The Marauders'
big prank became clear when they walked into the Gryffindor common
room. First of all, they had set up portraits of the four of them
guarding the entrance to the boys' and girls' dormitories. To get
past them, you had to say, "Life is no fun without thy Marauders"
or "Hail to thy Marauders", depending on the portrait's mood.
Second of all, hung up on all the walls of the common room were
mirrors. And they weren't normal mirrors. When you looked into it,
your reflection spoke back to you, telling you if you had Marauder
potential or could only amount to a wanna-be. To cap it all, the
Marauders themselves had dropped (or thrown, no one was sure)
Dungbombs in all the separate dormitories. Lily was very
aggravated.
"James Potter! You're Head Boy! How can you do
things like this if you're supposed to be setting a good example?"
she cried. James gave her a very cold look. It startled Lily.
I've
never seen him look at me like that, she thought to herself. He
usually looks lovesick every time I see him. Lily shook herself.
I don't care, I don't care, I don't care—"I am sick
and tired of you on my back all the time. Lily, shut up."
I
don't care, I don't care, I don't care. Lily turned to him
and said,
"Fine. I hope you get impeached or whatever it is
they do to Head Boys who have no maturity and self-control." And
with that, she stalked off to the Head Common Room, which was a few
yards down from the Gryffindor common room.
"Password?"
said not a fat lady in a pink dress, but a portrait of a little
fluttering fairy.
"Catkin," Lily replied dully. The
portrait swung open. For a moment she stood there, dumbstruck by the
luxury of it all. Then the fairy said impatiently,
"Are you
going to stand here all night or are you going to go in?"
"I
think I'll go in."
There were purple leather couches and
beautiful silk-upholstered chairs. The fireplace was nearly twice as
large as the one in the Gryffindor common room. She plopped onto a
couch. A house-elf came up to her, bearing a tray.
"Tea,
miss?"
"No thank you."
For a moment Lily forgot
her argument with James. Then it washed over her again like a wave as
she remembered exactly who she'd be sharing this posh place with. A
second later, the subject of her thoughts walked in.
"Oh,
you're here. I'll just go then."
"Hey! I never
said you had to leave." Lily was annoyed. Now he was treating her
like some royal brat. She sighed.
"I'll stay,
then." James sat down next to her on the couch. Lily almost smiled.
She folded her arms.
"I said you could stay, not sit next
to me," she said, trying to sound cross. Unfortunately for her,
James saw through it. He grinned at her.
"You're glad I'm
sitting next to you, I know it. You like having an admirer. You were
a little afraid that I stopped liking you when I gave you that look."
Lily tried not to look astonished. He had just read her thoughts
exactly. She tried to put on a bored expression.
"Think what you want," she said.
James saw
through that one, too.
"I think I will," he replied.
"Right now you're marveling to yourself about how I read your
thoughts exactly. You try to appear not interested. I can read you
like a book, Lily."
"Stop it!" she said shrilly. James
grinned.
"So I'm right," he said triumphantly. Then he
frowned and looked sad. "How come you're so mean to me? I know
you don't completely hate me. I have an inkling why, but I'm not
so sure."
"Well, what's your inkling?" Lily snapped.
She was getting tired of him reading her so easily.
"That
since you have hated me since you met me, if you did start to like
me, you would've been wrong about me. My inkling is that it's a
pride issue." Lily stood up.
"Goodnight, James. Have fun
making more off-the-wall predictions about what goes on in my head."
She left to go to the Gryffindor common room, which had mercifully
had returned to normal. She got ready for bed and finally went to
sleep.
The next few weeks went by quickly. The
Marauders pulled more pranks and got more detentions. James was
noticeably subdued. Lily didn't care. Maybe it was because he had
finally realized that she would never, never like him.
One day
when Lily was in the Head Common Room and James had gone to bed
early, the remaining group of friends were talking.
"You
know, James is really upset about this," Sirius was saying. "He
seems depressed. He has barely said anything the past couple of
weeks."
"We really need to do something about it," said
Anna, looking really sad for their poor friend. "Could we talk to
Lily or something?"
"No, she's in denial," said
Bailey. "That wouldn't do any good."
"I have an idea,"
said Sierra. "We could make a love potion, or something."
"I
don't want to get expelled," said Anna, looking nervous.
"No."
"I'm going to bed," said Peter, oblivious to
the conference going on around him.
"Maybe it's not a love
potion we need," said Remus. "Just something to make Lily realize
her feelings for James. Let's go to the library."
The
group walked silently to the library, all of them deep in thought.
They arrived. The group looked and looked and looked. Then Bailey
pulled out a thin pinkish volume from the shelf labeled "Matchmaker"
in peeling silver letters. She leafed through it and gasped.
"Guys,
this is just what we need! 'A guide to getting together that
perfect couple.'" The table of contents looked like this:
Your
Basic Love Potion..............................................................................2
Love
Mist..............................................................................................5
Shadow
Charm........................................................................................9
Love
Bouquet........................................................................................10
Serendipity
Charm..................................................................................13
Pulling It Off Unnoticed...........................................................................15
"'A shadow charm makes one of its two victims follow the other around like a shadow.'"
"Nah, they'd go insane," said Sirius.
"Look at Serendipity Charm," Remus said.
"'The Serendipity Charm makes its two victims frequently end up in the same place at the same time, alone.' Perfect!" Bailey squealed. She read on. "'To begin the charm, the performer needs a hair from each of the victim's heads.' That shouldn't be too hard. 'Before the charm is performed, the opposite hair must be placed on the victims' shoulders.' Hmm. That's going to be a little more difficult. Sirius and I will distract them with a prank, and you guys can go do that. 'Lastly, the performer will tap the shoulder of each of the victims in turn, then say "Serendipitious!"' Anna, you better do that. You've always been the best at charms, aside from Lily. 'The charm ends at the victim's first kiss.' Aaah! This is perfect!" Bailey began dancing around until she tripped over her own feet and toppled to the ground. The group laughed and Sirius helped her to her feet.
"I don't think that we should—you know—legally check this out of the library, wouldn't Madam Pince think we were going to make a Love Potion?" said Anna.
"You're right," said Remus. "Sirius, hide this in your bag."
The group walked out of the library, very proud of themselves.
Thank you, Raisse, for reviewing!! Sorry about the table of contents- I know it looks weird... oh well ;-)