awake for she had fallen asleep on him. "C'mon Lill's, we've got to get you to bed" James said, shaking her again, she opened her eyes, and in James opinion, and surely many others, she looked so beautiful, asleep on him, her eyes closed, she looked so peaceful, you would have never thought this was the girl James had been annoying since second year. "Its funny what can happen in a few years" James said to a half-awake Lilly,
"Why?" She asked him, her eyes still closed.
"Because five years ago, I never knew the girl of my dreams, did I?" James said to her kissing her softly,
"I guess not, funny to see where we'll be in five years time" Lilly said still sleepily, she had opened her eyes by this time, "I didn't mean like us, like married or anything, I just meant, well you know, you, and me, not necessarily together" Lilly said in a rush, going beet red,
"I dunno, I wouldn't mind that, wouldn't mind it at all..." James said, "Now c'mon, have to get you to bed, I can't carry you up the stairs, without killing you" James said, referring to the stairs that turned to a slope when a male stepped on them. Lilly went rather reluctantly to the girls dormitories, not before she gave James a lingering kiss. James slept that night, with his head full of Lilly, he wondered what it would be like when he got back to lessons, would they still be together, what about in a few years time, all James could tell himself is that he wanted to be with her till he died...That was his last thought before drifting off to an easy slumber.
[I] Who invented Cheering charms? [/I] James read to himself, he was sitting in his charms exam, reading over the paper, he had an hour and a half to do a paper in which he could do in about half an hour. The main part of the charms exam was about cheering charms, when they were invented, what mistakes could go wrong with them and some famous incidents that included them. These were all some of the questions involved in the paper. After the one and half hour exam, everyone had to wait there turn to practice a cheering charm on someone else. James and Sirius went into the room together and each one did a perfect cheering charm on each other. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for poor Peter, who overdid it and made Remus into a giddy fool, he was so 'cheerful' he couldn't stand still, luckily, Remus preformed his charm on Peter first, and he got an 'excellent' from the examiner, although he had to be contained to a room for the rest of the exam time. "I mean its great. I've never been so happy. I love you for this Peter. Ah, isn't this just the best?" Remus was saying, still extremely happy at ten o'clock that night. Although Remus may have been saying that he loved Peter, James, Sirius, Lilly, Laura and especially Lou were less than pleased with Peter. So upset with him, that Peter went to bed, feeling slightly left out, and sick of glares from Sirius and James. Sirius and James followed suit a bit later, after feeling guilty about shutting Peter out, "After all, its not his fault, its not like he meant it, I'm sure it was just nerves earlier on" Sirius had said. Remus stayed up, being to, 'happy to sleep.' Lou stayed with him, after Laura and Lilly decided to go to bed since Remus laugh was annoying them. The Potions exam was on the next day, no mistakes were made it that, they had to make a simple sleeping potion, and test it on the school owls. Lilly highly objected to this, saying it was cruelty to animals, however, her objection made no difference at all. The defence against the dark arts exam was the next day, and they all had to get past a set of Red Caps and be leaded into where a Boggart was. Peter had problems with the Boggart part of the exam, he couldn't stop it, and ran out screaming, he didn't tell any of the other Marauders what he saw, although they were curious. History of Magic was the most boring exam, it was asking all about famous wizards, and held no pattern, nothing on the Goblins like James had studied for, although James still thought he did okay. This was the only exam Remus thought he did less than average in, he said he didn't understand what James Gryffis did, James looked shocked, "c'mon Mooney, they guy has my name, kinnda, well, my first name, you should know that!" James told him half jokingly.
"So what was it then?" Remus asked James, thinking he didn't actually know the answer
"He was the founder of the 'Disposal Of Dangerous Creatures'" James said smartly
"Ah, so he was! How could I forget that?" Remus said bitterly,
"Ach, don't be like that mate, its just one mark off, there's another forty-nine that you gained" Sirius said clapping him on the shoulder. The last two exams they had were on a Saturday and Sunday, Transfiguration was on Saturday, and whatever you choose out of Divination, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes or Muggle Studies. James was out before lunch. James had taken Arithmancy along with Sirius and Remus. Peter on the other hand took Ancient Runes. So James went to find the girls, to celebrate the last exam they had just finished, only to find out that Lilly had chosen to take Ancient Runes and Divination, Lou had taken Arithmancy and Divination and Laura had taken Muggle Studies and Divination, meaning they all had a full day, each with two exams, meaning James couldn't see them until dinner time.