Disclaimer: I don't own anything that belongs to JK.
Chapter 4- Classes and Pranks
The next day the girls all woke up with a start, except for Carrie, who had needed a bit of persuasion before waking up. They got dressed and went down to the Great Hall, where Arthur Weasley was distributing schedules.
"Ooh, great! We have Charms first, with the Ravenclaws, then Potions with the Slytherins, and Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Then it's lunch, and we have double Transfiguration," Ellen told them.
"Why do the best classes always have to be the last ones? I was dying to have Transfiguration, and we don't have DADA until Wednesday! How unfair is that?" Alex complained.
"But Charms looks fascinating, Alex," Lily said, very eager to begin charms.
"It'll be very fascinating, girls, I assure you," a voice said from behind them. When they turned, they saw James, Remus, Peter, and a very stressed Sirius. True to her, Alex's potion had finally stopped working, and James looked considerably happy about that.
"And why would that be, James?" Alex asked.
"Because."
"You can be very annoying sometimes, you know?"
"So can you."
"I am not annoying!"
"Are too."
"I refuse to discuss with you, James," And with that she stood up and marched to the Charms class. After glancing at each other, Ellen, Esther, Lily, and Carrie followed her and sat next to a fuming Alex, waiting nervously for the Charms professor, Prof. Flitwick. Five minutes later, he arrived and took roll, everyone whispering quietly. Alex's mood had improved a lot and she had a very eager look on her face.
Then, when Prof. Flitwick had just finished taking roll, the four 'Marauders' arrived breathless, each one with a different excuse. Prof. Flitwick scolded them, but ordered them to take a seat. He began:
"Today we will study the movements for the levitation spell. Next class we will practice the pronounciation of the spell, and after that we will practice the actual spell. But for today, I want you all to get your wands and repeat this movement after me."
He performed a little swish and flick movement, and the class all repeated, many of them jabbing there wands instead of flicking, and Prof. Flitwick went to each one to show them how to do the movement.
Charms ended shortly after and the Gryffindors went to Potions, while the Ravenclaws to Transfiguration. Sirius came up to the girls and started talking to them, making Alex laugh after every commentary. He then told them a curious thing:
"Did you girls notice that all of the muggle-borns were sorted into Gryffindor?"
"Yeah, you're right. I hadn't noticed before," Lily mused. They remained in silence all the way to the dungeons, and when they reached it, a bunch of Slytherins were laughing at a something that had happened the day before.
"Ooh, look, the mudbloods arrived, and there is that Owens kid, who's almost as bad as them," a black haired girl that looked a lot like Sirius, said.
"Shut it, Black, before I hex you into oblivion!" Alex growled at her, just as the boys arrived.
"Oh, so evil," the girl said sarcastically.
"Making new friends, Bellatrix?" Sirius asked loudly, before Alex jumped at her.
"Not really, Sirius. I heard Aunt Clytaemnestra was awfully pleased with you getting sorted into Gryffindor. You're lucky she didn't send you a Howler, but then, she probably didn't want anyone knowing she's related to you. Of course, I think she probably knew this would happen, deep down. She was almost as mad as Mum when Andromeda got sorted into Gryffindor."
"You-" Sirius began angrily, but a tall man with brown hair and brown beard appeared just then.
"Why aren't you all inside the classroom?" He asked coldly, staring at the Gryffindors with disgust. Everyone, including the Slytherins were quiet. "Very well, since no one wants to tell me the reason, I think I'll simply take 10 points off each house. Now get in, quickly, we don't have all day."
The students practically ran into the room and each one put a cauldron in front of her or him. Bellatrix, obviusly sensing Alex got annoyed with her presence, promptly sat beside her, smirking at her, receiving a glare from Alexandra. When everyone was seated, the man started taking rolls, and then the man started:
"My name is Prof. Pryde. I'll be teaching you the art of potions throughout your years here at Hogwarts. Now, who can tell me what a mixture of dried needles, crushed snake fangs, stewed horned slugs, porcupine quills produces?" Only one person raised his hand. It was a boy with a huge, crooked nose, and long, slimy hair, who Lily knew was called Severus Snape. Lily heard a soft snickering and turned to see Sirius and James laughing at a remark James had made about the boy. Prof. Pryde ignored them, and said "Yes?"
"The mixture of crushed thnake fangth, stewed horned thlugs, porcupine quillth produces a thimple boil cure potion. If the porcupine quill is added before the cauldron is taken off the fire, the mixture produces clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hithing, melts the cauldron, and burns holes in people's shoes," Severus said with a lisp. All the Gryffindors started laughing, but quickly stopped when they saw the look on Prof. Pryde.
"Well done, Mr. Snape, five points to Slytherin. Today we will be doing this potion. The instructions are on the board," Prof. Pryde flicked his wand and instructions appeared on the board, "and if anyone needs extra materials, you may get them at the students cupboard. You may begin."
Lily nervously got all the ingredients from her bag and began her potion. According to the teacher, the potion was supposed to turn vomit yellow. Hers, however, started turning orange. As she nervously look around, she stared at Peters potion. It had produce an acid green smoke, and she could see Peter sweating. Suddenly, the cauldron started melting and Lily stood on her chair.
"Miss Evans what- arg!" Prof. Pryde began, but he too spotted Peters potion and told everyone to stand up on their chair just as the potion started spreading. Peter was all ready covered in boils and crying, and so were James, Sirius, and Remus, though they weren't crying, just staring at each other.
Finally, Prof. Pryde cleaned up the mess, and before sending the boys to the Hospital Wing he took off fifteen points from Gryffindor. Now it was the Slytherins turn to laugh. Severus was laughing so hard he was actually on the floor, banging his fists on it, receiving glares from the girls and Tonks, who hadn't been filled with boils because he had sat next to Alex.
At last, the torturous class finished, and the scowling Gryffindors left the class hurriedly, after leaving a sample of their potions to the teacher. They reached the greenhouses muttering swearwords that would make ones skin crawl, including the supposed goody-too-shoes Lily.
An old, small witch was waiting for them, with a group of Hufflepuffs around her. She introduced herself as Prof. Salal, and told them to go to greenhouse number one, where they would be planting dittanies. The class was uneventful, and after they'd gone back to their common rooms to wash, they went to lunch, where they met boil-free James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus. They took turns insulting the Slytherins, while Alexandra was deep in conversation with Ted. When they finished lunch, they lazily went to the Transifiguration classroom, which was their first class alone. Prof. McGonagall, who obviously had had a day as busy as theirs, shot them a look that clearly told them they'd be in for it if they even dreamed of doing something.
"Today we will transfigure matches into needles. Miss Schlotsky, no, no, the other one, please had out the matches." McGonagall gave them the incantation, and they spent the whole class trying to transform the matches. Surprisingly, Sirius and James were the first to transfigure their matches into prefect needles. The class ended and Lily gave McGonagall her needle with pink point.
They went strait to their common rooms to finish their homeworks and later on, to the great hall. James imitated Snape lisping throughout dinner, causing Esther to laugh a lot during dinner. Finallly, they all went to their common rooms just to hang out. The Marauders all had 'innocent' looks on their faces, and kept looking at their watches. Claiming to be tired, the girls all went to their common rooms.
At exactly seven fifteen, shrieks were heard from the girls common room. Apparently, the boys had sneaked in the girls dorm, nobody wanted to know how, and put dung bombs in every corner of the dorm(they probably ordered Zonko's whole supply of dungboms). Alex, Carrie, Esther, and Ellen ran downstairs with their hairs around a towel (they'd obviously just finished taking a bath) and started screaming at the four snickering boys.
Suddenly, Carrie stopped screaming, and asked "Where's Lily?" and it all hit them, Lily hadn't gone down with the other girls. The girls ran upstairs to find a covered in dung Lily. They stopped in front of the door way, not knowing what to do, whether they should comfort Lily, and cover themselves in dung, or simply stare at her.
"Who did this?" Lily whispered.
"The so-called Marauders. Do you want us to call Prof. McGonagall?" Ellen said quielty.
"No, I just want to take a bath and sleep... Oh, yeah, I forgot. Our dorm is covered in dung too. I guess we should call Molly, to see what she can do."
"Yeah, uh, I'll go," Alex said, pinching her nose.
"We'll wait for you downstairs, okay, Lil?" Carries asked uneasily.
"OK."
They left and Lily gloomly went to the bathroom. She stared at herself on the mirror. She was filthy. Almost every inch of her was covered by dung, and she was stinking horribly. Lily got into the shower and felt like crying. Her first day had been horrid. That awful Bellatrix Black had called her a mudblood, whatever that was, but judging from Alex's reaction, it was obviously insulting. Now, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had pranked her. At least no one else saw me looking like this, except for the girls. And she was feeling terribly homesick, since the feeling of bliss she'd felt yesterday had disappeard. Her thoughts were interrupted by voices coming from the dorm, one of them being McGonagall's and Molly Prewett's.
"Who did this?" McGonagall was saying.
"Er, Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Remus," said Carrie's nervous voice.
"Hmmm, I'm surprised they didn't start pranking on people yesterday. Very well, Miss Prewett, could you please call them, and girls, you don't mind sleeping in the boys room. Don't worry, they won't be sleeping there today, since they'll be cleaning up your dorm."
"Professor? Well, they boys won't be messing around on our private things, will they?" asked Esther or Ellen, Lily couldn't make out which one.
"No, don't worry. I'll cast a spell that will probably stop them from messing with other people's business for a long time. And you girls won't be allowed to mess with their stuff either."
"Aww, Professor, why not?" said Alexandra's laughing voice.
"You know why, and where is Miss Evans?"
"She's taking a shower. She, er, was near the bombs when they set off."
"Oh. Please- Oh hello, Miss Evans."
Lily appeared dressed in clean clothes and with very wet hair, obviously from being scrubbed vigorously.
"Hello, Professor. The boys punishment will be to clean up this mess?"
"Yes. Ah, here they are. Now tell me, how did you boys get in the dormitory firstly?"
"Oh, some second years believed our cheap story, that the girls had nicked our quills, and we wanted them back, so they took us to the dorm. It's not too difficult to get into the girls dorms, you know?" Sirius said, laughing at the look of anger the girls had.
"Yes, but I assure that cleaning up this mess will be very difficult," McGonagall said with a tiny smile on her face.
"You mean...clean this up?" James said weakly.
"Of course, and no magic, though you wouldn't be able to do much with magic." Now it was the girls turn to laugh. They were laughing so hard that Alex was becoming purple on the face. They received glares from the boys, who looked anything but happy.
"Now, girls, let's go, Miss Prewett you may go to your dorm. Let's leave the boys to their first detention. Oh yes, I forgot. Twenty points from Gryffindor."
The girls left, still laughing, and went to the boys dorm. They found it very similiar to theirs, except that it was already considerably messy. McGonagall drew five sleeping bags, explaining that it wasn't proper for girls to sleep in boy beds. After McGonagall left, the girls all started asking questions to Lily. Finally Lily shouted "Shut up! One speaks at a time!" and they quieted down. Carrie, curious as she was, asked Lily quietly, "Will we plan a revenge?"
"Oh, I don't know. If we do something, they'll just do something again, and it'll probably something much worse..."
"Well, I will. They just did that because of me, you know, after the hair incident," Alexandra said angrily.
"Why don't we think about it tomorrow?" Lily suggested, dying to sleep. The girls agreed and went to sleep.
The next day the girls all woke up with a sleepy look on the face, but their faces were not as sleepy as the Marauders(the nickname had already circulated, so now everyone called them the Marauders, even though Alex always 'hmphed' when she heard it) faces was. They glared at the girls, who all smiled sweetly in spite of their sleepiness. Lily thought she heard Alex whispering to James, "Just wait for my revenge" but when she looked at Alex she was speaking to Ellen. They proceeded to the Great Hall and when they entered it they discovered just how fast gossip spread at Hogwarts.