Chapter 14:
Sirius had never felt happier after a detention. When rearranging Professor Agrippa's desk, after throwing a dungbomb at it during Defense against the Dark Arts, he found something that made his life ten times better. After opening one of her desk drawers, he had found a bunch of maps of passageways in Hogwarts. Six of them led to Hogsmeade and two of them led to the kitchens.
'James in gonna flip when he sees this!' he thought. 'What if Professor Agrippa finds out?' He asked himself, in a voice quite unlike his own. 'Nah!' he answered, sounding more like himself. 'She's go so much crap in here that she wouldn't notice if I took Evans paper out of the stack of ungraded assignments due last week—hey! That's not a bad idea!'
Sirius laughed at his own genius, but didn't take Lily's paper. Yes, he was reckless, but not that mean. Instead, he went up to the Gryffindor Common Room to show James the maps he had found. It looked like he was going to be able to take Theresa out after all!
When he got up there, however, he decided to hold off on telling James about his new discover. James looked miserable, not that that would've stopped him. What stopped him was the fact that Remus sent him a look that clearly stated, 'speak, and I'll kill you.'
'What's wrong?' he mouthed at Remus.
'Rachel broke up with him.'
'Oh…'
Remus then mouthed something long that Sirius couldn't read.
'What?' he mouthed back confused.
'I know.' Remus said.
'No!' Sirius corrected, 'What did you say?'
'Oh!' Remus then proceeded to mouth the same long sentence.
'I still don't know what you're saying!'
Remus then wrote something down on a piece of paper, crinkled it up into a ball and threw it to Sirius. James didn't notice Sirius caught it, un-wrinkled it and began to read:
If James asks you, Rachel was NOT going out with Frank Longbottom before they broke up!
Rachel's going out with Frank? I thought Alice and Frank were going out.
They broke up—I think it'll be temporary though. They seem so perfect for each other, you know?
You sound like a girl Moony! Perfect—blah, blah, blah. Sucks to be James. I have something that'll cheer him up though.
NO! Wait! Don't give it to him yet! Let me see it first!
Why? Do you not trust me?
Quite frankly, no.
Fine here it is.
Remus opened up the maps and stared at them in awe. He smiled, thinking of all the places they could go with them. He then handed them to James.
"Hey James! I think that Sirius found something that'll cheer you up!"
Lily woke up on May 20th feeling happier than she had felt in a long time. No, it wasn't because she and Emmie had started talking again, and it wasn't because she had suddenly become the most popular girl in Hogwarts. It was because it was her birthday.
As she yawned and stretched, she felt a lump at the end of her bed. She opened her eyes to see a huge stack of presents. Most conspicuous of all was a beautiful brown owl. She saw a note attached. She wondered who the note was from—she didn't know anyone who owned that owl. The note read:
To our dearest Lily,
We hope you enjoy your twelfth birthday, along with your knew owl friend. We haven't picked out a name for him yet, we thought we'd let you decide. He's been living with us since Christmas and he's really quite friendly. You see, we were going to give him to you for Christmas, but with everything going on, we decided to wait until your birthday. Please use him to write home more—we've hardly heard from you at all this year!
Love,
Mom and Dad
Lily immediately felt bad—for although her parents hadn't meant to make her feel guilty, she wished that she had written more to them. She had just completely forgotten with everything that had been going on lately. She decided to thank them for her presents right then, well, after she had named her owl of course.
"What shall I call you?" She asked it.
For answer, the owl just stared up at her with its ebony brown eyes.
"Ebony! What a wonderful idea." Lily exclaimed. "Well Ebony, are you up for a journey?"
Ebony hooted in reply.
Lily quickly began writing:
Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you so much for your gift. Ebony (my owl) will prove very useful throughout my entire life. Many students at Hogwarts have owls and I have always envied them. Thank you so much!
Also, I'm sorry for not haven written to you much lately. Life at Hogwarts has been rather busy, and I haven't had much free time. I promise to write more once things settle down a bit. Although I may not need to—after ally, I will be coming home soon! I can't wait to see you again!
Love,
Lily
PS: Thank Petunia for her present as well and wish her a "Happy Birthday" for me.
Lily added the last bit after seeing her sister's small present laying on the top of the pile. She then attached the parchment onto Ebony's leg and opened her window so that she Ebony could fly out of it.
She shrugged and thought she might as well get her sister's present over with first. You know, save the best for last. She read the short not saying "Happy Birthday –Petunia" and then proceeded to open the parcel. She was only a tad disappointed when she saw a one pound ring. Oh well, it had been better than the coat-hanger she had received last year.
Their parents had always made them buy presents for each other on their birthdays, whether they liked it or not. Lily had always bought her sister rather pleasant things. This year, for instance, she had purchased a shirt from a magazine for her that should have arrived a few days ago. Lily had hoped that by giving her the nice present early, it would urge her sister to buy her something a little more special.
'Maybe that's why I got a ring instead of toe-nail clippers.' Lily thought to herself.
Lily opened her next present. It was a box from Hagrid filled with sweets—all of her favorites from Halloween: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, and Drouble's Best Chewing Gum. It was so large Lily doubted as to whether she'd ever be able to finish it all.
The next present was from Remus—it was a book on charms. Lily skimmed through it and found it very interesting. It taught technique that Flitwick had never taught them. It also had moving pictures of a hand performing the charm. Although some of the charms were extremely complicated, she loved it all the same.
After Lily opened Remus' present, she noticed one letter left. She opened it up to see a long letter from Emmie, it read:
Dear Lily,
I am sorry for what happened a couple of months ago. Although I can't truthfully tell you that I'm completely over my prejudice, I am working on it. I want you to know that I don't hate Remus—I'm just a little scared. You must understand, by growing up in a pure-blood household, I was taught that werewolves were dangerous creatures and I was never to go near them.
Although I know that Remus is not dangerous, that is when it's not a full-moon, I'm still rather frightened. When I was little, I listened to a Radio Show on the WWN called "Willie the Weary Werewolf." It was about a werewolf who would randomly attack anyone at will. He went from village to village attacking them. I had to sleep with a light on for an entire year after that.
Also, all throughout my childhood, I read articles in the paper about werewolf attacks. Everything around me taught me that werewolves were dangerous creatures and that going near them or fraternizing with them would cause ill-health to me.
It's not easy to come over a prejudice that I have believed to be true my entire life. I may not be able to get over it as quickly as you like, but I wanted you to know, that I'm going to try. I hope that you can accept my apology—I never should of blown up at you.
Yours,
Emmie
Also in the envelope was a gift certificate to a candy shop in Diagon Alley.
As she neared the end of the letter, Lily felt guilty—it wasn't entirely Emmie's fault for what had happened that night. Lily was as much to blame as Emmie for what had happened. She felt badly that Emmie had taken full responsibility for what had happened—she would say her share of apologies at lunch, she decided.
It was a sunny day in mid-May and most students were to be found on the grounds or by the lake. Three studious first years, however, were inside studying for their end of the year exams. The recently reunited group of friends was having a surprisingly good time while practicing charms.
This charms work however, was rather amusing—Lily, Emmie and Remus were charming fruits to do impressions of different things. Remus had charmed an apricot to talk like Snape—he called it "Snape's butt." Lily didn't usually approve when James or Sirius hexed Snape, but Remus was doing in such a jovial way that she let herself laugh. Besides, he wasn't actually hurting Snape, he was just making fun of him.
Next it was Lily's turn. She decided to charm her pineapple to tap dance for them. At the end of the show, Remus and Emmie laughed. They all had to admit; the pineapple was quite good, for being a piece of fruit.
Emmie then proceeded to charm her star-fruit to do front flips. The star-fruit, however, proved not to be such a good gymnast. Emmie did a good job on the charm; the star-fruit just wasn't very aerodynamic.
The first years had just finished their first set of exams and were happy that they had gotten them over with. James and Sirius were proud to be the only first years to have not studied once. Remus hoped that their marks would knock some sense into them. They were both brilliant, Remus knew that they were smarter than him, when they wanted to be, they just didn't try hard.
"Look!" James said, pointing to the bulletin board in the common room, "The exam scores are up!"
"They are?" Remus asked, "Let's go see them!"
The boys got up and headed over to the bulletin board. The people looking at the board quickly moved away—James and Sirius were bound to hex anyone out of their way.
"Lets see." Remus said, "Transfiguration P, CharmsA, History of Magic D, Potions D, Herbology A, Astronomy A, and Defense Against the Dark Arts A."
"Those are your scores Moony?" Sirius asked, astonished. "That's gotta suck!"
"Those are your scores, Sirius." Remus clarified.
"They are? YES!"
"I got…" James began, "Transfiguration O, Charms A, History of Magic D, Potions P, Herbology A, Astronomy E, and Defense Against the Dark Arts E."
"Alright Potter!" Sirius exclaimed "How did you do Moony?"
"Okay," Remus shrugged.
"C'mon tell us!" James pleaded.
"Errrrr… I got…" Remus said, blushing a little. "Transfiguration E, Charms E, History of Magic A, Potions E, Herbology O, Astronomy O, and Defense Against the Dark Arts O."
"Damn it Moony! How do you manage to keep such good grades?" Sirius asked, impressed.
"I actually study." Remus explained.
"Blah! Who needs that? Damn that Kelsey Mitchell sure is hot!" Staring at a pretty fourth year girl.
"Someone's getting over their heartbreak rather quickly" Remus muttered, but James didn't hear him.
"Come off it, mate. She's a third year, she'll never date you." Sirius said.
"Hey! You dated Theresa Winterson."
"We're talking about you, not me." Sirius reminded him
"Shut up." James said.
There first year at Hogwarts was finally over. It was tons of fun, but James felt glad to be going home. He had missed his parents over the past year, and although he had written to them, it wasn't the same as having them around. Also, even though he wouldn't admit it barring an unforgivable curse, he had missed his brother as well. Plus, his brother didn't know that he wasn't allowed to use magic over the summer.
As the train came to a stop, Sirius packed up the exploding Snap cards and Remus put away his book. Before leaving their compartment, the three boys said their good byes. And although they weren't saying their final farewell, it sure felt like a long time before they would see each other again.
"You guys should come over this summer." James suggested, "We have a pool and a Quidditch Pitch—bring your swimming trunks and your broomsticks. It should be fun."
"Yeah," agreed Remus, "You guys can come over to my house too, I mean we don't have a pool or a Quidditch Pitch, but feel free to stop by all the same."
"I'd invite you guys over to my house, but my mum would kill herself—not that I'd mourn or anything." Sirius said.
"C'mon, is your mum really that bad?" Remus asked.
"Hell yeah, and it'll be worse now that I've been sorted into Gryffindor. I'm now officially a 'blood traitor.'" Sirius said glumly.
"Sorry, mate. Feel free to come over any time." James offered.
"I'm gonna hold you on that." Sirius said, holding out his hand. James shook it and the boys proceeded with their customary secret handshake.
After they had finished their handshake, the boys heard a knock on the window. A middle-aged woman with brown hair and glasses looked at James through the window. Elizabeth Potter stared in at the boys, with an expression on her face which clearly stated 'we need to go now.'
With that, James said a final "good-bye" to his two best friends, and left the compartment, wondering what the summer would bring.
A/N: And so finishes Part 1 of the Green Skull. I hope you've been enjoying it so far:-) If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to let me know in your review. I know that that first par could've easily been added on to the last chapter, but, quite honestly, I forgot:-) I mean I knew I wanted that in there, but I forgot to add it on! The next update probably won't be for a while. My guess is in a couple of weeks. :-) I'm sorry!