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Chapter 2: Pants and ragonators

As Lily bent over James, who had been revealed under the blanket next to her, she made a horrified shriek. James' response to seeing Lily's face -especially so early in the morning, and especially after wanting to avoid her since his unexpected dream- was a confused scream. Lily's high pitched shriek and James' low bellow were then mixed with cries of pain. James leaped up suddenly, colliding heads with Lily who had been hovering over him.

The second they both recovered from the pain that added to their already pounding heads, they questioned each other on exactly what was going on in a friendly, polite conversation.

Nah. Only kidding.

"What's going on?" James interrogated. "What am I doing under a blanket with you in the common room?"

"Don't ask me, Potter! What's more important is why you are holding my hand and won't let go, you pervert!" Lily shouted at him, her face reddening every second; maybe from anger, or more likely embarrassment.

James lowered his eyes to their hands. He'd totally forgotten about that. He'd seen his hand, his fingers wrapped tightly a stranger's under the blanket. But, before he could ponder it any longer, the blanket was lifted off and Lily's face had suddenly appeared; something that had completely thrown him. Another aspect that made him forget was something he did not want to admit to Lily; their hands together, felt, well, comfortable.

Comfortable? Comfortable! Are you bloody insane? James screamed in his head.

"I said let go!" Lily said again, interrupting James' thoughts as she tried wrenching her hand away from his. Unfortunately, their hands still remained stuck.

"I'm not holding your hand! You're holding mine! Let go of me!" James yelled back.

He attempted to tug his hand free, but as he did, the whole of Lily's body was abruptly pulled forward, forcing her to smack into James' chest. He stumbled a few steps back at the sudden force, falling back into common room fireplace where the flames of the fire wavered.

James' trousers quickly lit on fire.

He reacted like any other normal person would do.

To put it simply, he hysterically ran around in circles squealing.

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Sirius was sleeping peacefully untroubled in his bed in the 'Marauder dormitory' -at least, that's what they had named it, even carving the words on the door. He had been sleeping soundly, when suddenly a girl's high pitched shriek and a guy's rough yell coming from the common room awoke him. Sirius recognised the screams instantly as James and Lily's. Gleefully, he jumped out of the bed with a wide grin on his face and turned to his fellow marauders in their beds.

Remus had also awoken to the sudden noises, and his head peeped from under the bedspread. "What's...going on? Is that Prongs...and Lily screaming?" he groggily asked in between yawns.

"Yep," Sirius confirmed. "Let's go see them! Their reaction to spell of screaming wasn't exactly what I hoped for...but at least we know it worked!" he said optimistically.

"Great," Remus replied unenthusiastically. "Its too early Padfoot, I'm going back to sleep." He rested his head back on his pillow.

"Oh no you don't, Moony! C'mon! Please?" Sirius pleaded and made big, sorrowful, puppy dog eyes at him.

"Oh...damn your bloody inner dog self." Remus grudgingly got up from bed and put his robes on top of his pajamas. Again, another scream was heard, this time only coming from James, and it seemed to be more of a cry of pain and shock.

"Come on Moony, hurry up!" Sirius pressed. "We're missing all the excitement!" His eyes looked upon Peter who was snoring loudly, sleeping, and completely unaware or disturbed by the ear-splitting sounds that came from the common room. Another sound of a shocked "Oh my God!" was heard from the common room.

"Wooooooormtail," Sirius sang noisily. Peter snored on nonetheless. "Peter!" he said sharply. "Get your arse up NOW!"

"Uhh...five more minutes mum..." Peter answered faintly.

Sirius backed away. "He just called me his...mother," he said, in a very much disgusted tone. Remus laughed although his eyes were drooping with tiredness." I mean, that's the most horrifying thing anyone has said to me," he stated convincingly.

"Well, that's nice of you to say. I can tell you feel greatly about Pete's mum," Remus spoke dryly.

"You've seen her though, haven't you? She's fat and ugly! And I'm, well, I'm gorgeously handsome and the girls fall at my feet," Sirius boasted.

Remus shook his head. "You are so conceitedly vain, Padfoot."

"I know." Sirius smiled widely. "Leave mummy's boy to sleep, to the common room!" He pointed his fist in the air, looking oddly like a super hero.

"Why couldn't you have left me to sleep," Remus mumbled, following him closely behind.

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"Oh my God," Lily shrieked as James trousers were suddenly alight. James' eyes seemed to burst with surprise as the fire caught him, and he frantically ran around the common room, over the tables and chairs, and of course, dragging along Lily in the process.

"Potter! Potter, calm down!" she shouted, as she stumbled and tried keeping up with James' manic running.

"I'monfireI'monfireI'monfire!"

"Running around in circles won't stop it! Do something! Roll on the floor! That's what people say you should do when you're on fire!"

James hurriedly jumped to the floor, resulting in Lily being pushed to the floor with him. He tried rolling but this proved to be hard with her hand still in his. "Not working, Evans!" he yelled, as he tried rolling but instead roughly bumped into the red head.

"Um, I dunno!" Lily replied lamely. Quick, think of something Lily or James will burn to death! She thought, frightened.

"Take the trousers off! Take them off quick!" she commanded.

James didn't argue. He wasn't prepared to negotiate ideas; anything would do. Speedily with one hand, James unbuckled and unzipped his black trousers, pulling them off and throwing them to the floor. He grabbed a cushion from the one of the common room chairs and repeatedly hit the trousers, hoping that it would suddenly stop the burning fire.

"Potter, here!" Lily said handing him a jug of water.

"Thanks Evans." James replied without thinking, and poured the water on to the trousers. The fire sizzled and died. James sighed with relief.

Phew, that was close...-wait a minute, that jug of water- he thought.

"Evans! Where the hell did you get that jug of water from?"

Lily tittered in embarrassment. "Uuum...from the table," she mentioned quietly, pointing to the table positioned nearby, along with glasses.

"Why didn't you give me it in the first place?" James asked furiously.

"Well I only saw it now!" Lily quickly regained her confidence and anger. "You should be thanking me! I saved your bloody life!"

"You saved my life? Whatever! You pushed me into the bloody fire!"

"Oh grow up, Potter. And by the way, golden balls, nice pants."

James, who until now was looking proudly intimidating, reddened when he realized how exactly he looked. He looked down, spotting himself wearing his favourite pants. They were a sky blue with moving golden snitches which zoomed about his nether regions. James glared at her.

After such a mental fire incident, Lily remembered that their hands were still stuck together. "Okay now, Potter, you've had your fun of nearly killing me by nearly setting me on fire, now let go of my hand."

James couldn't believe it. After all that happened, she still believed he was holding her hand and it had been some stupid prank that was apparently, and of course, was his entire fault.

"I'm not holding on to your hand! I keep bloody telling you!"

Together they tried pulling their hands separate, each stretching as far as possible in opposite directions.

"Arghh!" they cried in unison. The harder they pulled away from each other, the more pain that soared into their palms.

"Cut it out!" Lily screeched. "This must be one of your stupid pranks! I swear, if you don't let go of me right now-"

"Shut up a second, Evans," James cut her off. Lily made a sound of indignation, but was swiftly hushed. "You're smart: think about it. If you're trying to pull your hand away, and I'm trying to pull my hand away, then obviously something's messed up. Our hands must be glued together by some spell, or something."

"How am I supposed to believe you?" Lily questioned, narrowing her eyes. "Maybe you're just holding on to my hand and won't let go on purpose, to torture me."

"Look Evans," James started calmly, "I am not holding on to your hand on purpose, okay? I don't know what happened. How we got like this. I can't even remember what happened last night."

Lily studied him. His hazel eyes didn't seem to flash with anger anymore; they just revealed a sign of exhaustion. Lily heaved a sigh, knowing what she was going to say next would undoubtedly be something she would later regret.

"Okay…I believe you."

James showed a sign of shock at Lily's words. She hadn't shouted at him or yelled - something that was normally common whenever they conversed.

Lily walked back over to the blanket near the fire, where James obediently followed, and sat wearily down. She sat with her head between her knees, obviously stressed at the morning they'd experienced together.

"I can't believe this is happening," Lily muttered.

James notices the worry and depressing tone of her voice. "Hey, hey Evans, everything will be fine," he nudged her lightly with his elbow. "We'll just go see Madam Pomfrey. She'll separate us easily. We'll be back to normal in no time," he said encouragingly.

She lifted her head to face James, looking better and more positive. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed. She tucked the loose strands of red hair behind her ears and gazed at the fire.

Out of the blue, James' mind wandered back to the dream he had only moments before Lily woke him. He remembered the vision; her shining, stunning red hair blew lightly in the calming breeze as she sat in his arms by the lake, not as enemies, but as lovers--Would you stop thinking about that stupid dream, you twat! James snapped, mentally shaking himself for reminiscing.

Meanwhile, Lily gazed at the flames of the fire. She didn't want to look at James, mainly because she kept getting lost in his hazel eyes--Lost in his eyes? What are you on, girl? Seriously, what drugs have you took?

She kept remembering the feeling she got -and what she was oddly feeling now- while her fingers were wrapped tightly around James'. They just felt...right together, like they were moulded to fit perfectly.

"I can't believe I'm sitting in the common room, with just my shirt and pants, after nearly being burned to death, with you," James said, with an unexpected, but genuine smile.

Lily laughed feebly; she didn't want to come across too friendly towards him. "You ran around screaming like such a girl," she teased.

"They really should really just put those muggle things in these rooms instead of fires. What are they called, ragonators?"

"Um...I think you mean radiators, Potter." She laughed more heartily then before.

"Oh, yeah, them things anyway," James blushed slightly. "Try and not mention to anyone that I ran screaming like a girl, would you?" He used his free hand not attached to Lily's to mess up his hair.

"Sure," Lily said, studying him, "As long as you don't do that thing with your hair anymore, it's really annoying."

James immediately stopped running this fingers in his hair and gave her a slight smile. "Sure."

Alright, what's going on? James thought. I'm smiling at Evans and she's been laughing in my company and we haven't been shouting. This has been one of the weirdest conversations ever.

Oh God, Potter's smiling at me. Don't you dare smile back at him, damn it! What's wrong with you! Get a grip! Lily again turned her head away from him, trying to clear her thoughts.

"I don't think your girlish antics will be a secret anyways. Probably the whole of the Gryffindor House heard you since you were screaming so loud," Lily joked. James began to a laugh, when a sound interrupted him.

At that precise second, there were loud heavy thuds coming from the Gryffindor house stairs. Not just a couple; a lot.

"Oh no..."

Together, they turned their heads turned to the face the staircase where practically every pupil in the Gryffindor House were making their way into the common room, or positioning themselves on the stairs with nosey looks. Everyone gasped in seeing the scrambling two. Lily faltered as she stood up by the fireplace, standing on a thick blanket next to James, their hands neatly joined together. To add to the even more suspicious scene, James was only wearing his shirt and blue golden snitch pants, his trousers discarded to the floor.

"It's not what you think!" They both shouted in unison. The fact they had both said it in unison made it look even more suspicious than it already was.

One of the faces in the crowd watching was Sirius, leaning on Remus, who was again shaking his head, this time with laughter.

Sirius tried to contain himself. A large grin magnified on his face more then ever before.

Lily and James are looking guilty and Lily even took his trousers off! This worked out better then I thought! Sirius thought happily, making his way through to crowd and towards the couple.