: innocence vs. trouble :
: disclaimer : I don't own any Harry Potter settings/characters. :
: Chapter 2 : a toast to a new year :
The girls sat at the Gryffindor table, completely comfortable.
"Hey Mel," Lily said. "We didn't catch you this morning. Where'd you go?"
"Oh…Sirius just wanted to talk to me…" Melanie said, avoiding eye contact. Jasmine raised an eyebrow.
"Really? And what did he want exactly?" She said, suspiciously. Melanie mumbled something.
"What was that?" Lily said, leaning in.
"He asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend. Ok?" Melanie finally said.
"What? What about Frank?" Lily said, surprised.
"Surely you said no. Tell me you said No…" Jasmine said, just as surprised.
"Well, it didn't really work out for Frank and I so I decided to just…test the waters." Melanie said innocently.
"What was wrong with Frank? I liked Frank. In fact, I like Frank a whole lot more than I like Sirius." Jasmine said, matter of fact-ly.
"Well, he snores really loud. I'm not talking about just regular snoring, I'm talking howling-like-a-beast type of snoring." Melanie said. Jasmine and Lily exchanged looks of confusion.
"So? Everyone snores." Lily said.
"Mel, you're so naïve! You think Sirius Black is going to be any much better?" Jasmine said. She was always the brutally honest one of the group.
"I don't know, Jas!" Melanie said, irritated now. "I guess I'll just have to wait and see, now won't I?"
"Mel, what's wrong with you? Every time something good happens between you and a boy, you flake and just leave him for the stupidest reasons." Jasmine said, eyeing her friend weirdly.
But before Melanie could answer, the infamous Marauders showed up.
"Do you smell that James?" Sirius said, sniffing the air. The girls looked at him like he was crazy.
"Why, yes I do, Sirius." James said, a crooked smile creeping onto his lips.
"It smells like…sniff…prank time!" Sirius said, happily.
"Ugh…do we really have to do this? Right NOW?" Jasmine glared at Sirius.
"Well, since we won't be able to perform our daily beginning-of-the-school-year prank ourselves, we will just have to live the experience through you three." James said and winked at Lily who choked on her pumpkin juice.
"Remus…Help us." Lily said to her only good Marauder friend.
"C'mon…can't we just give them a low key prank? I mean, they are new at this." Remus said, trying to convince James and Sirius.
"Don't be such a sissy, Moony." Sirius said.
"Yeah, don't be such a sissy!" Peter repeated and Sirius hit him upside the head.
"Don't talk to Moony that way. Only I can." Sirius said and Peter muttered something under his breath.
"Ladies, we wouldn't make you guys do anything that could damage your perfect records…much" James said.
He motioned the girls to follow him outside and brought out a box filled with slimy slugs.
"Ewww!" All three girls shrieked.
"Ok, which one of you is best with Transfiguration?" James asked, and everyone looked at Melanie.
"Right, Melanie--transfigure each slug into Water Goblets. Jasmine, you need to switch everyone's usual water goblets with the slug-changed ones. And Lily," James smiled. "You get to say the charm that will change all the water goblets back into slugs right after Dumbledore raises his goblet for a toast on a new year."
"How do you guys come up with this? That's disgusting!" Melanie said. But the girls did as they were told.
Once everything was settled, James motioned for Lily to get ready. Dumbledore was just about rapping up his start of term speech.
"…and at last, let us raise our cups, (everyone raises their glass) and have a toast, to a brand new year at Hogwarts…" Dumbledore said.
Lily's heart was beating faster then ever. She had never, ever, ever, done something like this and nor would she want to start. James gave her the thumbs up motion, and Lily shut her eyes and quickly mumbled, cambiamento. Her eyes were shut but she could still hear loud shrieks and screams echo throughout the hall as well as the Marauders loud laughter.
Lily, Jasmine, and Melanie quickly retreated back to their seats and tried to look as innocent as ever. Dumbledore demolished the slugs and everyone calmed down.
McGonagal was furious and stepped up.
"Potter! Black! Lupin! Pettigrew! Explain yourselves at once!"
Sirius smiled his winning smile and said, "Minerva, darling, I am appalled that you would even have the slightest hint that we would do something so low...so child-ish...so despicable...so—"
"That's enough, Black! Now tell me why—" But McGonagal was cut off as well.
"They didn't do it Professor," Lily spoke up. All eyes were now on her and she could feel her cheeks burn red. "They were chatting with us the whole time the goblets changed." She hated doing this, but she just wanted to wrap this whole thing up and go to bed. Besides, it's not like she was lying, I mean they were technically with them the time the slugs were transformed.
"Innocent until proven guilty." Dumbledore said. "We shall leave it to that. Everyone back to their common rooms and get well rested for early classes tomorrow." Dumbledore looked at the three girls.
Oh No…he knows we did it. Of course he does; Dumbledore knows all.
Lily slowly met Dumbledore's eyes and he had that mysterious twinkle in his eye that made her feel extremely guilty to the point where she wanted to scream out 'I did it!', but didn't.
...
"That was bloody brilliant!" James cried out loud as they entered the empty common room.
"I feel awful…that was really horrible you know!" Melanie glared at the boys. Even Lupin was chuckling a bit.
"D'you reckon he knows? Dumbledore, I mean." Lily said, nervously.
"Of course not," James said, walking next to Lily. "and even if he did, he'd have no proof so don't worry your pretty little head."
Lily just glared at him. She hated him for making her do this. What was the point of this bet anyway? They were just reliving their pranks through them.
"Ugh!" Was all she could say before storming up to her dormitory.
((( a couple days later )))
"So, Mel…" Jasmine said, not staring up from her Potions essay. "How was your date with the devil?"
Melanie rolled her eyes. "If you must know, tt was horrible, ok? You win. All he wanted to do was be wild and crazy and I couldn't put up with it."
"Aw, Mel…you know it's not like I want this kind of stuff to happen to you, but you're such a heartbreaker and you go out with the worst guys imaginable." Jasmine said.
"I know, it's just—" Melanie was cut off once the portrait door swung open.
"POTTER! STOP PATRONIZING ME!" They could hear Lily scream.
"What? I'm just stating that since I got a higher grade than you on the Transfiguration essay, it's only right that you go out with me!" James said, following close behind her.
"no! no! no! no! no! NO! NOOOOOO!" Lily shouted. "Besides, you cheated on that essay!"
"What?" James said. "Don't be such a sore loser, Evans."
Sirius shook his head. "He should not have said that…" He said to Remus who nodded in agreement.
If looks could kill, Lily would have chopped James into the tiniest pieces possible and then bring him back to life just so she could do it again.
"Why don't you give your big head a rest because I am so not a sore loser!" Lily shouted back.
"Are to!"
"Am not!"
"Are to!"
"Am not!"
"ARE TO!"
"AM NOT!" Lily shouted one last time.
James paused for a moment before smirking.
"You know…" James said, cheekily.
"Oh no! He's not going to…" Jasmine said, watching the arguement in awe.
"…I think he might…" Melanie replied, her mouth hanging open.
"…you're really sexy when you're shouting like that." James grinned at her. The next thing you knew, James was standing in the middle of the common room in a frilly, pink tutu while Lily smiled evilly at him before locking herself in her dormitory.
the next day
"So anyway…how was that date of yours with Melanie?" James asked Sirius.
"Eh…she's cute and all, but there was just something missing." Sirius said, shrugging his shoulders. "I think she's just too innocent for me."
"Wow…is Sirius really out-shallowing himself?" James said, raising his eyebrows and Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, I'm glad to see you finally got your dignity back, mate." Sirius said, patting James on the back as they made their way into the Great Hall.
"Ugh…don't remind me." James said.
"Got it…not going to remind you." He said while pulling out some Polaroid pictures from his pockets. James jaw dropped as he stared at himself in a frilly, pink tutu, running into the boys' dormitory.
"PADFOOT!" James shouted, snatching the picture from Sirius's hand.
"Go ahead, keep it. I got loads more in the common room!" Sirius said before running away from James deadly grasp.
Sirius quickly stopped in front of the girls, as did James. Remus was already there chatting with them.
"Ladies." Sirius said to them.
"Bastard." Jasmine responded. Sirius clutched his chest.
"Ouch."
"What do you want?" Melanie said.
"We've finally thought up of your next dare." James said, sitting across from Lily who didn't look at him.
"What it is?" Lily said.
"Well…you know the Three Broomsticks? They have their annual Gents Auction Night." Sirius started.
"Gents Auction Night?" Melanie questioned, looking at Remus.
"It's a night where girls get auctioned off and men of all ages bid for them and can do whatever they want until midnight." Remus replied.
"So the women are basically like prostitutes then?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow.
"No! Of course not!" Remus said, bewildered. "It's for a good cause. The money goes toward the money Madame Rosmerta is trying to save to buy herself a house. And it's all just for fun…nothing nasty."
"Ok…so what does that have to do with our dare?" Jasmine said.
"Well…since we know that you all love helping people, we've signed you up to be auctioned off." Sirius said and smiled.
"WHAT!" The three girls shrieked.
"You can't be serious! You're selling us off to some stranger that could be a blood thirsty murderer for all we know!" Lily said haughtily.
"They wont be murderers! It's all legitimate. Trust us." James said and smiled.
"Do you really expect us to trust you?" Melanie said and glared at them.
"Yes." Sirius said and smiled. "And if you back out, you will be our slaves until the end of term."
"UGH!" Jasmine sighed, shooting death glares at Sirius.
"Well when is this thing anyway?" Melanie said, trying to make the best of it.
"Tonight." Remus said, feeling a bit guilty.
"Tonight! How do you expect us to get into the Three Broomsticks tonight?" Lily said and the Marauders just smiled at each other.
((( later that night )))
"So enlighten me…how did you figure out this passage way?" Lily asked as 7 of them were making their way down a dark tunnel.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to hex you." Sirius said, completely serious.
When they finally reached the opening right outside of the Three Broomsticks, they huddled together and the boys gave them some last minute instructions.
"Alright, so once you get inside, you have to sign in with Madame Rosmerta and head to the back. Got it?" Remus said to them.
"And we also made up names for you so they wouldn't suspect us of sneaking out from Hogwarts." James said.
"What are they?" Lily asked and James looked hesitant.
"Erm…you'll see." James smiled while Lily looked unsure.
"Alright, let's go then…" Jasmine said getting up.
"No! Not yet!." Sirius said, pulling her back down. "There's also this stray 3 headed dog always lurking about here around this time so one of us better go with you guys just to be sa—"
"Oh bloody hell, Sirius." Jasmine said, looking annoyed and running out from behind the bush, making her way toward the Three Broomstick.
Sirius blinked. He thought the 3-headed dog would terrify the girls, but apparently he was wrong. He turned back towards the rest of the group and grinned.
"That's my future wife." He said before running after her.
: a/n : Hey! Thank you so much to the people who reviewed my story. I know it's not much, but it makes me happy. So I'm hoping for some more feedback to see if I should continue. What do you guys think? Reviews are appreciated :0)