Disclaimer: I do not own these characters which J.K. Rowling so kindly allowed us to use in these meager fantasies of the Harry Potter world. I do own the story though.
The Wind Through My Hair
Lily checked her watch as she sat idly in the library. She really had no business there, but she had nothing else to do.
"Really, aren't I supposed to be a Marauder?" she asked herself sarcastically. A Marauder with nothing to do...that was simply nonsense. Lily had already been in the group for about a month. Their deal had been for three months- still plenty of time for her develop a wild-child attitude.
So, back to square one- Lily had nothing to do but wait. She was waiting for 2:30, when she would go up to her dorm and prepare for her crash course in flying. Lily could not wait, and yet, she was so jittery and nervous. Flying on a broomstick sounded very dangerous, especially if you did not know what you were doing. Lily Evans really, really did not know what she was doing. Still, she was compelled to try it. She didn't want to seem as if she was so excited about it; wouldn't that make her look like a dork? So, here she sat, in the library, acting as if she had better things to do. Right, the library was so much cooler.
She checked her watch compulsively until it was 2:26. Close enough. She grabbed her belongings and walked briskly up the stairs, almost running. If she hadn't walked so fast, she was afraid her knees might have buckled beneath her she was quaking so badly. Lily dashed through the common room and jetted into her dorm room. She then paused and began to pace. What did one need when flying?
Well, the Quidditch players always had on some for of padding...where would she get that? And, well, they had those neat sort of shoes on...sort of like boots. She didn't have any of those either. And a cape? Why, that would look silly! It was only for the uniform, wasn't it? But, maybe it had to do with some sort of aerial involvement or something really important...And a broom! Lily didn't have a broom! Lily grimaced- where would she get all of this? Seriously, it must all cost a fortune.
"Well, I suppose I ought to improvise, otherwise I'll fall off my...er...nonexistent broom and die!" Lily said, to herself.
Her head darted around the room. It was a mess. There were clothes and makeup strewn around, and all of their beds were unmade. Some of the drawers were open in their haste to find something to wear, and the curtains were drawn messily open. There had to be something in this mess that would help her. Lily grabbed two pillows and took the ribbon keeping part of the curtain open, and tied one pillow on her back and one on her front. She looked in the mirror and nodded...it looked nothing like the hard armor-like protection the players wore, but it could help, couldn't it? She then put on some black combat boots she sometimes wore on the weekends in winter, and tied her hair up in a high ponytail, so her hair wasn't in her face. Lily looked over herself again, and smiled. This ought to do it. As Lily exited the room, she stopped and hastily grabbed her dragon skin gloves- they should come in handy gripping that broom!
Lily walked into the near empty common room. She had finished her "uniform" just in time. It was 3:01, and the few people lounging around looked at her strangely as she passed by with as much dignity as she could possibly muster. James was sitting in one of the best chairs there, which was facing the fire. He didn't seem to be paying attention and was writing with vigor on a piece of parchment.
"Ahem..." Lily cleared her throat. James shook his head in surprise and looked up. His eyes widened, and he promptly began laughing.
"WHAT are you wearing?" he asked her.
"Have you forgotten? You've forgotten haven't you," Lily said, now relatively cross.
"What, that there was a masquerade ball today? Apparently I have," he said.
"NO! That you've got to teach me how to fly!"
"Of course I haven't forgotten. Doesn't explain why you're wearing that."
"Because...because..." she was very flustered. "BECAUSE we're flying!" Lily could not find a more reasonable answer. Wasn't it obvious? She had to protect herself from the hard ground below. He didn't honestly expect her to go flying without appropriate wear, did he?
He began to laugh again, and didn't seem to stop for much longer. "Lily, just go with me to the pitch. I hope by then everything will be a bad dream and I can get you into normal clothes."
___________________________________________________
Lily walked with James to the equipment closet, which was located inside the locker room where Quidditch players prepared for the game. He opened a large wooden cabinet and threw out hard looking shoulder protection, knee pads, and some small lace up boots. She put them on, but it took her a while, as she at first tried to but the shoulder guards on her knees. Finally, James handed her an old looking, wiry broom. It was an old starshooter, one of the older models. It's handle was knotty and crooked looking. Lily looked at it apprehensively.
"I'm not supposed to ride that, am I?"
"Unless you want to ride in the air without a broom, then yes. It's pretty slow, but you don't need a fast broom at this point," James said.
"It lookes...unstable," Lily said, eyeing it.
"It's not. Just trust me on this one, okay?" James said, with far too much confidence in his voice. Lily simply nodded, and then walked out onto the vast open area where they would be practicing. The looked even bigger when there were no peopel crowding the stands.
"Okay, first thing's first. Put your broom on the ground and put your hand over it. Then say 'up.'" James instructed.
Lily put her hand over the broom and said, "Up." The broom did not go up. "Up." Lily said slightly louder. The broom did not even move. "UP!!!" Lily shouted, losing a bit of patience. The broom shot up out of the air and into her hand. Lily stumbled backward from the blow and landed on her butt. James looked like he wanted to laugh badly, but settled for retrained snickering. Lily got up grumpily.
"You've got to loosen up. You're too uptight. Too...restricted," said James, knowledgably.
"Well, I did it. Is that all? Are we going to actually fly now?" Lily asked.
"Er, if you really want to..." James didn't think she wasn't going to be a very good flier after that demonstration. "Well, hold the broom in between your legs, and sort of sit on it I suppose...then stomp on the ground and think about lifting up. You should go up in the air," he said. James was starting to get on Lily's nerves. He was a good flier, but his head seemed to be inflating by the second because he knew more about this than Lily did.
Lily put the broom in-between her legs and was about to stomp lightly when she stopped and remembered what she had just done. If she said it forcefully first time around, she should lift up. Lily wanted to show James's sneering face that she could fly. She closed her eyes and though of herself zooming through the air at top speed, the wind rushing past her, sending that chill in her stomach. She then stomped so forcefully on the ground, the broom shot up the air, and Lily was sent screaming, lurched upward.
"AHHHH!" Lily yelled, as the broom went totally berserk. Her hands were sweaty and slippery as they lost contact with the broom handle, and she was jerked off the broom and landed with an unpleasant thump on the dirt ground below. Lily was aching, but she didn't really feel angry about it until she realized James was on the ground too, laughing hysterically. Lily jumped to her feet, angry and glared at him, hoping her death stare would make him stop laughing. He didn't get the message as his eyes were closed as he continued to laugh jovially.
"You are such an idiot! Instead of helping me, you're just laughing! You think you know EVERYTHING about Quidditch! You are so arrogant!" she shouted. Lily was beyond embarrassed and very angry he had the nerve to laugh at her. She had been scared stiff.
James stopped laughing, but the mirth definitely had not died from his eyes. He looked up at her and tutted. "Tsk, Tsk, Evans. Thou shall not insult another Marauder! States so clearly in rule 102," he said innocently, with a slight bit of sarcasm in his voice.
"Ugh!" She was on the verge of saying that rule was fake, but then, she had promised to go by the rules. "Fine. I'll meet you here next week at the same time and place. I hope you'll be more of a teacher and less of a jerk," she said, walking away before he could talk about any more rules.
_________________________________________________
Lily was absolutely annoyed. Every time Lily did something slightly mean, or sometimes, even just being common sensical, James would say a rule. Lily had finally said one of the rules was fake, but James simply said, "Thou shall not doubt thy Marauder rules." She was completely and utterly on the verge of murder, but had then restrained herself from strangling James because she was positive one of the unwritten rules was "Thou shall not kill another Marauder." She shook her head and finished polishing her prefect's badge. Tonight was her night patrol the halls with Remus.
She met up with him in from of the entrance hole, an began her rounds. She caught several students walking about after hours, and completely forgot about being un-strict and carefree. She was so annoyed, she didn't even care at the moment. It was later in the night that things seemed to quiet down, and the end of their rounds was drawing near. Lily did not like the deafening silence that surrounded them, so she tried to strike up a conversation.
"So, doing anything this weekend? It's Hogmeade weekend you know," she said, casually.
"Er, yeah, I suppose I'll go to Hogsmeade. Sort of loses its charm after a while though, don't you think so? But it's always fun with James and Sirius. You're coming too, of course," he said.
"Well, I don't know if I'll make it in time. I mean, I've got my second lesson with James and all..." she said.
"Lessons?"
"Um, yeah...didn't you know? Broom flying lessons with James. I wanted to learn, and so we just sort of made this deal. As long as I follow all your stupid rules," she said.
"Er...what rules?" Remus asked.
"The 'unwritten Marauder rules.' James said I had to follow them if I wanted to be a Marauder," she said, uncertain now.
"Oh. Well...I didn't know we had rules," Remus said, frowning slightly.
"Oh. I see." Lily was scowling now. No rules? Had Sirius and James simply made them up so she would be annoyed and do some of their chores for them? That was probably why whenever she did something they didn't like, he would simply make up a rule so she would stop. Lily. Was. Furious.
A/N: Hey! Please Review! Sorry it took so long for me to update. I was out of town, so I couldn't write anything or upload. Also, I got a couple reviews saying Charlie was only 26 as of book 5...I'm sorry, I didn't know! I'm making him older in this story, because it was never actually mentioned in the HP books as to how old he really is. So, I guess it can be pretty flexible, can't it? I'm also too lazy to change it, so I'm sorry, just deal! Heh...^_^; Thanks to ALL my reviewers! I love you all!
.
