I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I own copies of the Harry Potter books...not any of the ideas or characters inside....
Okay, a brief explanation of any spelling troubles or such...the new quick edit thing isn't working on my computer, so I'm doing what I can.
Voila, the next chapter....
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Chapter 11, Something Important:
"We're overlooking something," James declared, "We are most definitely overlooking something important."
"Prongsie, we've gone over everything a hundred times. It'll work like clockwork."
But James wasn't satisfied. Over the past three weeks, he and the other marauders had been quiet, eerily quiet, some said. No pranks, well, no big ones. Few detentions. The only ongoing project was Operation Lily-Love, and that was covert.
And going well, considering that it was centered around the girl who James was willing to bet was the most intractable and obstinate girl in all of Hogwarts. She'd been civil to him, mostly because she'd fail potions if she wasn't. Oh, James knew the prank was progressing nicely. He'd convinced the school that he was in love with Lily Marie Evans, and she'd certainly confirmed that she didn't share the feelings. The whole situation was driving her up the wall, and there wasn't a thing she could do about it. He was annoying her, maddening her, irritating her, exasperating her, infuriating her, and more. Yes, the plan was proceeding nicely.
But James wasn't satisfied. He wanted to up the intensity, prove that he'd given up his dating life for a reason. But how? Maybe if he—
"OI PRONGS!" Sirius shouted, bringing James back to the present. "Weren't you listening to a thing I just said?"
"No, not really," James admitted, still distracted, still thinking about Lily. "Where are Remus and Peter, anyway?"
"They're in Hogsmeade. With your invisibility cloak. They took the secret passageway, the one behind the mirror on the seventh floor."
James nodded. "Right, they're getting materials. For The Hoax."
"Right."
"We're missing something there, Padfoot. Something isn't going to work.
Sirius rolled his eyes. The marauders had decided that, as they'd been so good for the past few weeks, they ought to wake the school up this October. They'd decided to pull off a hoax to put all others to shame, a prank to go down in the history books. Actually, a month of pranks, all leading up to Halloween night.
So they'd planned it out, figured out the logistics, determined an infallible course of action, and once Remus and Pete got back from Hogsmeade with the materials, they'd begin the setup.
James, however, wasn't convinced. He was sure that they'd "missed something" in their planning, and had been saying so for the past week. By now, the rest of the marauders were more than annoyed with him.
"Look, James, if you're planning to sit here repeating yourself over and over again, then don't. Why don't you go drool over Evans for a bit?"
That got his attention. "I do not drool over her, I flirt. There's a difference."
"No," Sirius insisted. "You drool. And if you don't stop it, people are going to think you're actually serious about her."
"People do think I'm serious about her, that's half the point."
Sirius shook his head, and caught James's eye. Now was as good a time as any to out this piece of news. "By people, I mean us. The marauders. Either your acting is getting better, or there's something up here."
James blinked, then winced as Sirius's statement rushed over and slapped him in the face. "WHAT? Sirius, you can't possibly think, I mean, how could you even suggest that I like Lily Evans? She's—" He floundered about, searching for a word.
"Well she's quite pretty, to begin with," Sirius pointed out. "I mean, if you like that sort of thing."
"She's not pretty," James stated determinedly.
"And smart, you can't deny that."
"I don't like smart people." James seemed determined to prove that he was not, in any way, after Lily. Except as a prank, of course.
"And she doesn't like you."
"How is that a reason?"
Sirius shrugged. "I'm just pointing out the possibilities here."
James took a deep breath, and pulled himself together. "Sirius, so what if she's pretty and smart and all? She's fun to argue with, and amusing to prank. That's it." He caught Sirius's eyes and held them, trying to convince his friend that there was nothing going on between him and Lily. And never likely to be anything, either.
Sirius looked at him for a minute, then grinned. "Okay, you're right, it's ridiculous. I'm sorry to suggest it, but it's just that there's something odd there, and I can't put my finger on it. Lily's too good for you anyhow." He ducked as James pulled a pillow off of one of the beds in the dormitory, and threw it.
"Is not. Just because you're jealous of my good looks and impeccable charm is no reason to lie."
"And just because I've got a girlfriend and you're left pretending to like Evans is no reason to throw a pillow at me."
James considered this for a moment, then decided. "Yes it is," and another pillow flew over to hit Sirius dead on the nose.
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James loved weekends, and this weekend promised to be a good one. Quidditch tryouts were tomorrow, finally. The Quidditch Pitch had apparently been "redone" and had been off limits for the past few weeks. So James hadn't picked out a team yet, even though the first game was in early November. October was going to be a—hectic—month, and he wasn't sure how much practice the team was going to get before their first game. Oh well, he thought, at least it's only against Ravenclaw. They haven't won the cup in forever.
So tryouts were tomorrow, James thought, trying to order his mind. And tonight was the marauder's meeting in the Room of Requirement, at nine o'clock. And the rest of the weekend? Preparations, mostly, for The Hoax. James grinned. Oh yes, this was going to be a wonderful weekend.
He headed down the stairs and into the common room, his eyes scanning for a certain redhead. Not here, unfortunately. So James smiled at a group of 3rd years who were looking his way, and clambered out of the portrait hole.
He knew exactly where to go, of course. This was OWL year, and all the teachers seemed determined to murder their 5th years by way of homework. The marauders hadn't had trouble with the new levels of homework, but then again, that could be because they didn't even try to do most of it. Well, except for Remus, but he usually did his work while his friends weren't about to tease him about it.
James capered happily towards the library, whistling a tune and wishing there could be just a few more weekends every week. He was almost to his destination when he heard a commotion.
"You filthy mudblood!"
"Oh come on, just ignore him, he's a Slytherin, after all."
James rushed around the corner to see what the trouble was. With very little surprise, James found a Slytherin 5th year, Severus Snape, and a 4th year Gryffindor girl facing eachother in the hallway, glaring. The girl's friend, who James thought he might once have dated, was trying to pull her friend away towards the library, but she wasn't having much success.
James shook his head. Slytherins had no business detaining Gryffindors in the hallway. He took a step forward. "Well isn't it a beautiful morning, Snivellus?" he sneered.
Severus Snape raised his head quickly, making his long black hair, greasy and unwashed as it was, swing slightly. It framed a pale and pimpled face, with eyes black and tunnel-like, and thin, snakelike lips. There was fear in his eyes, though, looking up at the much taller and more athletic James Potter.
"Was until you showed up," he muttered under his breath, but he was moving subtly down the hallway, inching away from James.
"Oh, come on now, Snivellus, don't you think you owe this poor girl an apology before you leave?" The girl, now standing next to James, smiled cheekily and nodded.
"No, not really," Snape said the words with confidence, though he clearly knew where they would land him.
James had his wand out in a flash, and as he was near the top of his Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he had plenty of curses to back himself up.
"Expelliarmus," of course, was the first spell to use, then "Silencio," just to make sure. Then, of course, James was at his leisure. He paused, glancing around, and remembered Sirius's wake up call on the first day of school. "Tarantallegra," he used.
Everyone was laughing, and the laughter only increased as Snape's legs began to dance uncontrollably. James was just raising his wand for another go, when he received a surprise. There was suddenly another figure between him and Snivellus, a certain redhead. James felt his heart sink. Lily wasn't the greatest fan of Slytherin-baiting.
"Potter, what do you think you're doing?" she asked loudly. Still, her voice was barely heard over the continuing laughter.
"Actually, Evans, I was protecting a fellow Gryffindor." Oh, please, she could hardly fault him for coming to the rescue of a housemate, could she? That would be ridiculous.
"By making Snape dance? How very intelligent of you," Lily said, voice positively dripping with sarcasm. "You do know Flitwick's room is just down the hall, don't you? You could get a teacher instead of breaking school rules by dueling in the hallways."
She was being ridiculous. "Calm down, Evans, he's just a Slytherin."
Lily's eyes widened, and her face flushed with anger. "Just a Slytherin? And what does that make you? Just an arrogant, big-headed, self-centered," her voice rose with every word, and she cut herself off, trying to regain control of the situation. "Twenty points from Gryffindor."
"What?!! Are you nuts?" Was she nuts? This was crazy, completely mad, and quite batty. All he'd done was get back at a filthy, unwashed Slytherin for insulting a Gryffindor. And it wasn't as though he'd done any lasting harm.
Lily just pressed her lips together, and walked away, looking uncannily like Professor McGonagall.
James turned back to face Snape, just in time to receive a slash across the face from Snivellus's recovered wand. He raised his own wand, but Snape was gone through the crowd before he had time to think the word "Slytherin."
James frowned, watching the crowd dissolve, nothing left for them to watch. He glanced in the direction in which Lily had disappeared, then shook his head. If he went after her now, she'd probably take more points, and that was the last thing he wanted.
No, Snivellus was a much more worthwhile target as far as pranks went...
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"So, how are the preparations going?" James asked curiously that night in the Room of Requirement. He'd spent the rest of his day sitting around, staring at various pieces of homework, and imagining the unfortunate demises of the teachers who had assigned it.
"Pretty well," Pete answered with a grin, not noticing James's slightly downhearted mood. "We got most of the supplies, so now we just have to set up for week one."
James pulled himself out of his sulk. "Great, so everything's planned?"
"You bet," Sirius said. He exchanged a grin with Peter and Remus. Which James didn't notice.
James paused, then said exactly the phrase he knew his friends didn't want to hear. "We're overlooking something, though."
They groaned, and Sirius did an incredible impression of someone falling over dead.
"Oh, come on James," he said, magically coming back to life. "We've been over this a thousand times. We planned it out, and it'll work. End of story."
James shrugged. "It probably will, but I still can't shake the feeling that we're missing something obvious."
Remus smiled, "Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Until then..." he let his words drift off into nothingness.
The marauders sat for a moment, savoring just being out after curfew, just like always. But James was feeling antsy, and he couldn't stay still for long before he was up and about once again.
James interrupted with a declaration of his own. "This thing with Lily, I changed my mind." He paused. "I want to bamboozle her. Make her think I really do like her." He looked around to see the reactions from the other marauders.
Remus shook his head. "Didn't we agree early on that that would be cruel?"
"Not really," Pete said thoughtfully. "I mean, yeah, we talked about it before, but—well, Evans isn't really the type to get worked up over a boy, is she?" He gave an amused grin. "Especially not over a guy like James."
Sirius nodded, "That's true. I mean, maybe she'll throw another plate at Prongsie's head, but its not like he keeps anything important in there anyway."
Pete laughed, but Remus still didn't look convinced. James smiled hopefully. "Oh come on Moony. I'm not going to actually go out with her or anything. But there's no challenge in just annoying her; I need a goal. A goal like, say, convincing her I like her. And after that I leave her well enough alone."
Remus raised his eyebrows, obviously not believing a word coming out of James's mouth.
"Well, I'll still prank her and all, but Operation Lily-Love will be over." James looked expectantly at Remus, waiting to see what his answer would be.
Remus shrugged. "You'll do what you want anyway, you always do," he muttered ruefully.
"But Moony!" James mock protested. "I'd not take a breath if I didn't think you approved!"
"Pity he does approve of breathing, then," Pete murmured to Sirius, who burst into a fit of giggles. Masculine giggles, that is. Well, sort of.
Remus rolled his eyes. "I'm sure." He waited a moment, then nodded, as if to himself. "Fine, I'll cooperate with the new part of Operation L-L, but James, no more changes."
"On my honor," James said innocently. "No more changes." Then he grinned unrepentantly. "Because I simply couldn't think of a way to make this prank any more fun than it already is."
He sounded so child-like, as though he'd just been given a whole bushel of Chocolate Frogs, and been told that he wasn't allowed to share them. The other three marauders fell silent, picturing young James taking all the chocolate frogs and shoving them into his mouth at once. Then, as if on cue, they all began to laugh again.
"Anyways," he interrupted the chortling of his friends, "we have another problem."
"Hmm?" Remus asked, somewhat vaguely.
"Snivellus. He's overstepping."
Sirius raised his head, immediately alert. "What did he do now?"
James frowned and gestured wordlessly at the scratch on his cheek.
"The nerve," Sirius muttered under his breath. Then, louder, "So what should we do about him?"
James shrugged. "Well, you know, there are a full thirty-one days in October. Surely we can devote just one of them to dear Snivellus." He was talking about the 31 days in The Hoax. One full day of pranks on Snape? Well, that would be uncomfortable for dear Severus.
Remus, though, seemed confused. "James?"
"Yeah?"
"How did Snape cut your face?"
James looked at his friend, a bemused expression on his face. "With his wand, Moony. What did you think?"
"No, I mean, how was it that he, er, got past your guard?"
"Oh, that." James made a face. "Evans came out from the library at the wrong moment and distracted me. Took twenty bloody points from Gryffindor, too, you know. Anyway, Snivellus got me while I was talking to her." Well, right after he'd finished talking to her, if one was going to be picky, but still. It boiled down to the same thing, really.
Remus winced. "I'm sure that's great for Operation L-L," he said with weak sarcasm.
James opened and closed his mouth. "Well, what was I supposed to do, ignore the fact that he was insulting a Gryffindor?"
Sirius glared at Remus. "Moony, Prongs is right. Snivellus deserved every moment of it. He's a greasy little slimeball, is all."
Remus shook his head, wondering exactly how thick his friends could be. "James, didn't you just decide that you wanted Lily to think you liked her?"
"And your point is what, exactly?"
"Well, you're going about it the wrong way, if you're cursing people down the hallways and forcing her to take points from the house, don't you think?"
"I did not force her to take points from Gryffindor," James said distinctly. "In fact, I seem to remember being quite against the whole thing."
"James, you dueled in the hallway. That's against the rules. So Lily, being a prefect, had to take points."
James muttered something unintelligible.
Remus shook his head. "Either way, we're getting off the topic. James, if you want Lily to think you like her, you're going to have to put some effort into it."
Sirius grinned. "He's right, mate. No difficulty, no challenge. You're going to have to stop cursing people down the hallway."
James hadn't anticipated this turn in the conversation, and it clearly wasn't making him very happy. "Look, I'm not going to stop protecting Gryffindors because some sanctimonious goody-goody thinks I'm breaking rules," he said heatedly.
Peter looked thoughtful for a moment, then spoke. "Prongs, you don't have to give it up. Just, well, tone it down a bit while Evans is around."
Sirius smiled. "Right. Then Evans thinks you're being considerate and law-abiding," someone, possibly Peter, snorted at thins, "and in real life, you can carry on with the marauder—ideals."
James agreed, if reluctantly, but Remus was worried. Every new development in Operation L-L was more disturbing than the last. First, it was just a one-time joke, and then it was extended. Then James wanted to make it more convincing, and now he was planning on lying through his teeth for the duration of the project. Remus didn't like it, not one bit. But he knew better than to interfere. James would do as he liked, and sooner or later, the whole thing would come crashing down on his head. Just like always.
And the marauders would be there, picking him up, dusting him off, and teasing him about it, just as always.
But Remus couldn't quell the tiny voice in his head saying that this time, something was different. It said that he, and the rest of the marauders, were overlooking something where Operation Lily-Love was concerned. They were overlooking something important.
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The author takes a deep breath...
Okay, aak! I'm so rushed right now. I actually don't like this chapter very much, I've got so much info to stick in here and yet my inspiration kind of went flat. I messed with the chap enough though, that I figure it's not a complete embarrassment. Ah, well, nothing to be done 'bout it now. The reason I'm rushing is that this week is "hell week" for my drama club, and for anyone who doesn't know, that's the week before the production. It's the week where the director summarily executes the majority of the cast and crew....so I may not get a chapter out for a whole 2 weeks. I'll try, but I ought to have homework up to my ears and play rehearsals and soccer and play rehearsals and then the shows. So no promises, eh?
Thanks to all my reviewers, as always, I'll give you a proper shout-out next time I post, and if you review more than once, you get extra shout-outs, don't you know it...So for those who did review, thanks for the warm fuzzy feeling, and I'll get back to you next time.
Oh, but for PinkytheSnowman and StarzInHerEyes, I eternally curse the evil teachers who give too much homework...just visualize them being slowly killed...then think of pretty flowers, hmmm?
And everyone, check out Lia Tween's story, "Forgotten Memoirs" I believe it's called. I actually role played one of the characters in chapter 7, so GO READ IT!
And of course read my story "Oddments and Essays" and my other penname with PinkytheSnowman, which is SiriuslyInsane62442. We have 2 stories in progress, "The Trouble With Evil Monkeys," and "Stalker! Letters from a Bighead."
And as always, drop me a review telling me if you liked it, what parts made you laugh, and of course, any constructive criticism you may have for me. Click that button down there, you know you waaant tooo....
Okay, now, I think I said everything I needed to, so I'll see y'all in two weeks! Something sparkly to those who reviewed last week, and a surprise to those who review this week.
MaNcHoT dU dEsTiN