It's A Marauder's Thing
Disclaimer: You know the deal. I don't own anything in this. What more do you want?
Lyrics from Britney Spear's "Everytime". I know it doesn't come out for another twenty something years from when they're in school. Oh well, I made it work.
Also, thanks to Ninde Annare for your review!
Chapter Three: Bloody hell!
As the horseless carriages pulled to a sudden halt outside of Hogwarts, second years and above clambered out noisily, walking into the warm and inviting castle. Almost everyone was glad to be back, except fifth and seventh years of course. They would be taking their ever-so-important exams this year. Sixth years, having completed their O.W.L.s the previous year, were comparing their scores with other sixth years at their respective tables.
"So, Evans, what'd you get on your O.W.L.'s?" James asked, stuffing potatoes into his mouth.
Lily cast a look of disgust his way before saying slowly, "Well, I got Outstanding on Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, and Herbology. Then I got Exceeds Expectations on Potions, Care of Magical Creatures, and Astronomy."
James nodded his head, while continuing to shovel his food into his mouth.
"What about you, Potter?" Lily asked, careful not to look at him while he was eating.
"Well -" James started, but was interrupted by Lily.
"Potter, once you're done with that mouthful, okay?"
James shook his head, swallowing his food, before beginning again. "Well, I got Outstanding on Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Potions. Exceeds Expectations on Charms and Acceptable on Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy."
Everyone shared their O.W.L.'s results, with Peter being at the low end, unsurprisingly. Once all the food and desserts disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up and dismissed everyone to their common rooms. However, James was held back by Professor McGonagall. As Lily, Devon, and Marissa climbed into their four-poster beds, Adeleine O'Connor and Ashley Murray walked into the room.
"Hey Lil!" Adeleine said, walking over to her and giving her a hug. Ashley followed suit before changing into her pajamas.
Adeleine and Ashley were also Lily's best friends. They had been close friends ever since their first year. Adeleine was a muggleborn, just like Lily, so they immediately clicked on the train. Ashley was half-blood, her dad being a wizard and her mother being a muggle. Devon and Marissa were both born into very prominent pure-blood families. However, just like Sirius, Marissa was an outcast in her family. Marissa was a Malfoy, Lucius' younger sister. But she was nothing like the Malfoy's.
"So, how was your summer?" Ashley asked.
"Mine was horrible, as usual, until I stayed at Devon's," Marissa said, putting her hair up in a ponytail. Everyone looked at her sympathetically. "Oh stop it!" she said smiling, noticing their faces, "Tell me about yours!"
"I went to Paris over the summer," Adeleine said, blushing.
"Too bad you didn't have 'ole Remus there with you, eh?" Devon teased, making Adeleine throw a pillow at her, blushing even more.
"Oh shut up!" she said, "He doesn't like me like that anyway!"
"Who are you kidding, Addy?" Marissa piped in. "Don't you notice how shy he gets around you?"
Addy just sat there, ignoring Marissa, looking expectantly at Ashley. Noticing this, Ashley spoke up.
"Well, since we went on a magical trip last summer, it was my mom's turn to have her kind of trip. So we went to New York City."
All the girls squealed wanting to know more.
"America isn't all that bad. But they talk so weird!" Ashley said, laughing.
Lily and Devon both told everyone about their summer, before turning in for the night.
Lily voiced what everyone was thinking, "It's great to be back!" The next morning, everyone was woken up by Marissa's horrible singing in the shower.
"At night I pray, that soon your face will fade away ... And every time I try to fly I fall without my wings, I feel so small, I guess I need you baby!"
Lily groaned, plunging her head underneath her pillow, attempting to block out the noise.
"It doesn't sound too far away from the original," Devon mumbled before turning over in her bed.
"Who's next?" Marissa sang, coming out of the bathroom.
"I'll go next if I don't have to listen to you sing," Devon said groggily, climbing out of bed.
Marissa looked at her in mock hurt, as she towel-dried her hair. After about an hour and a half, the five Gryffindors were walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast. They walked in to see James talking excitedly to the Marauder's in a loud voice.
"Can you believe it? That's bloody brilliant!" James said, grinning widely.
"What's so 'bloody brilliant' little brother?" Devon said, helping herself to some bacon.
"Professor McGonagall informed me yesterday after the feast that I am the new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain!" James said, looking expectantly to see what Devon's reaction would be.
"Bloody hell! Does McGonagall want to torture us this year?" she said, slamming her fork down.
James smiled as he continued to eat his breakfast.
"So, Mar, how was your family this summer?" Sirius asked, looking thoughtfully down the table at Marissa.
She looked darkly at him before answering.
"Well, in one word: terrible," she said, picking at her food.
"Yeah, same here," he said, turning back to his food. Sirius and Marissa always had a certain understanding of each other's problems - - both being outcasts in their families for being sorted into Gryffindor. Their mentality on life completely changed once they were sorted into Gryffindor. Both the Malfoy's and the Black's hated anything to do with muggles. Once the Malfoy's found out that their darling child Marissa was sorted into the 'mudblood-loving Gryffindor house', they turned their back on her - - just like Sirius' family.
Soon, Professor McGonagall was coming towards them with new schedules, everyone groaned when they saw this.
"Sixth year schedules," she said crisply, handing each to their respective owner.
"Bloody hell, double potions with the Slytherins, first thing!" Devon exclaimed loudly, earning her a reproving look from Professor McGonagall.
"Same," everyone chorused, with the exception of Peter.
"I have Herbology first," he said gloomily. Peter had gotten an Acceptable on his Potion's O.W.L. Professor Davis wanted no less than an Exceeds Expectation in order to be in his N.E.W.T. Potion's class.
As everyone looked over their schedules, the bell rang, signaling the start of their first class. The Gryffindor sixth years head down to the dungeons immediately, not wanting to be late. However, on the way, they were stopped by some Slytherin 7th years. Among them was Lucius, Marissa's older brother, and to Sirius' disgust, his brother, Regulus. Peter squeaked from behind Sirius and James.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he said sardonically, scanning the group.
"Oh shove off, Malfoy!" James said, attempting to pass him.
"Manners, Potter! I'm Head Boy if you haven't noticed!" he said, smirking at him.
"Yeah, well, no one ever said Dumbledore made the best decisions all the time," James snapped, glaring at him.
Lucius narrowed his eyes at James. "Ten points from Gryffindor, Potter, for you foul mouth!"
The Gryffindors stared at him in outrage. Marissa stepped forward, "Get out of the way, Lucius!"
"Well, if it isn't my little sister?" he said smartly, "You know, mother and father aren't really pleased with you leaving the house unannounced two weeks ago."
Marissa scoffed at him, "Like they would care what happened to me! The only reason they aren't happy with me leaving is because they didn't have a choice in the matter, now did they? As far as I'm concerned, they have no power over me anymore." With that, Marissa beckoned everyone to follow her around the group of Slytherins towards the dungeons. Lucius stood there glaring daggers at the Gryffindors, daring them to smart off to him again.
"You're late! Sit down!" snapped the potions master, Professor Davis, as the Gryffindors came in.
Lily, Devon, Ashley, Marissa, and Addy sat in front of the Marauder's, two rows from the back.
"As I was saying," Professor Davis said, casting a quick glance at the late Gryffindors, "as you all know, in your seventh year, you will be taking your N.E.W.T.'s. I have two years to get you all prepared for these tests. Judging by the results of your tests, I have no doubt that this whole class will get less than an Exceeds Expectations on their N.E.W.T. test next year. Now, today's assignment will be to copy the notes about the Polyjuice Potion off of the board. This is NOT the time for messing around." Professor Davis flicked his wand and the notes showed up on the board. "Get started!"
Two hours and many hand cramps later, Lily and her friends made their way to lunch before heading to double Herbology.
"Bloody hell! What was he playing at? Giving us hand cramps like that!" Devon fumed, rubbing her hand feverishly.
Lily and Marissa nodded in agreement, sitting down to eat a quick lunch. The girls were soon joined by the Marauder's.
"Hey guys!" Devon said, looking up. James, Sirius, and Remus sat down exhaustedly each reaching for the nearest plate of food.
Addy looked up from her plate of food and stole a quick glance at Remus before looking back at her plate. Sirius noticed this, and coughed slightly into his food.
Remus glanced at him, "What?"
Sirius smiled, "nothing Moony."
"Moony?" Addy asked, curiously.
Remus silently kicked Sirius under the table.
"What? Oh, it's nothing, just some nicknames we came up with for each other," Sirius said, not quite meeting her eye.
Addy looked curiously at Remus. He smiled at her before returning to his plate. Addy blushed crimson before turning to Lily and initiating a conversation about the long essay Professor Davis assigned them that morning.
They all got up from the table to head over to the greenhouses for their N.E.W.T.'s Herbology class. Lily was talking excitedly to Devon about it.
"This is one of the most important classes I need in order to be a healer. Of course every class I'm taking this year is really important, but this class is one of the main courses they are looking at!" she said, almost bursting at the seams. Devon rolled her eyes as they walked across the lawn.
"So are you still planning on being an Auror?" Lily asked her.
"Of course! Everything else seems so boring," Devon commented. Noticing the affronted look Lily had plastered on her face, she quickly backtracked. "I meant that none of them would fit my interests. You would be a great healer; you have the patience and skill for that."
Behind her, Sirius, James, and Remus were snickering at her.
Quick to change the subject, Marissa joined in and initiated the popular topic of Quidditch.
"So, what do you think are Gryffindor's chances of winning the Quidditch cup again this year?" Marissa said. Marissa had been the seeker on the team since third year.
James immediately dove into the conversation. "Well, I have to hold try- outs within the next week for another chaser, beater, and keeper. It's going to be hard matching the team we had last year. We were unbeatable."
"Yeah. But I don't think anyone could match Lindsay Cooper as Keeper!" Sirius said, disappointedly.
"We'll see," James said, shaking his head. The 6th years trudged their way back up the lawn to the castle for a bit of free time before their next class. They all plopped down underneath the tree by the lake. They were laughing so hard about their Herbology lesson that they didn't notice what was going on by the lake.
"Come on, Snape, do it!" yelled a boy.
"Yeah!" a group yelled.
"What the -?" Lily said, standing up to look.
A huge group was standing around the greasy-haired 6th year, egging him on to do something.
"Come on, Snape! Three galleons!" yelled the same boy.
Lily pushed her way through the crowd leaving her oblivious friends behind. What she saw made her stomach clench.
A bucking broomstick was in mid-air. People were yelling at Snape to get on it.
"Stay on for 15 seconds for three galleons, Snape!"
Lily was about to yell for everyone to stop when Snape jumped onto the broomstick! His body was being flung around as the broom lurched this way and that! 5 seconds later he was thrown ten feet from the broom. The crowd roared with laughter as he tried to get up, but was too dizzy and bruised. Lily flushed with anger as she saw the group laughing at what he did. She pushed her way farther into the circle, yelling for people to get out of her way.
Lily ran over to him to see if he was alright. She turned him over to find him unconscious.
"What the hell were you playing at?" she screamed, causing everyone to cease laughing. Some were looking down at their shoes, blushing from shame. Others were standing there with a look of savage satisfaction. Devon and Marissa pushed people out of their way as they ran over to Lily.
"Oh my God. Lil, look!" Devon said horrified, pointing to his head. There was a trickle of blood running down his cheek, near his temple.
Lily looked to Devon and whispered in her ear, "Get Professor McGonagall and Professor Davis here, now!" Devon quickly ran up the lawn and out of site. Lily and Marissa kneeled beside Snape making sure he was still breathing when she heard the two Professors running towards them. The group tried to quickly disperse, when they saw the two teachers, but Professor McGonagall halted them with a quick and dangerous "stay!"
"What happened, Miss Evans?" McGonagall urged.
Lily quickly told her what she saw and pointed to the boy who she heard yelling at Snape. He looked absolutely terrified when Lily pointed him out and tried to run away, but Devon grabbed his collar saying, "you're not going anywhere, Davies!"
That night in the common room, James posted the sign for Quidditch Tryouts. James had been in a particularly good mood since the events of this afternoon. He of course had quickly found out what happened this afternoon and burst out laughing. That is until Lily slapped him and called him an 'inconsiderate toerag'.
The next day, Lily walked with Marissa, Devon, and Ashley to Care of Magical Creatures (Addy decided not to take it). They had with Slytherins and Ravenclaws this year, which made it even worse.
"A Unicorn!" exclaimed Professor Kettleburn. "This one that I found is especially beautiful. He just changed from his gold color to the snow white color a month ago, so naturally he still has some of the gold specks in his coat! Boys stand back, please!"
The girls stood in awe of the beautiful creature standing proudly before them.
"Anyone want to go up to it?" Professor Kettleburn asked.
Devon was the only one who wanted to risk walking within gorging distance of its long horn. She held her hand out cautiously to its nose, while walking slowly, to let it know it wasn't in any danger. Devon softly touched its nose and moved her hand to its long and regal neck. It nuzzled her cheek as she stroked the unicorn's soft glimmering coat. She looked back at Professor Kettleburn smiling, to see him staring back at her, looking deeply impressed.
"Excellent work Miss Potter! Excellent! I have never seen this particular male unicorn let a human get that close to him! Ten points to Gryffindor!" he said clapping his hands together, like mad.
Devon glanced from her friends to the unicorn. "Hey, girls! I think he'll let you touch him!" Devon said to her friends.
"Wow! That was the best lesson I have ever had in that class!" Lily gushed to the others, as they entered the Gryffindor Common room.
"Yeah! It was great!" Addy chimed in.
Devon sat thinking about today's lesson. She had of course known everything Professor Kettleburn had told them about unicorns. Devon learned all of this information in her second, third and fourth year with her brother and the rest of the Marauder's. After all, it was necessary to become her animagi form: a unicorn.
Long, yes, I know. Oh well, I like writing long chapters. It gives me a chance to include more, obviously. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it! Ah, yes, if you could please review? That'd be super! lol, Like my choice of grammar there? shakes head nevermind!