The Early Years
Recap:
Professor McGonagall looked briefly towards the window. She could have sworn she heard Lily screaming. She shook her head, "Must be getting old… the third years are preparing for their dance."
Or so she thought.
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"You got to put this on! Wait, no, how about this? It brings out your eyes!"
Kat sat down in front of the dresser, waiting patiently for her dorm-mates to stop fussing around her.
"How about I just tie my hair up in a ponytail?"
"You can't do that!"
"No!"
"Are you out of your mind?"
Kat's suggestion was met with violent objections.
"Fine…fine… just a harmless suggestion."
Then the doors of the bathroom were kicked open.
"I don't get this dress thingy… It's just a piece of cloth draped around your body!" Jo was grumbling over her supposedly revealing dress.
"Aww… it isn't that bad…" Lydia, another 3rd year, piped up.
Actually, it really wasn't that bad.
She had on a blue top with a daring cut. The front cuts down diagonally but goes up before it can reveal anything. The bottom part of the top was made of translucent material, showing Jo's belly button and toned stomach. The bottom part of her outfit consists of a long dark blue skirt.
"Didn't I tell you not to buy anything too revealing?" Jo asked, hands on hips.
She had been too lazy to bring herself a dress and had asked the other 3rd year girls to buy something for her.
"Oh, and don't touch my hair," Jo continued, looking at Kat, "I don't like gel."
The other girls looked at her hair and smiled. Jo's hair was tied up in a kind of messy bun. It gave her that aloof and 'I hate people nagging at me' look.
"Oh we won't do anything. It's perfect!"
Jo blinked, "It is?"
"Well… at least you're done with your hair." Kat said, standing up, "I've been tugging at mine for hours."
Kat's dress was simple. It was sleeveless and white, reaching all the way down to the floor and when she moved, it sort of sweeped around her. Completing the look was a white scarf around her neck.
"I think you should just leave your hair down." Lily said emerging from the curtains (haha, drama), "It gives you that lost damsel kind of feeling."
The girls jumped, "Where did you come from?"
"I didn't see you getting dressed." Jo said.
"I don't like dawdling." Lily answered.
Lily's dress was sleeveless, reaching down to her ankles. Flowers adorned the neckline and there was a belt around her waist but it looked like it was thrown on in a great hurry, with the end of the belt sticking out. Some parts of her hair were pulled back in a plait while the rest just tumbled down on her shoulders.
"Wow… I'm impressed." Kat said folding her arms.
"Yah, well let's go down, we're kinda late." Lily said walking out of the door.
"Don't worry about that. Girls are always supposed to be late." One 3rd year said.
The girls shook their heads and walked out of the dorm. They were the last to get dressed but first to get down. The Marauders stood at the sight of them and looked visibly relieved. All the guys were in the common room… with nothing to do, except play with their ties. Which many of them were doing.
"It looks like a bachelor party without the partying," commented Kat.
Sirius wolf-whistled when he neared Jo, "Looking good…"
"Aww, shucks." Jo slapped him playfully on the arm, then her cheerful tone changed to a serious one, "Shut up."
Lily whispered to Sirius, "She's a little touché about her outfit. Thinks it's too revealing."
Sirius was puzzled. I think she looks great. He shrugged. I'll never understand girls.
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Music was playing. Lights were dimmed just right. Food tasted great. BUT the Marauders thought something was amiss.
"Somewhere forgot to spike the punch!" James proclaimed brightly.
"Really?" Lily asked, a skeptical look on her face.
"I suppose you can never be too sure." Kat said, hastily putting down her glass of punch.
"Well then," Remus began as a slow song struck up, "Wanna dance?"
"Be glad to." Kat answered as she took his outstretched hand.
James and Sirius sighed as they watched their good friend, Remus, dancing.
I can see what's happening
& they don't have a clue
They'll fall in love & here's the bottom line
Our trio's down to two
"Wanna go spike the punch?"
"No!"
"Girls. They're not risk-takers."
"We are too!"
"Ha. Prove it."
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"Fine!"
"FINE!"
Silence.
"Do you think they'll really spike it?
"I don't know. Jo and Lily can get pretty crazy when they want to."
"Shh… they're coming back."
"There! We spiked it. Happy?"
"Yeah, good job. I think we're already seeing the effects."
Sounds of bodies thumping against the floor.
"Oops. I think we got too carried away. We shouldn't have added so much."
Another moment of silence.
"Remus and Kat still dancing huh?"
"Yeah."
& if he falls in love tonight
It can be assumed
His carefree days with us are history
In short, our pal is doomed
"I need to go out for some fresh air."
"I'll come with you!"
"What's with the sudden enthusiasm James?"
"Nothing! I just needed to get some fresh air too! That's all!"
"Okay, fine. No need to get so defensive…"
"I'm not getting defensive!"
Lily smiled, "Whatever you say James."
James quickly pulled Lily towards the door, "Let's go."
"So… what do we do now?" Sirius turned to Jo.
Jo looked at him, and sighed.
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Meanwhile, by the lake…
"Do you realize something?"
"Hmm?" Lily was enjoying the breeze.
James beckoned for her to sit down, "This has suddenly become our important 'talking' place."
Lily laughed, "Yeah, you're right."
Then, suddenly out of the calm waters, a red, huge, thing rose out of the lake.
"Ahh!" Lily stumbled back and fell onto James.
James looked up and realized that it was just one of the tentacles of the giant octopus. Slowly, it disappeared beneath the dark expanse of the water.
"Is it gone yet?" Lily asked closing her eyes.
"Uh… not really." James said. He was enjoying the fact that Lily had buried her head in his chest with her arms around his neck. He looked up to the night sky. Yep, life was good.
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"Son, wake up! Wake up! James Potter!"
"What? What? Where's the fire?" James yelled as he bolt up to a sitting position.
"I'm afraid I don't know about any fire," Harold Potter, James' father, said with a twinkle in his eye, "but I do want to know about this Lily you've been uttering about in your sleep."
Immediately, James turned an interesting shade of red. The holidays had just started and James was already thinking about Lily… but of course, he just wouldn't admit it.
"Oh yes, I definitely want to know about the girl who can make my son blush."
"Dad, I'm not blushing and I'm not thinking about Lily!"
James father smiled knowingly, "Breakfast's ready by the way," he said in an almost sing-song voice.
James looked out of the window as his father shut the door. He had been thinking a lot about his 3rd year at Hogwarts. After the ball (I'm sure we all know which ball it is beams), Lily and he had grown closer and didn't bicker as much as they used to. In fact, Lily had bought him a watch as a thank-you present for tutoring her at transfiguration. She had managed to get a good grade for the final-year examinations. James treasured the watch very much and wore it every day. He could still remember Lily's exact words…
"Here!" Lily said shoving something into James' hands.
"What is it?"
"A watch! As a thank-you for tutoring me in transfiguration and because you always seem to be late for lessons!" Lily answered brightly.
James was brought out of his reverie when he mother shouted for him to have breakfast.
"Coming!" James hollered as he started getting dressed. Man, I keep thinking about Lily. This is getting unhealthy.
------
"James! Snap out of it! Hello?! James?"
"Huh? What?"
"James, you've been staring at these lilies for the longest time? Is anything wrong?" asked James' very concerned mother.
Mr. Potter appeared out of nowhere and said again in a sing-song voice, "I bet I do!"
"No mum, I'm fine." James replied, giving a very significant look to his father, "Anyway, Sirius and Remus would be coming over later on and they would be staying for dinner 'kay mum?"
Then, he ran for the safety of his room.
After about half an hour of trying really hard to not think about Lily, but failing miserably (Come on, if I tell you to takes deep breath shut your eyes and not think about a pink elephant eating chocolates you would probably think about a pink elephant eating chocolates), James gave up.
Finally, Sirius and Remus arrived and they managed to take his mind off Lily… oh yes, they sure did. The first thing Sirius said when he saw James was, "Let's go rob the candy shop!"
James rolled his eyes, "Why don't we go rob the bank instead?"
"That's a great idea!" Sirius said as he pulled out a whole bunch of stockings, "I even brought these to disguise ourselves!"
"What? To pull over our heads when we go rob the bank?" James asked sarcastically.
"No… I thought we could just wear them and disguise ourselves as girls!" came Sirius' brilliant answer.
"Excuse me? I couldn't help but overhear your extremely loud conversation." Remus was standing behind Sirius with an amused look.
"He wants to rob the bank." James said rubbing his temples.
"And don't forget the candy shop!" Sirius added.
Remus grinned, " I was thinking along the lines of you know, raiding the fridge?"
It took about a minute for Sirius to process this thought, "Right! Let's go raid the fridge!" and he bounced into the kitchen, Remus following close behind.
James leaned against the door and let out an exasperated sigh, "What did I do to deserve all this?"
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"I like dinner!"
"What a surprise," came a voice, not sounding very surprise at all.
"Uh huh!"
"Now… I wonder why," said a voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Because there's food!"
"Sirius, there's food at breakfast and lunch too!"
"Yeah… but," Sirius looked around and whispered, "At breakfast, I say I like breakfast, at lunch, I say I like lunch so I won't hurt the food's feelings."
Remus buried his head in his hands, "I have no idea why your parents are still sane after living with you for so long."
"What makes you think they're still sane?" asked Sirius.
Remus blinked, "Yes, of course, my mistake."
James' father looked up from his plate of spaghetti and asked quite suddenly, "Do any of you know a girl called Lily?"
James spat out his spaghetti.
"Yeah, Lily is the girl James…" Remus started but Sirius interrupted him saying, "has a crush on!"
James glared at Sirius, "You shouldn't listen to him Dad, Sirius is very hyper today! His words cannot be trusted."
"Alright then, how about you Remus? What do you say?"
Remus had finally caught on, "James doesn't have a crush on Lily, he has a major crush on her! Even to the point of," he muttered darkly, "obsession."
Mr. Potter leaned back on his chair, a satisfied smile on his face, "We should invite her over here one of these days."
James started at his spaghetti, "You have got to be kidding me."
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"But mum… I don't want to move!"
"I'm afraid we have to Jo, it'll be easier for your father to get to the office that way."
Jo sat down on the sofa, pouting.
"Besides, you won't really be affected by the change. You're nearly always at school." Jo's mother added, putting away all the books in a cardboard box.
Jo knew her mother was right. She was just throwing a tantrum. She felt uncertain moving to another place after having lived in her house for 13 years.
"Alright mum, I was just wondering where we were moving to…"
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"We're going to have new neighbours?"
[bounce bounce]
"Yes, we're going to have some new neighbours, seems that our old neighbours moved out because someone kept throwing a foul-smelling thing into their chimney."
[bounce bounce]
"By any chance, did you happen to throw some dungbombs around?"
[bounce bounce]
"Me? The Sirius Black? The angelic Sirius Black? Okay fine, I did it. I threw the dungbombs into the Fortswhire's chimney."
"That's better, now when our new neighbours come, you go over and give them my brownies as a peace offering. And no eating!"
[bounce bounce]
"Alright mum,"
[bounce bounce]
"And please, stop bouncing."
"Okay mum," Sirius got down the sofa.
"Here!" Mrs. Black gave Sirius a tray of brownies, "Remember to bring it to them in one big piece."
Sirius carried the tray of brownies and as soon as he was sure his mum couldn't see him, he helped himself to a large helping of brownies.
"Been eating the brownies you were supposed to give the new neighbour huh?"
Sirius froze. Oops. Mum saw me.
"Mum, I was just tasting it to see if it was edible! Honest!"
"Do I look like your mum to you?"
Sirius turned and came face to face with…
Lily.
"What on earth are you doing here?"
"Sirius, I'm your next door neighbour remember?"
(A/N Everyone remember that Lily was Sirius neighbour right from the start? Look at chapter 1 How it all began… to refresh your memories.)
"Oh…right."
Lily ate a piece of brownie, "Any idea who's our new neighbour?"
"No… we're going to find out soon though." Sirius stopped in front of the door and looked down at the tray of brownies. They were almost all gone, "Oh well, might as well eat them all up."
Sirius and Lily finished up the brownies and hid the tray in one of the bushes in the garden. Suddenly, the door opened.
"Lily? Sirius?"
They looked up.
"JO?!"
Standing at the doorway was Jo (who else could it be?). And her face wore a scary smile, "I think I'm going to enjoy staying in my new neighbourhood."
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Woohoo! I'm almost done editing. I am very proud of myself. Haha. Anyway, drop a review and make my day!