Chapter 7: Beware of the Black Haired Man
"He what!" James yelled, slamming his goblet of pumpkin juice down onto their house table. The noise, which was surprisingly loud, echoed throughout the Great Hall causing many heads to turn their way.
Lily broke off from her conversation with Becca and glanced down at the end of the table, rolling her eyes at James and his friends. "What was that about?" Becca asked curiously, staring down at the Marauders, one of which was casting dirty looks over towards the Hufflepuff table.
Lily snorted, not the least bit curious as to what James' little spastic moment meant. Okay, so maybe she was a little curious. She quickly brushed it off though. "It's Potter. Does he need an excuse to be exceedingly annoying?"
"Yeah, mate. Lockhart was boasting about his good fortune in Divination. Bit annoying really," Sirius said.
"And she said yes? Lockhart must be the most stupid guy ever to attend Hogwarts, but then again he is a Hufflepuff," James exclaimed, still glaring over at the Hufflepuff table. Some of the Hufflepuffs had noticed his persistent evil stares by now and were looking at him nervously, some of them avoiding looking at the Gryffindor table completely.
"Yeah, I thought Lily would have better taste in guys," Remus agreed half heartedly, staring unconsciously at Becca who was laughing at something Emily had said.
"Evans usually goes for the smart gentle type. Not the stupid blokes who are overly cocky, arrogant, full of themselves—Pretty much, she doesn't normally go for guys like you," Sirius said, patting James on the back who glared and stabbed his fork angrily into his potatoes.
Peter looked in between the three other Marauders, deciding to keep his mouth shut. He didn't like giving his opinions for fear of being laughed at…or fear of being hexed by a fuming James Potter.
"That was smooth, Padfoot, really nice," Remus said sarcastically, watching James cutting his chicken with much more force than was needed. Sirius shrugged his shoulders, smiling innocently.
There was a silence for a while as James continued to look daggers towards a certain young man, who right now, James hated more than even Snivellus. "Something must be done about Lockhart," James said darkly.
Sirius clapped him on the back. "Now that's more like it. My best mate, and fellow Marauder, welcome back to the dark side."
Remus snorted. "Like he ever went over to the good side," he muttered, which made Peter laugh slightly.
The morning of the Hogsmeade trip dawned bright and early. It was a beautiful day outside; perfectly blue sky, not a cloud insight, and the weather was just right for a typical early fall day.
The good weather, however nice it was, wasn't really perking Lily up. Of course she was excited about the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, she loved the little cute wizard town. But spending all day with Gilderoy Lockhart? How'd she get herself into this? He was even more arrogant than Potter…well maybe…possibly. Okay, not at all. Potter was definantly more arrogant than Lockhart… but Potter was cuter. Wait, why was she thinking about James Potter? And had she really just admitted that she thought Potter was…good looking? That's it, who spiked her drink last night? Potter was the most likely person…oh gosh, there she went again. She really had to get her mind on the right track.
"Lily! Come on sleepy head! Rise and shine," Becca bounced over to the window and wrenched open the curtains, receiving a pillow to the head from Emily.
Lily rubbed her eyes and sat up, shocked at finding Becca awake before herself. She must be excited about the Hogsmeade trip, she thought as she got up out of bed and started going through her trunk looking for clothes to wear.
Emma and Leah were standing over their beds, an assortment of outfits spread out everywhere. "What about this skirt?" Leah asked Emma, who shook her head.
"Nope, not short enough! Leah! You've got a date with Charlie Boroughs!" Emma exclaimed, grabbing the original skirt out of her friend's hands and throwing it across the room.
Alice rolled her eyes as she came out of the bathroom fully dressed in a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. "Desperate," she muttered, casting sad looks over at Emma and Leah. "So, Lils. What are you going to wear?" Alice said, grinning.
"Alice, I'm going on a date with Gilderoy Lockhart. I really don't care what I look like," Lily said, taking hold of a pair of capris and a short-sleeved shirt.
"Well it's really the other people you might see in Hogsmeade," stated Becca, as she attempted to retrieve one of her shoes out from underneath her bed. "You know, the hot guys."
"If you're going to say Potter, forget it," Lily said.
"Um, I wasn't going to," Becca stated, smirking at Lily who quickly grabbed her clothes and headed towards the bathroom.
The Marauders were already down outside the Great Hall waiting for their target to arrive. "Honestly, you'd think he was a bloody woman the amount of time it takes him to get ready," James said, glancing around, trying to make out the specific blonde haired guy in the midst of students waiting for their dates.
Sirius laughed loudly, causing many giggling girls to look his way. And luckily enough, causing Remus to look up and stare at his friend like he was a mad which also caused Remus to notice somebody walking down the stairs like he was God himself. Remus quickly nudged James in the ribs with his elbow, jerking his head in the direction of the stairs.
James perked up and to his delight saw his target, Gilderoy Lockhart, walking down the stairs in a horribly bright green sweater. James rubbed his hands together in glee. "And now the fun begins," he said, looking over at Sirius.
"I'm on it, Prongs," Sirius said, handing James a bouquet of colorful flowers that he'd been holding in his hand. "Prongs dear, will you go out with me?" he asked, batting his eyelashes as he held out the flowers.
"Shut up, Padfoot," James said, taking the flowers from him. "Oy, Lockhart!" he called out, waving Gilderoy over towards them.
Gilderoy approached cautiously, eyeing Sirius as if he was expecting Sirius to lash out at any moment and stab him with a thirteen-inch carving knife. He was clearly still worked up about Professor Froddic's prediction about having to "beware of the black haired man". Lockhart wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, making sure there was at least a six-foot radius between himself and Sirius.
Sirius, who had a shrewd idea of what was going on, snorted and turned away to make Lockhart more comfortable…but oh, how he loved to see that blonde Hufflepuff squirm in fear. Oh yes, he had the power. The power to make other guys tremble under his glare, and the power to swoon the women with a wink of his delicious brown eyes.
Without remembering he had a girlfriend, he smiled at a passing fifth year and winked, causing the girl to blush and giggle profusely. He then snapped back to reality…what the heck did he just do? Sure, he used to be the "ladies man of Hogwarts", but now he had Emily, and that's all he really needed. He vouched never again to wink at a passing girl. He sighed in relief…good thing Emily was still up in her dorm and hadn't seen that
"Sirius Black!" Oh, crap. She'd seen it.
James stood there waiting for Lockhart to pull himself together, which he eventually did once Sirius was thirty feet down the hall talking to Emily who was making fun of his little "seductive" show. Lockhart cleared his throat a couple times, trying to find his voice. "Uh, yes, James. What'd you want?" James worked hard to keep back a laugh as he heard Lockhart's voice crack like a young boy going through tough puberty.
"I heard you got a date with Evans, and I thought, seeing as my date got sick, you could give her these. It'd be a pity if these beautiful things went to waste," James explained giving the flowers over to Lockhart, silently praying that Lockhart would trust him and take them.
Lockhart eyed James for a moment and then looked at the flowers. They looked…safe. He then laughed at himself. Flowers? Dangerous? The only way he could be in harm of these would be if he had an allergy to flowers, which he was positive he did not. "Yeah, sure. Great idea, James, but of course I'd already thought of that. In fact, I left my bouquet of them upstairs," Gilderoy said, reaching out and taking the flowers.
James rolled his eyes while at the same time sighing in relief. Thank goodness for Lockhart's stupidity. "Yeah, no problem. Hope you have fun today!" He said in a fake cheery voice. "Because I know I will…" James muttered as he watched Gilderoy walk away towards Lily and Becca, who'd just appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
He dragged Sirius away from Emily after Sirius kissed her, explaining that he was having a "guys day out on the town" and would meet her back in the common room. James then had the task of snapping Remus back into reality as Remus stared at Becca and Ryan's retreating backs. As for Peter, he hadn't moved from his spot for the past forty-five minutes.
"Pads, Moony, Wormtail, phase one of operation break up is about to begin," James stated. Remus rolled his eyes, although he was pleased he had such trouble-making friends to take his mind off of…things. Peter was just excited that he'd be able to see a good show…and not get in trouble for it.
Sirius rubbed his hands together in glee, glad that he and his best mates were about to set off on another rule breaking, havoc making, adventure…again. "Let's get this show on a roll."
As if on a cue, a startled shriek echoed throughout the halls. Many heads turned to stare at the maker of the noise as they waited to be checked off by the irritable caretaker, Mr Filch so they could spend the enjoyable afternoon wandering the sunny streets of Hogsmeade.
James and Sirius turned to smirk at their victim…Gilderoy Lockhart. It was just an unfortunate thing that Lily Evans had to be their second victim…after all, James had to get to Gilderoy somehow.
Evidently, Gilderoy had given Lily the flowers that James had told him to give to Lily. Exactly as James had planned, Lily stood with the flowers close up to her face, as if trying to smell them. The only think out of place was that she now had a dull yellow sticky liquid dripping from her that gave off a strong odor of burning rubber.
"Lily…I swear…I didn't…" Gilderoy was stuttering. James and Sirius laughed out loud as Lockhart nervously grabbed a fourth year, who was talking to his date, and attempted to wipe Lily off with the fourth year's robes rather than his own.
Lily dropped the flowers and took out her wand, waving it around herself. Immediately yellow sap-like substance disappeared. She then turned her gaze to Gilderoy who hastily let the poor fourth year go. Her short temper was slowly cracking…so far her day wasn't going so well. She was about to start yelling at him when noisy laughter reached her ears.
She turned around only to see Potter and co strolling out the door. It was only Potter being his stupid self again…wait, Potter? But how would he have given Lockhart the flowers…well, there were ways; Lockhart wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed to say the least. But no, not even Potter would be that stupid as to do something like that to her just to screw up her date with Gilderoy…
Wait, who was she kidding? Of course Potter would. He'd been doing that exact thing for five years now. Obviously he didn't know what she did…that she really didn't like Lockhart and wished that she were anywhere but here, standing with Gilderoy on a date. But if Potter wanted a date to ruin, then a date he shall get…and then she would deal with James Andrew Potter.
"Don't worry about it Gilderoy. Come on, let's go."
