Chapter Two: Fan Clubs and Discussions
As Lily, Becca, and Emily walked up the stairs to the Great Hall they heard a shout from behind them. "Lily! Wait up," yelled Alice, holding onto Frank's hand. They all turned around stared at the couple now running towards them.
"Alice, Frank," all three girls exclaimed, smiling widely.
"Hey, Lily, Becca, and Emily," Frank greeted.
"Hey, Frank. How was your summer?" Becca asked. Frank was a fellow Gryffindor seventh year.
"It was fantastic. I spent most of it with Alice," he said grinning warmly at Alice who smiled back.
"Oh, and congratulations on becoming Head Girl, Lily," Frank said politely. "Good luck on handling James," he laughed.
"Thanks. I'll need all the luck I can get," Lily answered with dead seriousness.
The five of them continued on their way up the stairs. As they reached the landing a huge group of people came into view. Wondering what was going on, they pushed their way through the crowd, which seemed to be made up of the school's entire female population.
"Never fear, the Marauders are here," came the voice of James. Becca, Alice, and Emily rolled their eyes while Lily stood there, her face becoming steadily redder as she tried unsuccessfully to contain her anger.
"And I know you are all wondering who's on our dating list for this year…" they could hear Sirius saying. Becca and Alice tried to grab onto the back of Emily's robes but they weren't fast enough. With Lily marching beside her, Emily broke through the crowd of girls who were all gazing upon the four boys.
"Black, you are so dead," Emily shouted. A loud 'ouch' was heard as Emily slapped Sirius across the chest. "I was only kidding," he tried to explain to his fuming girlfriend.
"It's not even funny," she said, dragging him away from the crowd so she could chastise him privately.
"Everybody get into the Great Hall now or I will have to dock points from your houses," Lily yelled, glaring at James; all the girls groaned.
"Lily, calm down, we were just greeting our fans," remarked James staring angrily at her as his fans left; Emily was still dealing with Sirius.
"James, lets just go to the feast before she erupts like Vesuvius," Remus said. The Marauders, minus Sirius, walked coolly into the Hall where applause broke out.
Becca, Frank, and Alice were trying not to laugh as they walked passed an angry redhead and a raging girlfriend, and entered the Great Hall.
"Hey, Becca!" called out a rather cute seventh year from Ravenclaw.
"Hey, Ryan," she answered before taking a seat at the Gryffindor house table.
Ryan Diggory wasn't at all like his twin brother Amos. Granted, they did look the alike, but other than that they were complete opposites. Amos was a self-centered annoying jerk that couldn't get over himself and his good looks. Ryan was just a very easy going, funny, and all around nice guy.
"Becca, he so likes you," stated Alice like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Who?" Becca asked, tearing her gaze away from the bewitched star speckled ceiling. Alice and Frank exchanged looks, smiling slightly, familiar with Becca's short attention span.
"Ryan Diggory," Alice said, waving her hand toward the Ravenclaw table. Before Becca could start denying it, a brown haired, green-eyed guy walked over towards them and greeted the three girls.
"Hey guys! Happy to be back for your last year?" Daniel Gates asked.
"Of course," all girls chorused.
"Beck, ready to win the Quidditch cup again?" he asked, turning towards Becca. Dan was in his sixth year and was a Chaser on the Gryffindor team.
"Heck yes," Becca said enthusiastically. Dan's friends down the table yelled for him to get his tail over there, and grinning, he said goodbye and left.
The great oak front doors then banged open emitting Lily followed closely by Sirius and Emily who were holding hands; clearly Emily had knocked some sense into her boyfriend. They came over and took a seat next to the two girls, Frank, and the Marauders. Five minutes later, many very nervous first years started filing into the Hall and stopped in front of the Sorting Hat. Half an hour later, the Sorting had finished, adding five girls and four boys to the Gryffindor house.
"Now is not time for announcements," Professor Dumbledore said while many students cheered. "So without further ado, let's eat!" Masses of food filled the table and everyone began digging in.
"Well, so far my new year has gone great. A lack encounters with the Slytherins always makes my day worth while," Alice was saying through a mouthful of mashed potatoes and gravy.
"I don't know, being called a 'Mudblood' always brightens my day," Lily said sarcastically. Everyone laughed.
An hour later, after everyone was stuffed full with delicious foods, the tables cleared themselves and Dumbledore stood up.
"First of all, welcome, first years, to Hogwarts! Secondly, just for a reminder, the Whomping Willow is off limits to all students." The Marauders exchanged mischievous grins. "Mister Filch also wants me to remind you all to check his list of banned items which now includes Biting Frisbees and two hundred and thirty seven other various items." Professor Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "And lastly, I would like to congratulate the new Head Boy and Girl, James Potter and Lily Evans." Applause rang throughout the hall. James stood up on the bench and started waving and bowing to the students. Lily grabbed his robes forcefully and pulled him down, causing him to fall backwards off the bench. The Slytherins laughed while the Marauder Fan Club raced over to James and all attempted to help him up. Lily looked revolted.
"Thank you for that nice performance, Mister Potter and Miss Evans, but I think it's time for bed. Prefects, lead the first years to their dormitories and if you have forgotten the password kindly ask the Head Boy or Girl," Dumbledore finished. Students made their way towards the exit in a mad mob. All the seventh year Gryffindors were last to leave. They had all been incapable of walking due to the fact that they were all doubled over with laughter, except Lily.
"It wasn't that funny, guys," she said narrowing her eyes and glaring at all of them.
"Oh, lighten up, Evans, you know it was funny," exclaimed James smiling at Lily.
"Well, besides the fact that you completely embarrassed yourself and me, then yeah, it was bloody hilarious," she said sarcastically. She marched out of the Great Hall. Emily and Becca ran after her to catch up after saying goodnight to the Marauders, Alice, and Frank.
The seventh year girls' room was immediately on the landing of the staircase leading to the girls' dormitories. Inside, the six seventh years could be found, sitting on their beds and discussing the new year. Emma Rose and Leah Brown, the girls two other roommates, were camped out on their side of the dormitory, comparing their new wardrobes.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Lioni," Leah exclaimed disgustedly. It was clear that Leah and Emma didn't like the other four girls. 'The Lioni' was a name Lily, Emily, Becca, and Alice had come up with in their third year.
Lily rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored the two other girls. She thought for a moment about the time when the four had decided to name themselves, and the Lioni had been born.
"You know, I think we should come up with a name to describe ourselves," Emily had exclaimed, placing her quill down onto the desk the four friends were sharing in the library.
"Like the Marauders?" Alice asked.
Lily wrinkled her nose. "Do we really want to model ourselves after those four?"
"I think it's a brilliant idea. It'd give us a sense of unity, friendship, and uniqueness. And besides, we're not going to model ourselves after the Marauders. If anything, they'll model after us," Becca explained.
Lily, Emily, and Alice all looked at Becca questioningly. "That made no sense, Beck," Lily said.
"Maybe not to you, but it made sense to me," Becca said, smiling.
"Anyways, so who's in on making a group name?" Emily asked, looking around at the group.
"Me!" Becca agreed, shoving her hand into the air ecstatically.
"I'm in," Alice said.
They all then turned to Lily who hadn't answered yet. Her gaze seemed to have drifted over to James, Sirius, and Peter who had entered the library. They were all whispering quietly together as they made a bee line to the Transfiguration section of the library.
"Lils! Come back to Earth," Emily joked.
"Oh, right, sorry. Yeah, of course I'm in," Lily said, ignoring her curiosity as to what three of the Marauders were doing in the library without their fourth member, Remus.
"So, the next question is, what's it going to be?" Emily wondered aloud.
The four girls sat in silence, each thinking silently. "It should have something to do with Gryffindor. You know, showing our house spirit. What about, the Lions?" Emily asked.
"That just doesn't have a certain…ring…to it that we're looking for," Lily said. Alice nodded her head in agreement.
"Oh, I've got it! How about The Lioni…because there's four of us, and it's like the plural of Lion," Becca exclaimed excitedly.
Lily snorted. "Beck, the plural of Lion would be Lions, which was Emily's first idea. But I like the sound of The Lioni," she said.
"Yeah, its…different. I like it!" Alice agreed.
"Me too. So it's settled, the Lioni have been born!" Emily exclaimed.
Emily rolled her eyes as Leah was ranting about how her hair had a split end.
"Honestly, those two must have dirt for brains," she quipped. "I'm surprised they remembered which beds were theirs."
"I'm more surprised on how they got into Gryffindor," remarked Lily, pondering the thought.
Becca laughed. "And Emily, you know that Leah's going to try to steal Sirius from you this year, just like she did at the end of last year."
Emily made a face. "If Sirius wants to dump me and date that airhead, that's fine with me."
Becca grinned. "'Fine with you?' Who are you trying to fool, Emily? You're so attached to that boy, I don't know what to think."
Emily threw her pillow at Becca and knelt to pull her pyjamas from the trunk at the foot of her bed.
Lily sat down on her bed across from Emily, brushing her long auburn hair. "Well, I can't fathom why you guys are attracted to these Marauders so much. I mean, excluding Remus, who seems to have his priorities in the right place, you can count their good qualities on one hand."
"Oh, come on, Lily, lighten up. You know you're going to end up dating my cousin," said Emily devilishly.
Lily objected loudly. "No way! I'll be lucky if I last through the year, what with all the hours of patrolling and extra duties I have to perform with that Potter boy."
Becca laughed. "Oh, it won't be that hard. James can be a lot of fun to hang out with. I should know—I live with Emily over the holidays and Sirius stays at James'."
"Yeah, well, you and Emily are practically the female Marauders of Hogwarts, so of course you would think he's fun to be around," said Lily disapprovingly.
"Oh, come on Lils. You know we're still your best friends," said Emily a very Potterish smirk in place.
"Yeah, yeah, what ever," she said smiling at her friends. "So, where's Alice?"
"Is that a question that even needs to be answered? She's with dear Frank, of course," Becca answered.
"Honestly, those two are going to end up getting married right after we graduate," Emily exclaimed. Becca and Lily both nodded in agreement; it was obvious to everyone at Hogwarts that Alice and Frank were "meant to be".
Up in the seventh year boys' dormitory, a similar discussion was taking place. The Marauders were lounging on their four-poster beds, talking aimlessly. Frank had wandered off somewhere with his girlfriend. Sirius suspected that they were in the Astronomy Tower so Frank wouldn't return until morning.
"So, James. I take it from the scene on the train that you're still going to go after Lily?" asked Remus. James made a face.
"I was. But then I acted like a fool and shot myself in the foot. Now I have to start back at square one."
Peter grinned. "What do you mean, 'start back at square one'? You've only ever been at square one." James threw a balled-up pair of socks at Peter.
Remus laughed. "Come on, Peter, don't be such a pessimist. Our Prongs can win Lily's heart—he just has to grow up a bit."
James threw Remus a look. "Thanks for making me feel better, guys."
Sirius looked up from his magazine, Quidditch Today. "What, Prongs? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
Peter snorted. "That's because you were thinking about Quidditch and Emily." Sirius grinned.
"So what if I can't keep my mind off her…or my eyes, for that matter." His friends laughed hysterically at Sirius' attempt to be poetic.
"You know what? You guys should stop laughing and get back to discussing your dismal love lives. Mine seems quite intact, thank you very much."
James grinned. "I guess I should forewarn you, then, Sirius. Emily's just like the rest of us Potters—bloody stubborn and as proud as she is clever. Don't mess with Emily."
Sirius looked back down at his magazine. "Are you kidding? I already knew that—that's part of what I like about her." James shook his head and looked at Remus.
"So, Moony. Who is it that you have your eyes on this year?"
"Well…er…" Remus hesitated turning red.
"Is it Mary again?" asked Peter curiously. "You guys went out twice in our fifth year."
"Yea and once in our sixth," James said smirking at Remus who threw a pillow at him. Mary Gooding was a year younger than them and was in Ravenclaw
"No, it's not Mary…" he said fidgeting uncomfortably under the stares from James and Peter. Sirius then put down his magazine to stare at his friend as well.
"Spit it out mate!" James yelled becoming impatient.
"Becca. Okay? I like Becca. I have ever since last year, are you guys happy now? Boy it feels good to get that off my chest," Remus burst out talking very fast.
"Jeez, Moony, calm down," Sirius said laughing. "We've always guessed you have anyways."
"What? How? Do I talk in my sleep or something?" asked Remus, a confused expression appearing on his face.
"We have our ways," James said, tapping his forehead knowingly. The rest of the group snorted.
"Guys, I have something to say…" Peter started ending the laughter.
"What is it, Wormtail? You can tell us anything," Remus said glad the conversation was moving off him and his love life.
"Well, I'm not sure how to tell you all this but…I'm gay," he stated.
"WHAT?" All three boys yelped staring at their friend.
Peter burst out laughing at the looks on his friends' faces. "I'm just kidding!"
The Marauders then began a heated pillow fight that Frank joined in on after coming back from his stroll with Alice.
