Chapter 13
"It was from JAMES?" Ellis asked. Lily nodded, praying that she wasn't blushing.
"Is it that hard to believe?"
"That's so romantic," interrupted Isabelle. "Looks like I picked the wrong Marauder!" the girls laughed and continued to discuss The Ball and their dates.
Meanwhile down the table the Marauders were having a very sophisticated discussion.
"Get off last night?" Sirius asked piling jam onto his toast.
"Yeah," replied James doing the same.
"Tongues?" he asked.
James stared at him.
"Cool."
Finishing their breakfast they slid down the table to the girls.
"Good morning ladies," said Sirius helping himself to more toast. Suddenly something caught his eye and he stopped to stare at something on the other side of the Hall,
"Prongs," he murmured.
"What?" James replied staring in the same direction until he saw what Sirius was looking at. "Right!" his expression instantly changed from his regular good-natured look to a fierce glare.
"Shall we?" asked Sirius. James nodded and his expression changed yet again, into one he usually used to look charming and for impressing Lily.
They stood up together and made their way casually to the Slytherin table, looking every bit like the handsome, charming men their reputation said they were. Nobody bothered looking up, the two were known for dating with every good-looking girl in school. Even Slytherins.
"What does he think he's doing?" Lily hissed.
"That's the bitch that cheeked you," Ellis pointed out. Indeed, James and Sirius had just taken a seat either side of the pug-faced girl who had called Lily a mudblood at The Ball.
"He said he'd get her back," Lily replied.
"Aren't you going to do anything?" Ciara asked distressed. "He could do something really horrible."
'Good,' thought Lily. "Course I'm not going to do anything. I want to see what he thought of," she said aloud.
The conversation ceased and all five of them stared avidly in James's direction.
James wanted to throw up. He couldn't believe that he was flirting with a Slytherin. He had to force himself to think that he was doing it for Lily to stop him from running a mile.
Lily was watching with a grin. He had his hand on her back but with the tip of his wand up his sleeve, so it was just touching the material of her robes. If he cursed her she wouldn't even feel it. Sirius, meanwhile, was distracting her 'friends'. She had no doubt that he knew what James was about to do and was making sure that no one else saw. Lily scarcely saw James's mouth move as he muttered a hex, before whispering the to girl.
"Love the new look,"
The girl beamed at him, as he got up with Sirius and they headed back over to the Gryffindor table, clearly not having realised what he had just done to her. Sirius was stuffing his hand in his mouth and James was biting his lip, to stop themselves from laughing. Lily was about to ask what they had done, when she was interrupted by a scream from the Slytherin table. One of the Pug's friends had just realised what James had done. The girls shrieked as she caught sight of herself. By this time James and Sirius were rolling on the floor laughing. Lily almost joined them when she got a view of it.
Spotty skin that had once been very pale (with the exception of bright red acne) was now covered in vivid green scales. The Pug Girl's already short nose was now non-existent replaced instead with two slits in the scales. Her eyes were yellow and her forked tongue flicked between her teeth automatically.
"Nice work," smirked Lily.
"Yeah," agreed Remus, "Do it once more and I'll give you detention," he added lazily.
"Don't listen to him. He's always saying that," James told Lily, "But he never does,"
"Because we're no stupid enough to do the same trick twice," Sirius interrupted.
"You're forgetting that you can't give the Head Boy a detention," James retorted.
"I can for turning a girl into a snake,"
James chose to ignore this.
"That's was pretty impressive, wouldn't you say Padfoot?"
"Yes, but what are we going to do to it's friends?"
"I have an idea. But we'll need ingredients,"
"No problem. We've got potions next." Lily said looking at her timetable.
"And I have the perfect way to distract Old Rew."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Today class, you will make a cooling potion. The instructions are," he waved his wand, "on the board, and the ingredients," he waved his wand again, "Are on your desks." Professor Rew was extremely old and bad tempered. He never favoured any of his students. He hated them all equally.
Lily was sitting between James and Isabelle. Eager as she was to find out what he had planned to distract the class, he told her that she would have to wait until nearer the end of the lesson.
Slowly the click ticked by and everyone's potions were almost complete. Sirius was fussing around with something in his bag and subtly pulled out a firework.
"That's your plan?" whispered Lily. "To throw a firework into someone's cauldron? You'll get boiling potion everywhere!"
"Relax Evans. It's a cooling potion isn't it? So it won't be boiling will it?"
"FINE THEN! You'll get freezing potion everywhere!"
"We're doing this for you. If you don't like it just stay out the way."
Rolling her eyes, Lily wandered over to James who was standing on the other side of the classroom. Surreptitiously Sirius tried to throw the firework into his cauldron, but missed. Bouncing off the floor it flew around the room, twisting and spinning before falling into a Slytherin's cauldron. Sirius only had a second to wonder at his own good luck when he saw who was working next to them. Lily and James. Desperate to get them out of the way of it he tried to signal for them to come over. Only James saw him and took it to mean 'Go to the stockroom now!' when it exploded. The potion splattered across the Slytherins as James sneaked off. They immediately began to howl in pain, as they discovered that their potion had gone completely wrong. It was not cool as the professor had said, but boiling hot, just like Lily had expected. Talking of Lily........................
Sirius looked around but in the confusion could not see her anywhere. She was not standing where she had been a moment before neither was she with James, who had come out of the cupboard wearing a smugly-triumphant smile. However this quickly vanished as he saw Lily. She had fallen and was lying unconscious on the floor; her face and neck covered in burns where the potion had caught her full in the face.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Madam Pomfrey!" James shouted as he tried to run into the Hospital Wing. He had carried Lily up from the dungeons and he set her down on a bed as he called for the school nurse.
"Mr Potter, why are you yelling like that......oh my!"
Still not conscious, Lily lay exactly where James had put her. Her face was badly burnt and had turned a brighter red than her hair. There were round angry marks where drops of the potion had scalded her skin, perhaps it was best that she was could not feel any of it.
James could not remember feeling worse in his life.
As Lily was starting to stir, Madam Pomfrey gave James a potion to give to her, to put her back to sleep, while she went to find a cream for her burns. He sat up next to her and gently gave her the potion, taking care that she wouldn't choke. He didn't want to look at her, to see what he had done to her beautiful face; but he could not force himself to look away. Praying that the nurse could help her he delicately let her back down, just as Sirius and Isabelle ran in. Isabelle gasped and ran over to Lily, but Sirius stood quietly next to James. The were standing a few feet way as though trying to distance themselves from what they had done.
"Madam Pomfrey said she's going to be alright," James told him.
"I'm sorry," Sirius said staring at Lily.
"Why? If I hadn't been so insane about getting those Slytherins back, she wouldn't be here,"
"If I had done a better throw, none of us would be here,"
"That's okay, you can't help being crap!" James joked. They chuckled and returned to silence.
"She looks bad," Sirius said quietly, "Will it scar?"
"Don't think so. Madam Pomfrey said she's got some stuff to help,"
Sirius accepted it without argument, but underneath it they were both thinking that Lily needed a miracle to get rid of her terrible burns.
"It was from JAMES?" Ellis asked. Lily nodded, praying that she wasn't blushing.
"Is it that hard to believe?"
"That's so romantic," interrupted Isabelle. "Looks like I picked the wrong Marauder!" the girls laughed and continued to discuss The Ball and their dates.
Meanwhile down the table the Marauders were having a very sophisticated discussion.
"Get off last night?" Sirius asked piling jam onto his toast.
"Yeah," replied James doing the same.
"Tongues?" he asked.
James stared at him.
"Cool."
Finishing their breakfast they slid down the table to the girls.
"Good morning ladies," said Sirius helping himself to more toast. Suddenly something caught his eye and he stopped to stare at something on the other side of the Hall,
"Prongs," he murmured.
"What?" James replied staring in the same direction until he saw what Sirius was looking at. "Right!" his expression instantly changed from his regular good-natured look to a fierce glare.
"Shall we?" asked Sirius. James nodded and his expression changed yet again, into one he usually used to look charming and for impressing Lily.
They stood up together and made their way casually to the Slytherin table, looking every bit like the handsome, charming men their reputation said they were. Nobody bothered looking up, the two were known for dating with every good-looking girl in school. Even Slytherins.
"What does he think he's doing?" Lily hissed.
"That's the bitch that cheeked you," Ellis pointed out. Indeed, James and Sirius had just taken a seat either side of the pug-faced girl who had called Lily a mudblood at The Ball.
"He said he'd get her back," Lily replied.
"Aren't you going to do anything?" Ciara asked distressed. "He could do something really horrible."
'Good,' thought Lily. "Course I'm not going to do anything. I want to see what he thought of," she said aloud.
The conversation ceased and all five of them stared avidly in James's direction.
James wanted to throw up. He couldn't believe that he was flirting with a Slytherin. He had to force himself to think that he was doing it for Lily to stop him from running a mile.
Lily was watching with a grin. He had his hand on her back but with the tip of his wand up his sleeve, so it was just touching the material of her robes. If he cursed her she wouldn't even feel it. Sirius, meanwhile, was distracting her 'friends'. She had no doubt that he knew what James was about to do and was making sure that no one else saw. Lily scarcely saw James's mouth move as he muttered a hex, before whispering the to girl.
"Love the new look,"
The girl beamed at him, as he got up with Sirius and they headed back over to the Gryffindor table, clearly not having realised what he had just done to her. Sirius was stuffing his hand in his mouth and James was biting his lip, to stop themselves from laughing. Lily was about to ask what they had done, when she was interrupted by a scream from the Slytherin table. One of the Pug's friends had just realised what James had done. The girls shrieked as she caught sight of herself. By this time James and Sirius were rolling on the floor laughing. Lily almost joined them when she got a view of it.
Spotty skin that had once been very pale (with the exception of bright red acne) was now covered in vivid green scales. The Pug Girl's already short nose was now non-existent replaced instead with two slits in the scales. Her eyes were yellow and her forked tongue flicked between her teeth automatically.
"Nice work," smirked Lily.
"Yeah," agreed Remus, "Do it once more and I'll give you detention," he added lazily.
"Don't listen to him. He's always saying that," James told Lily, "But he never does,"
"Because we're no stupid enough to do the same trick twice," Sirius interrupted.
"You're forgetting that you can't give the Head Boy a detention," James retorted.
"I can for turning a girl into a snake,"
James chose to ignore this.
"That's was pretty impressive, wouldn't you say Padfoot?"
"Yes, but what are we going to do to it's friends?"
"I have an idea. But we'll need ingredients,"
"No problem. We've got potions next." Lily said looking at her timetable.
"And I have the perfect way to distract Old Rew."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Today class, you will make a cooling potion. The instructions are," he waved his wand, "on the board, and the ingredients," he waved his wand again, "Are on your desks." Professor Rew was extremely old and bad tempered. He never favoured any of his students. He hated them all equally.
Lily was sitting between James and Isabelle. Eager as she was to find out what he had planned to distract the class, he told her that she would have to wait until nearer the end of the lesson.
Slowly the click ticked by and everyone's potions were almost complete. Sirius was fussing around with something in his bag and subtly pulled out a firework.
"That's your plan?" whispered Lily. "To throw a firework into someone's cauldron? You'll get boiling potion everywhere!"
"Relax Evans. It's a cooling potion isn't it? So it won't be boiling will it?"
"FINE THEN! You'll get freezing potion everywhere!"
"We're doing this for you. If you don't like it just stay out the way."
Rolling her eyes, Lily wandered over to James who was standing on the other side of the classroom. Surreptitiously Sirius tried to throw the firework into his cauldron, but missed. Bouncing off the floor it flew around the room, twisting and spinning before falling into a Slytherin's cauldron. Sirius only had a second to wonder at his own good luck when he saw who was working next to them. Lily and James. Desperate to get them out of the way of it he tried to signal for them to come over. Only James saw him and took it to mean 'Go to the stockroom now!' when it exploded. The potion splattered across the Slytherins as James sneaked off. They immediately began to howl in pain, as they discovered that their potion had gone completely wrong. It was not cool as the professor had said, but boiling hot, just like Lily had expected. Talking of Lily........................
Sirius looked around but in the confusion could not see her anywhere. She was not standing where she had been a moment before neither was she with James, who had come out of the cupboard wearing a smugly-triumphant smile. However this quickly vanished as he saw Lily. She had fallen and was lying unconscious on the floor; her face and neck covered in burns where the potion had caught her full in the face.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Madam Pomfrey!" James shouted as he tried to run into the Hospital Wing. He had carried Lily up from the dungeons and he set her down on a bed as he called for the school nurse.
"Mr Potter, why are you yelling like that......oh my!"
Still not conscious, Lily lay exactly where James had put her. Her face was badly burnt and had turned a brighter red than her hair. There were round angry marks where drops of the potion had scalded her skin, perhaps it was best that she was could not feel any of it.
James could not remember feeling worse in his life.
As Lily was starting to stir, Madam Pomfrey gave James a potion to give to her, to put her back to sleep, while she went to find a cream for her burns. He sat up next to her and gently gave her the potion, taking care that she wouldn't choke. He didn't want to look at her, to see what he had done to her beautiful face; but he could not force himself to look away. Praying that the nurse could help her he delicately let her back down, just as Sirius and Isabelle ran in. Isabelle gasped and ran over to Lily, but Sirius stood quietly next to James. The were standing a few feet way as though trying to distance themselves from what they had done.
"Madam Pomfrey said she's going to be alright," James told him.
"I'm sorry," Sirius said staring at Lily.
"Why? If I hadn't been so insane about getting those Slytherins back, she wouldn't be here,"
"If I had done a better throw, none of us would be here,"
"That's okay, you can't help being crap!" James joked. They chuckled and returned to silence.
"She looks bad," Sirius said quietly, "Will it scar?"
"Don't think so. Madam Pomfrey said she's got some stuff to help,"
Sirius accepted it without argument, but underneath it they were both thinking that Lily needed a miracle to get rid of her terrible burns.