Chapter 3
(A/N) Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it took so long! I was busy, and for some reason, I couldn't get this on.
Disclaimer: I own the plot.
*~*~*~*~*
"Lily?"
Lily looked up from a Transfiguration textbook to see Evelyn. "What?"
"McGonagall wants to see you and James in the Great Hall."
"Figured," she said, putting away the textbook. "We still have to start the planning.
Slinging her bag over her shoulder, she left to the Hall.
*~*~*~*~*
"Sit down," McGonagall instructed.
Lily obeyed, and took a seat across from James, who immediately scooted his chair to the left.
"As Head Boy and Girl, the both of you will have to work together closely this year, for social events and otherwise. Your first is the Christmas Ball, coming up in about two weeks. The two of you must be responsible for meeting together on your own, and I will check on your work from time to time. Understood?" McGonagall peered at the both of them from her half-moon glasses.
"Yes ma'am," they both said, avoiding her gaze; looking their professor in the eye was some sort of curious difficulty, which no students could find the courage to attempt.
"Good. Now go and get to work. Potter, stay behind."
*~*~*~*~*
Lily walked through the empty corridors, her footsteps echoing slightly.
All the students were either in their dorms, their Common Rooms, or the library. The first glimmer of the night shining through the frosted windows cast an eerie glow inside. Ice blue, giving everything the appearance of being frozen.
She shivered.
Maybe it was the thought of being alone in an eerie corridor. Perhaps it was the sudden, unnerving, silence. Possibly, the stillness of the air, only the sound of her breathing. Whatever it was, Lily didn't like it. Whatever it was, it seemed to be gone. Shrugging off her fear, she continued down the corridor, shaking her head at her own foolishness.
*~*~*~*~*
"Potter, the quidditch match is coming up in less than a week," McGonagall stated. "Why haven't I seen your team practicing?"
James scowled. "They didn't want to, Professor. They said that a game against Slytherin would be easy, as they haven't used their new Seeker yet."
The professor raised an eyebrow. "Said that, did they? Hmm." She turned away from him, though he could tell that she was frowning in thought. "Very well, Potter. Arrogance comes with a price. Gather your team and have them report to my office in four days. It should do them good. Until then, allow them to miss their quidditch practices, if they like. But I expect them all to show in my office, even you. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," James said quickly. Though he wondered what the professor wanted to do, he didn't doubt her. He never doubted her. After all, she didn't take kindly to that.
*~*~*~*~*
"Hi, Lily," Bella greeted, as Lily swung open the door and flopped onto her bed.
"Hi. Why isn't anybody out in the school, these days?" she asked, lifting her head.
"Lots of assignments, of course. Why?"
"Oh, I don't know," Lily shrugged, sitting upright. "It's just so weird, with no students in the halls, aside from inbetween classes. Didn't you notice?"
"Um, no?" Bella shrugged, turning back to her Charms assignment.
"Oh, well. I suppose it'll be back to normal soon. It's just that it's so unlike our professors to load us with so much work," Lily said.
"Right. Well, you're right. The last of the exams are tomorrow, and then we'll get back to normal."
"I hope so," Lily sighed, fluffing her pillow. "It seems strange without the clutter of noise in the corridors."
*~*~*~*~*
"Not a single player came!" James complained, the next day, after waiting half an hour in the cold outside for his quidditch team practice.
"Maybe they forgot," Peter Pettigrew said from a couch. A mousy boy, round and chubby.
"How could they?" James shouted. "I reminded every single one of them this morning!"
"Did you ever consider," a cold voice near the stairwell said, "that they perhaps didn't care to show up, as their idiotic team captain drives them so hard?"
"Evans," James said, turning.
"Hello," she greeted in a chilly voice. "I take it that after given the option, no one showed up?"
"What's it to you?" he snapped.
"Not much," Lily admitted. "But I point out that you will have to forfeit the match if none of your team shows up next week. Not to mention, even if they show up, it's likely that they'll lose, lacking so much practice. And that, I do care, as that will also mean that it'll give the Slytherins a lead in the inter-house competition."
"You think you could do better with them than me?" James challenged.
"Yes," Lily replied.
"Fine. Try it."
"Pardon me?"
"Try it. You try being the team captain."
"I'm afraid that's not possible."
"It is. I can ask McGonagall."
Lily sighed. "If you say so, Potter."
"You don't know the first thing about quidditch," James said.
"Quite easy to read up. Is this a bet, Potter?"
"You could say that," he replied slowly. "If they win the match, you win, and I have to-"
"Quite frankly, I don't want anything but the sweet satisfaction of knowing that I'm better than you are," Lily interrupted. "And, as I am being so generous, you should have no problem with the same."
"Fine," James said. "Next match after this one, Gryffindor verses Ravenclaw."
"Pleasure to take you up on that, Mr. Potter," Lily said, holding out a hand.
"I'm sure," James briefly shook it.
Peter, Remus, and Sirius watched.
"We're doomed," Sirius said simply. "Might as well be condemned to death. Lily doesn't know the first thing about quidditch."
*~*~*~*~*
The rest of the day passed quickly. As the next day came, Bella's prediction came true. The halls were once again filled with the noisy chatter of students.
"Sirius! Wait up!" James called, on his way to the Transfiguration classroom.
"What?" Sirius asked, puzzled.
"When's the next full moon?" James asked.
"Uh… four days from now. Why?"
"Four days, four days!" James muttered. "The next quidditch match is in four days!"
"Poor Remus," Sirius sighed. "I guess it's too dangerous without you, as we need more than one big animal."
"I know," James said, walking into the classroom. "D'you think he knows?"
"Hi, guys!" Remus greeted them.
The boy seemed so cheerful that neither James nor Sirius could bring themselves to tell him. So, they did what they always did.
"Peter, tell Remus when the next full moon is," Sirius ordered.
The small boy rushed over with a calendar. "Um… in four days."
"Great!" Remus nodded. "We can-"
"Ix-nay on the ecret-say," James interrupted.
"Oh, right. Well, you know… But wait, isn't the quidditch match in four days?"
"Yeppers," Sirius clapped him on the back. "Sorry, buddy."
*~*~*~*~*
The next morning, at six in the morning, James shook the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team awake, and led them all to McGonagall's office, as she had instructed. Aside from loud grumbling and their reluctance to get out of bed, it worked out quite nicely.
"Why the unnecessary wake-up call?" Billius Weasly (a/n: Ron mentions his uncle in PoA), complained, as James dragged them up the long stairwell.
"McGonagall wants to see you all," James answered shortly. "At least make yourselves presentable before going in."
More grumbles followed this, more because he was right. Most of the boys (no girls on the team) were wearing shirts inside out, their hair was messy, still had a bad case of morning breath, and were extremely drowsy.
"This is what has become of the famous Gryffindor house quidditch team?" McGonagall's voice sounded behind them.
"Professor-?" James asked, as the strict professor appeared out of thin air.
"I followed you up in my animagi form," she said.
Several of the boys groaned, quite a few of them had been talking about her, not realizing that the tabby cat with strange eye markings had been following them.
"I brought them like you told me, ma'am," James said.
"I can see that," McGonagall replied briskly. "Follow me into my office, all of you. There's something you should see."
The group of seven: two beaters, three chasers, including James, a keeper, and a seeker, all followed her into her office, small, yet clean and organized, just like the taut mouthed professor who was sitting at her desk.
"Mr. Potter tells me that you haven't been practicing," she said stiffly. "Because the Slytherins haven't been practicing and warming up with their Seeker. Is that true?"
A few resigned nods and "yes"s answered her.
"I see. Observe this," she said, drawing the maroon and deep gold curtains. When she did so, the window revealed a large view of the quidditch field. "See those specks out there? Those are the Slytherins," she said grimly. "Ocular Magnifio."
Their view grew larger, until they could have a clear image of all the Slytherins.
"They practice their Seeker in the morning, from five to seven-thirty in the morning. After that, he goes for a rest, and the other team members continue practicing for another four hours. I've been watching them repeat this every Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Fridays, they go over the plans. I've watched them; their Seeker's one heck of a flier, their Beaters are immovable. The keeper seems impossible to get past, and their chasers are the swiftest I've seen all my years. From what I've seen, even their game plan is excellent, though I won't reveal it to you," she said.
"Why didn't you tell us to practice?" the third year Seeker.
"Professor Donohue never ordered the Slytherins to practice. It seems to me that you have all abandoned your duties, have refused to listen to your team captain, you have stopped coming to practices, and, instead of at least using your time from your practice to study, you are all sleeping in late, staying up late, doing useless things. I am appalled and ashamed by such lack of self-discipline from my own house. I do hope that you will try to work harder next time."
A silence followed her speech, all seven realizing the truth in her words.
"Sorry, professor," Billius said at last. His apology was followed by a babble of apologies, stopped like a dam in a river by McGonagall's hand.
"Apologies will not make up for all your missed practice time. Now, before you waste even more time, go and practice. I should not like to suffer a loss at the second match of the year. And certainly not to the Slytherins. Run along, now."
*~*~*~*~*
The next morning at breakfast, the missing seven Gryffindors, were found outside, practicing their flying harder than ever, as promised. If anyone had wondered why the sudden change of heart, the team members would have replied that they had a motivational speaker. McGonagall would have replied vaguely, as she had many times, that jealousy and the human race's sense of competition were a blessing at times. Whatever the cause, the entire house of Gryffindor had a sudden change of deep respect for their House team.
Even Lily Evans.
"Potter," she acknowledged as he and his friends took their usual seats next to her. "Peter, Remus, Sirius."
"Hi, Lillers," Sirius said, on behalf of all the Marauders, except for James.
"Evans."
"Saw the team practicing," she said, pouring some milk into her bowl of cereal. "Looks like they actually stand a chance against the Slytherins."
"We practiced hard," James answered. "Hard work always gets things done efficiently."
"I'm sure. The team is obviously working assiduously."
"Don't we always?" James asked, beginning to unwrap the brown parcel an owl dropped before him.
"Was that a rhetorical question?" Lily inquired, stroking her tawny owl, who stood well-manneredly on the edge of the table, waiting for Lily to feed him his treat.
"Guess," James replied.
"Well, I know that was a rhetorical statement," Lily said, feeding her owl a small piece of bread.
"That's great," James nodded. "Let's go," he said to his friends, who followed him out the Great Hall.
Lily's gaze followed them out the room, until she turned back to her owl, who was sipping her pumpkin juice.
*~*~*~*~*
With the Christmas Ball coming closer still, McGonagall had put both James and Lily in a room and told them not to come out until they had agreed on at least five things.
The meeting had started out innocently enough, with the usual "I think", "maybe we should", "here's an idea", and a few "I know!" After the first four minutes, and sixteen, point two seconds, however, all calmness broke.
"Why can't I have a say in this?" James complained, as Lily grabbed the paper and pen from him, after rejecting all twenty-four of his ideas.
"Because, I actually want this to be a good Ball, Potter," Lily answered, writing her own ideas in place of his, in her neat cursive.
"Then why are you handling it?" James retorted.
"Because then you would be handling it, and who knows what would happen then?" Lily scoffed.
James grabbed the notebook away from her, reading the list. "Artificial snow, no… Turkey dinner, no… Music, no… Ends at midnight, no… Starts at seven, no."
Lily scowled. "Let me read yours," she said, then flipped the page to James' suggestions. "Candy, no… Break dancing, no… Disco ball, no… Rotten food served for Slytherins, no… Casual dress code, NO."
*~*~*~*~*
Two hours and a half later, Lily and James emerged from the room, looking thoroughly disgruntled, and handed McGonagall a parchment.
"Ah, I see you came up with ten things. See the favorable outcome when you work together?" she smiled.
The two just shrugged and split up separate ways, before she could look at the list in detail.
When they departed, their professor read what Hogwarts' two brightest students had come up with:
"1. James Potter is an insufferable idiot.
2. Lily Evans is a stuck-up priss.
3. Why can't we work separately?
4. I hate him/her.
5. I can't stand him/her.
6. I never want to be in this position again.
7. How did he/she get to become Head Boy/Girl?
8. He/she is intolerable.
9. Any rumors of either of us being friendly towards each other are obviously apocryphal.
10. Life is unfair."
Sighing, McGonagall folded up the paper and headed for the Headmaster's office.
*~*~*~*~*
(A/N) Like it? Nothing says, "I love your fic" like flowers and candy… but I'll settle for a review. If you hated it, well, then I suppose you would rather flame me. Oh well, not everybody likes you.
To Come: Um… stuff? I try to update every other day.