Mainly the students in this chapter, thought it was about time to see them a bit more. And I can't believe I have so many reviews! You guys are awesome! I have more than 200 for seven chapters!
Sorry that this update is so late! I was on holiday last week, and so couldn't update, and the week before I experienced some Friday the Thirteenth bad luck – the chapter wouldn't upload! And I'll only update on Fridays, unless there's an important reason...
Sorry!
Anyway, enjoy...
Chapter 8: Meetings
"James Potter, get your ass in here NOW!" Lily Evans' voice rang through the halls.
"What?" James demanded, walking into the meeting room, breathing heavily, sweating and red in the face. "We haven't got a meeting until tomorrow, Lily! Couldn't you have waited until after I'd finished practise?"
"Professor Dumbledore wants to see us now." She replied.
"Great, Professor Dumbledore couldn't wait until after practise either." James grumbled. He yanked his wand out of a pocket. "Refrigerare." He flicked the wand at himself, and instantly looked refreshed and clean.
Lily looked impressed. "What's that?"
"Refresh Charm. If you have no chance of a shower, you can quickly clean up." James replied. "Always useful with Aurors for parents and those bloody Ministry balls."
They began walking to Professor Dumbledore's office. James first poked his head round into the DADA classroom.
"Um, Professor Potter, Miss Westley? Sorry 'bout that. Apparently we've got to go and speak to Professor Dumbledore." James told them, observing keenly the static that seemed to be connecting his two teachers. They were staring at each other intensely, like they'd been arguing or something.
"That's fine, James." Professor Potter stated, out of class, he tended to use the boy's first name.
"Thanks, sir." James grinned and rejoined Lily. He looked at her oddly and frowned. "I swear there's something weird about those two."
"Why?"
"Who else would just stand there staring at each other? That what they were doing. And it was like they had static electricity between them. A storm brewing. Dangerous."
"They fancy each other, I know that much." Lily smirked.
"Yeah, that could be it. Would explain the endless flirting in the lessons. But have you seen them duel? It's like they're dancing or something. Potter tends to win, but Miss Westley gives as good as she gets. She lasts longer than Videl did. There's something freaky about them. They're too fast." James sighed and then shrugged. "I'll talk to the others later. Anyway, any idea what Dumbledore wants?"
"Nope. He just said something about planning. I've no idea what he means." Lily sighed. "Hopefully it won't be anything too serious. I hope nothing's happened."
"Things are always happening. Hoping's not going to change it." James told her, his voice serious. "We just have to work on our strengths and hope that we can change it. Make a difference. One day Voldemort will be defeated and people will be safe again. I just pray he's not around to make our children's lives living hell as well."
Lily looked at him strangely. James had never said something so... astute to her before. He really did have more layers than she had thought he did.
It wasn't long before they arrived at the Headmaster's Office. "Drooble's Best Blowing Gum." James stated to the gargoyle.
It jumped aside and the two Heads stepped onto the moving stairs up to Dumbledore's inner sanctum. James reflected that this was only one of three times he had been called here when he wasn't in trouble for something.
Just as he raised his hand to knock, Professor Dumbledore's voice seeped through.
"Do come in, James, Miss Evans." He called jovially.
"You're on first-name terms with the headmaster?" Lily asked, shocked, as James opened the door.
"Can't be a Marauder and not be." He grinned, and then gave a flourishing bow, holding the door open. "Ladies first."
Lily rolled her eyes, but a good-natured smile betrayed her. "Thank you."
"James, Miss Evans, do sit down." Professor Dumbledore told them, gesturing to two chairs in front of his desk.
"Lemon drop?"
"No thank you, sir." James replied.
"No, no thank you." Lily murmured.
She studied the room with curiosity; she hadn't been in here since her first-year. It hadn't changed. She looked at the portraits of previous headteachers and scowled. She wondered which one had decided on placing that perverted painting in the Heads' bathroom.
In fact, many of them seemed to be observing the two heads with interest.
"Who's this, Dumbledore?" A thin woman asked. "Marauders causing trouble?"
"No, no, this is the Head Boy and Head Girl, James Potter and Lily Evans. Surely you remember that." Dumbledore looked at her with a twinkle in his eye.
"I must've been asleep."
"A Marauder as Head Boy? What can you be thinking?" A man with a cold and distasteful look demanded.
"Hello, Nigellus. Sirius hasn't had a detention in a whole week, aren't you proud?" James smirked at the painting.
"He is none of my concern."
"He's family. 'Course, he's actually a good person with the name Black, so I understand why you might dislike him..." James mused.
"James, Phineas, enough. James, Miss Evans..."
"Call me Lily, sir. If I'm Head Girl, there will probably be more meetings like this." Lily told him politely, then blushed as she realised she had interrupted.
"Lily, it has been decided that with the threat of Voldemort and the terror he is aiming to inspire, the school will be needing to boost morale. So we had a meeting, and we have some suggestions. We would like something for Hallowe'en and Christmas. A suggestion for Hallowe'en was a masquerade ball..."
"Yes!" James grinned. "With masks, people won't know which houses others are from! It can be used to create more unity within the school."
"I thought you hated Slytherins, James." Lily raised a brow.
"I hate the Dark Arts and their ideals. One or two of them are alright. I certainly can't say that I hate every single first-year, can I? Besides, the main ones who follow Voldemort have graduated or are in our year or the year below." James replied.
Lily stared at him. Then she placed a hand on his forehead. "No temperature. Are you sure you're alright?"
"Oh, get lost. I'm not a completely blind idiot, you know. Besides, if I treated them like they are all Death Eaters, I'd be doing exactly what they do to those who don't follow their ideals. Besides, Videl's a Slytherin, and I know she doesn't follow Voldemort."
"Very sensible, James. You seem to be growing up." Dumbledore observed.
"Spend long enough with Potter and Westley and you'll find that you change your views a bit too." James grinned.
"Have you been spending extra time with them?" Dumbledore asked.
"They're helping me with my duelling. Teaching me to get better." James explained.
"Good, very good. Now. I'll leave it to you and the prefects to decide on what exactly you want to do for Hallowe'en and Christmas. Come back to me by the end of the month with the chosen ideas, and we'll see what we can do. There will be a Hogsmeade weekend the weekend before Hallowe'en. If you do decide on a masquerade ball, people can get costumes and such like then." Dumbledore told them.
They nodded.
"You can go now." Dumbledore smiled.
"Thank you, sir." Lily nodded and stood.
"Bye sir." James grinned, and held the door open for Lily again.
The door closed, and Dumbledore looked at the old headteachers.
"Those two are destined for each other. No mistake." Dilys Derwent told him.
"I concur." The witch from before agreed.
"As do I. I hope they are ready for it though." Dumbledore sighed, looking to the door.
"So, what do we know about the two of them?" James asked the other Marauders later that evening.
"Make a list." Sirius grinned.
Remus, being the ever-practical person, did just that, bringing out two pieces of paper. At the top of the first, he wrote 'What we know about Harry Potter' and on the second 'What we know about Ginevra Westley'.
Sirius groaned. "I wasn't being serious, Moony."
"You can't be anything else, Padfoot." Remus shot back. "Besides, it's easier to make the connections this way."
"Okay, what do we know about Professor Potter?" Peter asked.
"He's teaching DADA." Sirius began.
"Duh." Remus rolled his eyes as he wrote it down. "He's spent time with the Aurors and has an Auror licence."
"Master dueller in both magic and weaponry." James added. "Unarmed too. Uses a mixture of techniques. It's one of the things that makes him so good."
"Really? Interesting." Remus marked down. "He's got an unusual scent. There's blood mixed in with mint, as well as magic. He's got dark mixed in with light, and I'm not sure what it means."
"You saw him in the Hospital Wing after the last full moon. Battling a Dark Creature or not, that's suspicious in itself." James pointed out.
"Not fully human. I sensed that." Remus added.
"Responded very well to our pranks. He's firm, but he knows how to laugh. Hates segregation and prejudice." Sirius added.
"Sounds like James." Peter grinned.
"Yeah, but no one believes me when I say he's James' son from the future." Sirius pouted.
James rolled his eyes. "That's because he's not. Anything else?"
"Miss Westley calls him Blade for some reason." Peter piped up.
"She does, I'd forgotten that." Remus grinned.
They fell into silence, trying to think of anything else. After adding a couple more statements to the list, they proceeded onto Miss Westley.
"She's known as Ginny." Remus stated.
"Gorgeous." Sirius murmured.
"Which does not need to be stated. Good dueller, nearly as good as Professor Potter, but he usually beats her. She can beat him, just not often. She's the same with weapons and unarmed combat. Good with healing too, I heard the professor say." James commented.
"She recognised us on the first time she appeared. Flair for the dramatic." Sirius pointed out.
"Flirts with Professor Potter." Peter remarked.
"He flirts back."
"They fancy each other." James rolled his eyes.
"Calls the Professor Blade."
"She's got at least three brothers, Fred, George and Ron." Remus remembered. "Ron is the professor's best friend as well. And his wife, Hermione."
"Wow, they must have married young." Peter commented.
"Right out of school from the sounds of things." James mentioned, then frowned. "Where did they go to school?"
"I think Potter mentioned Skirret. It's in Canada, isn't it? He said they moved there when he was ten. His parents were killed by Voldemort." Remus considered.
"We forgot that. He despises Voldemort, both of them have various names for Voldemort and the Death Eaters." Sirius smirked.
They continued to throw around comments and ideas, until James thought of something else.
"They both know a remarkable amount about the Deadly Curses. Remus, have you got Miss Westley's scent yet?"
"No, it's too long after the full moon, she never got close enough to me just after. We'll have to wait a while." Remus replied. "Why?"
"Because if we know her scent, maybe we can detect any similarities or differences between them. But all the same..." James shrugged.
"We just gotta keep an eye on them. That's all."
It was the prefects' meeting. Lily and James were explaining Dumbledore's request.
"We need to plan something for Hallowe'en and Christmas. I figured the Christmas event could be on the last weekend before, so that those who go home for Christmas don't miss out." Lily explained.
"Dumbledore suggested a masquerade ball for Hallowe'en. We reckon it'll work. We just need a theme for decorations, I mean we could go with the usual Hallowe'en stuff, or we could choose something different. Costumes are left up to the students. The only proviso is that they either wear a mask, or use a glamour or transfiguration to change their face so they can't be recognised." James told them.
"How about an old-fashioned Hallowe'en theme? From say, five hundred years ago? Or when the Founders would celebrate it?" A Ravenclaw prefect named Henson Blake suggested. "With some research, we could make it very authentic."
"That sounds good. Any other suggestions?" Lily asked.
No one else had any good ideas. It was decided that they would have an old-fashioned Hallowe'en theme.
"Now Christmas. A ball? Or something else? Um, a talent contest, or special show?" James suggested.
"How about a ball with a dance competition of some sort? Everyone who wants to participate can, and then afterwards, there's a ball where the winning couple lead." Jenny Brooks, a Hufflepuff fifth-year, mused aloud.
"That sounds good." Lily grinned. "Any objections?"
No one had any. Even the purebloods would appreciate it, since dancing was an important part of growing up – they had to be capable of dancing in balls and suchlike.
"But the Head Boy and Head Girl would have to open up the competition. If they won't dance, no one else will." Severus Snape remarked, shooting a smirk at the two Heads.
Lily shot him a poisonous look.
James scowled. Then he smoothed his features flawlessly. "If that is the consensus, we must obey. But don't blame me when Lily manages to shoot the competition out of the water. You'll regret it then."
Lily shot James a surprised and warning look. How the hell did he know that she'd been dancing since she was a child?
"If that's everything? Okay, meeting adjourned. We'll work out who's to do what next week." James told them.
When everyone left, Lily shot a confused look at him. "Why did you agree to that? For all you know, I've never danced in my life!"
"Lily, give me some credit. I know that you've been dancing since you were small. Pia and Ellen were discussing it one time. I've been dancing since I was young as well, my parents are respected Aurors, and so I have to know how to dance at the Ministry balls. Since we can both dance, I'm sure we can come up with something to open the competition. Plus, we can prove we can work together. Besides, would back out on something Snape's practically daring you to do? The way he said it, he made it sound like neither of us had any chance of dancing."
Lily nodded. "Okay. Now what?"
"Now, we go and finish homework and get some sleep. We can meet Dumbledore tomorrow evening." James smiled. "Okay?"
"Yes. And James?" He turned from the door to look at her. "Thanks."
He smiled. "You too, Lils." He left.
Lily felt a clench in her stomach. She looked around, surprised and tried to ignore the reason her pulse was pounding in her neck, her heart fluttering.
No, she couldn't be. She couldn't like James Potter.
But she did.
Ginny smirked as she saw the shell-shocked face of Lily Evans leave the Prefects' Room. She knew that look oh so well.
She nudged Harry.
"What?"
She pointed to Lily, and whispered, "Someone's falling in love."
"She is? With James? Thank goodness." Harry sighed.
"All I can say now is, let the fun begin." Ginny grinned.
"Ginny, you are not going to play matchmaker. How do we know that that won't change the timeline?"
"How do we know it will?" Ginny asked, her voice fierce.
Harry stopped, staring at her, she had a point...
There was a crash up ahead, and Peeves' voice cackled with glee.
Harry sighed.
"'Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.'" He recited.
"What was that?"
"Exactly what happens whenever we're around."
The cauldron was split into two separate ones. As one slowly simmered, the other was reaching boiling point...
A/N: I think Harry and Ginny are going to explode unless I let them get some soon. Maybe the next chapter. Or Chapter 10, that could work...
Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You are all awesome, wonderful people and I love you all!
I'm updating 'Curses, Prophecies and the Elemental Guardians' as well, but it's a short, flimsy chapter, since I have serious writer's block at the moment. And 'Connections: Twist of Fate', I hope you enjoy them if you read them.
Anyway, thank you all, you lovely people. Please review!
Lol, Tanydwr