- Chapter #2 -

Another Bad Beginning

Lily stood by her bed with her mouth hanging open, while James looked around her room. It didn't reflect her personality at all; it was all plain. As he walked around, trying to find some trace of Lily's life in that room, he took a wrong step and toppled over onto a trashcan. Unfortunately for James, he had landed in the same trashcan that Lily had recently thrown a good deal of molded ham sandwiches in.

"Eurgh!" he shouted as he picked a green substance off his shirt. "What is this rubbish, Lils?"

Lily felt horrible. She couldn't stand James, but even he didn't deserve to bathe in moldy ham. "I'm sorry, Potter," she said, flinching. Apologizing to James wasn't something that came very easily to her; she had too much pride. "My mum won't stop giving me these horrid sandwiches, even though she knows I hate ham. So I sort-of developed this habit of throwing them on the floor and ignoring them, and Gemma just owled me, telling me to clean up, so-" Lily rambled on, pacing across the room until she, too slipped, on a piece of ham that had flown astray when James fell over. She landed right next to James.

"POTTER!" she yelled, and hit him across the head. "Hey!" he replied, "It's not my fault you're a slob! YOU shouldn't have left all this crud in your room to begin with!"

"If you hadn't apparated into my trash can," she exaggerated, "this wouldn't have happened. Now we've both got mold on our bums. This is all your fault, Potter!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is TOO!" Lily shouted – it was a wonder her parents hadn't come up yet to see what was going on – and shoved James' head into the trashcan.

"EVANS! You'll pay for that! You'd better be happy I don't have a wand with me right now, because I'd be very tempted to break the Underage Wizardry rules!" James dove at her. They fought for a full 10 minutes, until James got fed up. He grabbed Lily's things and apparated the two to Gemma's house, just as they heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

Lily's POV

As I walked into Gemma's mansion from her front yard, I was absolutely fuming. Stupid Potter had covered me in mold – not to mention tried to kiss me (again) while he was at it! Now I stunk of molded ham and Potter.

I looked on the bright side. "At least I'm not the only one!" Potter happened to have even more of the horrid mold on him than I did, and he definitely deserved it. He not only had it all over his body, but in his face and down his shirt. Oh… I had made sure of that. He squirmed awkwardly; the mold down his shirt must have been getting to him.

I chuckled as he attempted to pick chunks of Merlin-knows-what out of his "oh-so-perfect" jet-black hair. No girls would want to run their fingers through it now that it was temporarily dyed green; it was almost as greasy as Snape's. I didn't mind his hair being greasy, though. He deserved it! All I'd ever wanted to do with it was yank it off his head anyway.

I was relieved that I wouldn't be the only one walking into the Waters mansion covered in ham, and especially relieved that James was worse off than I was. The two of us walked up to the door and James rang the bell.

I decided that I might as well make good use of the time it took for one of our friends to get to the door, so I ranted at him. "Thanks a load, Potter!" I yelled. "Now I'm standing on the porch of a bloody mansion, covered in crud from my shoulders down! I probably look like some crazed hobo, all because of you. You just had to apparate to my – WAIT!" A smile split across my face as I realized something. "You apparated to my house! You're only 16!"

"Good to know you keep track of my age, love," James replied cockily. I gave him one of what Sirius called my "Avada Kedavra glares". He almost cringed, but caught himself just in time.

I had cornered him! I'd finally gotten blackmail on him! "Potter, how could you apparate to my house without your apparating license? We all know that you can only get one of those when you're 17 or older." I smiled; I could definitely use this against him!

James' POV

I didn't pay attention to any of Lily's rude comments and accusations as we waited for someone to come down and open the door. I was paying too much attention to her legs; "Man!" I thought, "That girl looks good in anything!" Even the molded ham looked good on her. She made it look downright sexy!

Well, at least I didn't pay attention, until I heard the word "apparate". Then I snapped back from my trance, wrenching my eyes away from the gorgeous figure in front of me, and pretending to focus on a shrub.

"Potter," she said, "how could you apparate to my house without your apparating license? We all know that you can only get one of those when you're 17 or older."

"Oh no," I thought. She had me cornered! I tried to appear collected and calm, but my fear got the better of me. "Er… um, well ya see…" I stammered. It was no use! She'd figure out my secret. I thought of poor Remus, being shunned from the rest of the population at Hogwarts. Tears started to come to my eyes, but I fought them off. Luckily, though, I was interrupted from my mourning for Remus, because I couldn't have held out much longer, and Lily would've seen me crying. That would've been a huge blow to my pride.

"Oy! James! What happened to you two?" Sirius was standing at the door. I could've kissed him! I had been extremely close to having to tell Lily about he, Peter, and I being illegal animagi. As part of the transformation, we'd all had to learn to apparate. I had no doubt that the 3 of us would've been hauled off to Azkaban in under an hour if Padfoot hadn't opened that door.

Sirius took notice of the grin on my face. "You look happy to see me, mate! What's been going on here? Are you two hiding something?" he hinted and winked at Lily. She didn't take that too well.

Lily gave Sirius a glare that would've sent a Slytherin to their knees, but he wasn't affected. The two of us had grown used to Lily's "Avada Kedavra glares", as we'd referred to them as over the years. After all, we were the only two people in all of Hogwarts that had the privilege of witnessing these lethal glares on a daily basis. They were constantly directed at us.

"Just let us in, Black," she said through clenched teeth.

"Okay, okay then, doll! But let me get the two of you some towels first. You look bloody awful! Mrs. W would murder me if I let you in the house like that," Sirius replied. "I get the whole story once you're all cleaned up, though!" he shouted as he ran to get towels for Lily and I.

Sirius paced back and forth across the room that he and James shared at the Potter mansion in Godric's Hollow. He'd been extremely twitchy ever since the two of them had left Gemma's.

James was nervous and jumpy, too, but for a different reason than he assumed Sirius to be. James was nervous because of Lily's threat to alter certain parts of his anatomy with a shrinking potion should he or Sirius come anywhere near her again during her stay at Gemma's house.

Sirius' problem, however, was a mystery to James. Gemma apparently knew something that she shouldn't, because poor Sirius got a horribly shocked look on his face after she'd whispered something in his ear. "You wouldn't!" he'd exclaimed but she just nodded her head and said, "Oh yes, Padfoot, I would. Don't put it below me."

"Gemma, no!" he'd yelled.

"I will, Black, if you don't behave."

While Sirius paced, James concentrated on thinking of new ways to win over Lily. He'd almost used up all of his ideas already. Sirius interrupted his contemplations, though. "She knows," he said quietly.

Loads of different thoughts raced through James' head. He assumed that "she" was Gemma, but what did she know? There were thousands of Marauder secrets, each one worse that the last. As he reviewed them all in his head, one particular thing stood out.

"Padfoot!" James shouted, "She knows about us being illegal animagi, doesn't she?" Sirius nodded, and James' heart nearly collapsed. If Gemma knew, then Lily probably knew, too, or would know soon.

"Well, not exactly. She only knows about me. She's got no clue that you and Wormtail are, too, or that Moony is a werewolf." James sighed. "Thank Merlin!" he thought, but he was still extremely worried for Sirius and Moony, and puzzled as to how Gemma knew about Sirius being animagi. Fortunately, Sirius knew the answer to that.

"Apparently, she visits Hagrid sometimes, because that's where she was when she found out. It was that full moon when you were in the hospital wing, because of your… run-in with Evans," James winced as he remembered a full night of Skele-Gro after Lily had removed all of the bones from his left leg. He'd charmed her tie to choke her, and she hadn't been too happy about that. Sirius noticed his expression and patted him on the back. "It's okay, mate," he said, "Just try to forget the whole incident. Sorry about reminding you." Sirius knew how embarrassing it had been for James to have Evans humiliate him right after a big Quidditch victory

Sirius continued, "Anyway, Prongs, she saw me transform. I guess she went into Hagrid's hut before she could see Peter do the same, or to see us go into the Whomping Willow.

"Oh man, Sirius! What're we going to do?" James wasn't worried only for Sirius but for Remus, too. Remus, and all the Marauders, knew that being a werewolf meant being an outcast for life. They all knew that Remus was nowhere near ready for life after Hogwarts. He barely even made it with the rest of the Marauders running around every full moon with him.

If Gemma let something slip, anyone could find out about Remus. What was left of his peaceful life at Hogwarts would be over and done with.

"James, I don't know what to do!"

James' face lit up; he'd thought of something.

"For now," he replied," we submit to the ladies' wishes." Sirius' face fell.

"Not for long, Padfoot! Don't worry, only until tonight. You'd better get some sleep now, and stock up on Chocolate Frogs and Drooble's Best Blowing Gum."

Sirius looked confused, until James said, "Oh – and Padfoot, owl Arthur Weasley, that Gryffindor that graduated a few years ago, and ask him to lend us a tape recorder. I think that's what they're called, anyway."

Sirius' face lit up in understanding, and he ran off to get James' snowy owl, Quaffle.

Chapter 2!!! Hope ya liked it! I didn't really like it as much as my last chapter, but I promise everything will get better. It's gonna be a little slow at first. Please R&R.
::::Savanna::::