sorry it took a long time. One word, school. Haha but anyway here it is –
"Peyt, Lyn, WAKE UP!" screeched a very late Lily.
"aww Lils what are you griping about so early in the morning." Peyton mumbled from under her covers.
"HISTORY OF MAGIC, FIVE MINUTES." Lily shouted.
"Bloody hell." Lynsay responded, rolling out of bed.
"Excellent, I can just go back to sleep in there." Peyton said, getting up and wrapping the covers around her before heading towards the door.
"Peyton what are you doing! You don't have your uniform on!" Lily cried.
"Yeah so? What'll that get me? A detention? It's worth it. Besides its not like Binns will notice so as long as no other teacher sees me I'll be safe." Peyton reasoned. She waited for Lynsay and Lily to put their uniforms on and their hair in a ponytail before they grabbed their books and left.
Two girls entered History of Magic, sprinting and barely making it to their seats before they were late. Binns floated through the wall and immediately droned on from last year; as if he couldn't have cared whether all the students were there or not.
One very late Peyton Starr dragged in, blankets and pillow in hand, nearly ten minutes late. Apparently she didn't see it fit to run somewhere to be on time for something she was only going to sleep through anyway. Everyone's head turned as she walked in. Where was her uniform? She shrugged them off and made for the last seat available in the classroom, right next to Peter who was looking at her like she had risen from the dead.
"What?" she snapped at him, clearly not a morning person. Peter made a squeak and asked Remus for a seat change. Remus refused as did James, but Sirius was up to the challenge so he switched with Peter.
"Why thank you for gracing us with your presence this morning Peyton." Sirius smirked.
"Shove off Black, I'm tired and I'm not a morning person." Peyton grunted from under her blanket. "So don't talk to me I'm going back to sleep."
"One condition." Sirius said. She made a muffled noise so he continued. "Share." He made a grab for the covers and magically enlarged the pillow.
"Jeebus its cold, gimme somathoseback" Peyton slurred grabbing all the covers back. They wrestled for a good 10 minutes before coming to some kind of weird arrangement and falling asleep.
All the while, James was trying to get Lily's attention. Lily paid him no mind because she was frantically scribbling down everything Binns was saying. She was quite the over achiever.
"Psssssst. EVANS!" James whispered from behind her, throwing small scraps of parchment at the back of her head. She didn't turn around. James sighed before he began to fall asleep too.
History of Magic finally came to an end, much to Lily's cramped hand's relief. She walked over to a lump of blankets she only assumed could be Peyton.
"Hey kid, it's time for a break before we go to Potions." Lily said nudging her. Peyton stuck her hand out of the covers and waved her off.
"Oh HONESTLY!" Lynsay said before levitating the massive wad of blankets down the hallway and back towards Gryffindor tower. She dumped the wad unceremoniously on the plush red couch in the common room.
"OOOWWW" came a very deep voice from beneath the blanket.
"uh…Lily, does Peyton have a sore throat or did someone hex her in Binn's class?" Lynsay asked confused.
"Not that I know of?" Lily said, just as confused as Lynsay.
"How about we all shut up so I can get some ruddy sleep!" came Peyton's distinct voice from the couch. Lily pulled the blankets off to find Peyton and Sirius tangled in what looked to be a very uncomfortable position from her point of view. Obviously it didn't phase these two because they were already back to sleep.
"Potter, get Black off my friend so she can rise and shine for classes." Lily said moodily as the rest of the Marauder's walked into the common room.
"Chill Flower, they're just napping." James smirked at her.
"Get him off or I'll wipe that smirk off your face." Lily quipped, whipping out her wand and waving it menacingly in James' direction.
"Fine, don't get your knickers in a twist Evans." James said, knowing Lily was fully capable of wiping the smirk off, she wasn't the best at charms for nothing. He grabbed Sirius by the ankles and pulled him off the couch.
"Come on Padfoot, we clearly aren't wanted HERE anymore." James said pulling him up the boys staircase.
"Well bloody hell I've been trying to get that pounded into your mind since first year and you just now have come to a realization?" Lily said sarcastically.
"ha ha I'm dieing over here I really am." James smarted off before heading the rest of the way up the stairs.
"Potter you-" Lily started, about to go off on a rant.
"Lily why don't we wake Peyton up now?" Lynsay interrupted timidly.
"What…oh yeah. Peyton rise and shine we have class in about 20 minutes." Lily said shaking her.
"I'll rise but I'm sure has hell not shining for anyone at this outlandish hour of the morning." Peyton growled out, going up the girl's staircase to head for the shower.
"About time…" Lily managed, before she and Lynsay began reviewing their notes for their next class. Peyton came down the staircase with 5 minutes to spare.
"There has got to be some kind of award I should be receiving for getting ready that fast." Peyton said smugly.
"Ok you've been hanging around Potter way to much." Lily said rolling her eyes.
"I resent that." James said, coming down the staircase followed by the rest of his gang.
"What class is next?" Peyton asked, trying to change the subject.
"Potions." Remus answered.
"Oh hell I'm not going." Peyton said heading back towards the stairs, only to have her robes pulled on by Lily.
"I don't think so. If I'm suffering through this then so are you." Lily said sternly.
"Well you could skip with me?" Peyton said grinning.
"No."
"Please?"
"Absolutely not."
"pppuuuuuhlllllleaaaaassseee"
"NO COME ON!"
"Yes mum." Peyton said, sticking her tongue out and marching through the portrait entrance.
"You'd think she was 5 not 16, I mean really she already slept through history of magic and now she's trying to skip potions!" Lily ranted all the way out the portrait hole, the others following and rolling their eyes.
Lily lectured a very unresponsive Peyton all the way to the dungeons about going to bed at a proper time in order to awaken for lessons that would be important to their futures. Peyton was mimicking her with her hand behind her back to the others who were laughing at the pair.
"Ok class, time to split off. Black and Potter, absolutely not, I'll be choosing the partners today." Professor Alexander said as she saw James and Sirius move together as if they were being pulled by magnets. "Alright then let's see…Potter and Cambridge, Black and Rogers, Starr and Diggory, Evans and Lupin, Pettigrew and oh hell just pick partners after that I just had to get the troublemakers out of the way." the professor laughed. She was always nice and knew where to draw the line between strict and being a complete pushover and most of the students liked her.
Sirius and Peyton groaned at who their partners were. Sirius got the leader of his Hufflepuff fan club who was practically about to pass out from her luck and Peyton was stuck with Amos Diggory, a conceited fellow who thought he was the best looking bloke in the school. Their other friends smiled at their luck at getting someone they could actually stand being around for large amounts of time.
They all began to work at their potions, Sirius trying to fend off his stalker woman and keep an eye on Peyton and Diggory the entire time.
"So how bout you and I go for a walk around the lake this fine evening." Amos said cockily to Peyton.
"How about I go jump in it instead." Peyton said, not liking the way he was looking at her at all.
"Oh come on, it'll be great." He answered throwing his arm over her shoulder.
"No really I'll pass." Peyton said pushing his arm off, only to find him snaking it back around her waist and pulling her closer to him.
"It's ok Peyton, I know you want to you're just saying no because you're afraid Black will find out." Amos smirked again.
"I don't like you Diggory, and I never will so get your hand off my arse." Peyton said icily. "And I don't know why you think this has something to do with Sirius, but it doesn't, so shut up before I hex your pretty boy face all the way to America." She finished off in a deathly whisper inches away from his face.
Amos did a brave thing. A very very brave thing. He leaned forward and kissed Peyton square on the mouth, reflex told her to kiss back, disgust told her otherwise. She kneed him between the legs and he was on the floor, white faced, in seconds. Before he had comprehended that pain, Sirius was on top of him threatening him to never do that again.
"Watch yourself Diggory. Quidditch's coming up you know. You might get a bludger to your precious face if you don't watch it." Sirius glared.
"Enough! Mr. Diggory, go to the hospital wing. Black, Starr, go to Dumbledore's office and sort this mess out." The professor yelled.
Sirius and Peyton sent Amos one last glare before walking out of the class and heading to Dumbledore's office.
"You know I think you handled that quite nicely." Sirius smirked at her.
"Well what can I say? I'm good." Peyton laughed. "Didn't do to badly yourself Si."
"I knew the bloody git was going to hit on you. I didn't think he'd go for a snog in the middle of class though. Especially with me right behind you. What an idiot." Sirius grumbled.
"You know, he said I didn't say yes to a date because you were behind me and now you're saying you didn't think he'd ask with you behind me anyway. Why would you being behind me have anything to do with that?" Peyton asked.
"Uh- I …really don't know." Sirius stuttered out. Peyton looked at him strangely. He knew she didn't buy it.
"I don't buy that for one minute. You better tell me sooner or later Si. You know you can trust me." Peyton said frowning.
"It's not about trust Peyt. You'll know soon enough…I hope." He added as an afterthought as they climbed the spiral staircase and knocked on Dumbledore's door.
"Two weeks of detention!" Peyton said excitedly bursting through the common room door.
"YES! I'm going to surpass that school record by a long shot." Sirius shouted, doing a sort of happy dance.
"…ok then. Now let's all pretend we didn't see that and move on with our lives." Lily said as they all stared at Sirius' dance moves. He stopped so abruptly and glared at them all that it caused them to laugh, to which he responded with more glaring.
"By the way, we have 18 inches on the properties of moonstones in potion making due next class." Remus informed Peyton and Sirius, who had missed the assignment.
"UGH." Peyton groaned. "18 inches is going to take a lifetime. Can I copy off you Tiger? Don't play dumb either because I know you've totally already started on it."
"Absolutely not Peyton. You are perfectly capable of doing it on your own. Besides I haven't written anything down yet so you couldn't very well copy, but we can go to the library together." Lily answered. "And stop calling me Tiger." She threw in.
"K thanks Tiger." Peyton responded, dodging Lily's smack. Since Lily missed she pulled out her wand and changed Peyton's hair blonde.
"Oh what a dirty trick, you KNOW I hate being blonde." Peyton yelled, turning Lily's hair into a style similar to Malfoy's slicked back style.
"Sick." Lily muttered, changing Peyton and her own hair back to their original colors.
"Girls are so weird." James said allowed. Lily flicked her wand and James' nose became very large and hooked.
"Snivelllus!" Sirius barked out, howling with laughter.
"Well I must say it looks better on me than it does on him." James said smugly, even though he was disgusted he would rather die than let Lily know that.
Lily rolled her eyes and headed for the library to study quietly alone, leaving her friends to goof off in the common room and save their homework for the last second.
She stepped out of the portrait hole and walked down the hall towards the library when she heard voices coming from around the corner. Voices she knew she wouldn't want to be facing alone in a corridor with no one around to help her should she need it. Lily lifted a tapestry and slid behind it hoping to Merlin that they wouldn't notice her since there was no where else to conceal herself. She heard the footsteps and voices draw nearer.
"…mudbloods and muggles won't know what's hit them after the Dark Lord becomes more active. Hopefully it will scare them off from Hogwarts." said a cold voice.
"Yeah mate. I'm sick of seeing their bloody faces all over this school and besmirching it with their unworthy magic. We won't have to worry about that much longer though hopefully eh?" another voice said, laughing towards the end.
"I'm sure we'll be seeing something very soon….yes…" the other voice replied as they turned a corner and continued walking.
Lily had unconsciously flattened herself as hard as she could to the cold stone behind her and hadn't realized she'd been holding her breathe to take in every word of what they were saying.
'The dark lord…' Lily thought, touching the place on her cheek that once had a gash on it from the night in her library when she was attacked. 'I wonder why I haven't heard anything else about him until now since I was attacked at home.' She hadn't realized she was making her way back to the common room, completely forgetting about her homework and only wanting to get back to a more familiar place.
She walked through the portrait hole deep in thought, paying no attention to anything around her.
"Tiger…you ok?" Peyton asked. "You've been gone for over two hours. I know you wanted to look up a few things for charms but I know it doesn't take you, of all people, that long to do so."
"…you either join or die…" Lily muttered, still thinking about what was said when she was attacked.
"Whooaa there join what or die." Sirius asked. Lily looked up. Everyone had gone to bed but the Marauders, Lynsay, and Peyton.
"Um n-nothing, I never should have said anything out loud. I wasn't thinking just forget it." Lily stuttered out, attempting to head for the stairs to her dorm.
"OH NO, I do NOT think so. We have been waiting down here for you to get back ok and clearly something's happened. So sit down and start talking." Peyton said forcefully, but gently steering Lily to a plush chair near the fire.
Lily launched into her story about what she'd heard and sat and waited for a response. She only received silence as they all seemed to be thinking if what these boys she'd heard say was true.
"Lily, what was "you either join or die" all about?" Remus asked slowly.
"It's just …that night at my house when I was attacked; the man that broke in told me Voldemort wanted me to join him. I was to either "join or die" but not that night, very soon though supposedly. I was just thinking about it when I walked in; I hadn't meant to say it out loud." Lily said remembering that night again.
"What? Why didn't you tell us that after it happened?" Lynsay asked quietly.
"Dumbledore and some others didn't think it was the right time to tell you all that had been said…Peyton and I both promised we wouldn't so none of you can talk about this around anyone." Lily said. Everyone agreed it would be better not to share what they new with anyone other than themselves anyway. The friends stayed up late into the night discussing what plans Voldemort might be making and when they were older, how would they stop them?