Chapter 2 – Marauder's gone missing
Making their way into the Great Hall for the Start of Term feast, Lily let out a sigh of relief. It was so good to be back at Hogwarts and away from Petunia.
Taking their seats at the Gryffindor table, the girls were soon joined by James, Sirius, Remus and Peter. They began talking about their holidays but were interrupted minutes later by the doors to the Great Hall opening and the entrance of Professor McGonagall, leading a long line of scared looking first years.
The sorting ceremony began and, by the time they reached 'K', Lily found her attention wavering. She began to daydream about nothing and finally, the last student, Caitlin Walla was sorted into Gryffindor and Dumbledore stood up at the staff table.
"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts," said Dumbledore in his loud, carrying voice, "To new hands, welcome, to our old students, welcome back. At the moment all I have to say is… dig in!" He sat down just as the shining plates and goblets in front of them fill fit to bursting with delicious food.
The students began to tuck into their food and the noise in the Hall escalated so that the Gryffindor fifth years had to yell to have a conversation. The conversation, to Lily's dismay, was about the Quidditch World Cup next holidays and this conversation carried on for the whole meal. Nat, Sarah, and the Marauder's were halfway through planning the trip, when Dumbledore stood up again.
"Now that we are all, hopefully, full of good food and drink, it is time for a few Start of Term notices. I am asked to remind youfor apparently the 776th time that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students." At this, he his gaze lingered on the four boys sitting opposite Lily. Smiling, he continued, "Quidditch trials will begin in the coming weeks. If you are interested, please leave your name with your head of house. The first match will be in the middle of October. I also have an important announcement but that will have to wait until tomorrow as I'm sure you all want to be well rested for your lessons tomorrow. Off to bed," he finished, sitting down and beginning a conversation with Professor McGonagall.
ooooooo
"It's good to be back, don't you think?" said Lily as she flopped down onto her four-poster bed in the Gryffindor Tower.
"I know," replied Sarah, "Nothing compares to being back at Hogwarts."
"Yeah, I guess you must be glad to be away from Petunia," said Nat, as she gave a huge yawn and hoped into her bed having already changed for bed.
"Yeah," replied Lily, rummaging around in her trunk for her pajamas.
By the time Sarah and Lily were ready for bed, Nat was already fast asleep.
"Goodnight" called Lily
"Night Lily, "came Sarah's muffled reply from behind her curtains.
And the fifth year Gryffindor girls fell fast asleep.
ooooooo
The next morning, as the girls were heading down to breakfast, they saw the James, Sirius and Peter at the top of the Marble Stair case.
"…do you think we should do it this time? I mean it's so close to the beginning to term… "whispered Peter.
"Of course we should", replied Sirius, "I really miss not being able to do it in the holidays."
"Yeah," whispered James, "The full moon's tonight and I'm sure that he'd appreciate the company…"
"What are you talking about?' asked Nat, walking up to where the boys were standing "What about the full moon being tonight? Who wants some company?"
All the boys glanced at each other but were silent.
"Come on, tell me," pleaded Nat.
They began to talk but they were talking over the top of each other and the girls found it impossible to understand anything.
"Whatever," sighed Nat, "I didn't get a word of that."
James and Sirius turned and raced down the stairs and into the Great Hall and were already halfway through their plates of bacon and eggs by the time Peter and the girls sat down at the Gryffindor table.
Looking up and down the Gryffindor Table, Lily remarked, "Hey Remus isn't here."
Looking up from his second plate of food, James replied, "Yeah, he was sick last night and we took him to the hospital wing. Madame Pomfrey said not to bother him for a couple of days but that he'll be fine."
The rest of the meal passed in silence and without incident with James and Sirius finishing five plates of bacon and eggs each.
After breakfast, they headed off to their first class, Transfiguration. The closer they got to the class room, the more Lily began to doubt she'd be able to concentrate at all during the lesson with James, Sirius and Peter sitting in the back of the classroom. They would likely have their heads together, planning their next prank. When the lesson started, however, she found she was pleasantly surprised. The boys spent an unusually quiet lesson with their heads buried in their books and didn't disrupt the class once. Lily began to get a little suspicious, but ignored the feeling.
The rest of the days passed by peacefully; The Gryffindor's had Herbology after Transfiguration where James and Sirius managed to get their Bouncing Bulbs stuck to the roof of the greenhouse. After lunch, they had double Potions. This was Lily's favourite lesson and Professor Slughorn often favoured her. She had been invited to join Slughorn's "Slug Club", but she had only attended three of the parties last year. Somehow, in this lesson, James and Sirius managed to spill their 'Helious' Solution over Severus Snape, a particularly fowl Slytherin in their year, which resulted in Snape sounding like a first year girl for the rest of the lesson. James and Sirius liked to torment Snape and he was often the subject of their many pranks. Snape seemed to hang around with the older Slytherins, rather than people his own age. But to everyone else he always seemed like an outsider, and didn't really fit in.
Sitting down in the common room after dinner that evening, Lily found herself alone. She began to wonder where everyone was when she remembered that the others were in the library doing their essays for Potions and Charms (Lily had already finished both essays.) and she thought that Remus was probably still in the hospital wing 'ill '. With nothing worth while to do, she decided to head off to bed. She was just getting into bed when Nat and Sarah came in.
"They really know who to ruin our lives," complained Nat.
"What!" exclaimed Lily, sitting up in bed, "Who's ruining your life?"
"I know what you mean," replied Sarah, talking to Nat. The turning to Lily, she replied, "It's just Nat complaining about homework, as usual," she explained. "It was actually really easy to do the essays without any of the Marauder's."
"So the Marauder's weren't with you in the library?' asked Lily, propping herself up on her elbows.
"No," replied Sarah, "they walked with us to the fourth floor, then they said they had something to do. We thought that they would have come back to the common room."
"No, I was here by myself," replied Lily,
All was quiet after that as Nat and Sarah got ready for bed and Lily's thoughts turned, again, to the Marauder's. There were so many un-answered questions about them and it was only the second day of term! What had James, Sirius and Peter been talking about this morning at the top of the Marble Stairs? Was Remus really sick in the hospital wing? He had seemed a little pale on the train… Where had the Marauder's been this evening if they weren't in the library OR the common room?
"Goodnight,' called Sarah as she climbed into bed
"Goodnight," replied Lily.
She smiled when no reply can from Nat. Rolling on her stomach, she thought 'Who cares that the Marauder's are missing. That's their problem, not mine.' And she fell fast asleep.
ooooooo
The next day, the girls didn't see the boys until the start of the first lesson. The girls arrived early and were already settled in class when James, Sirius and Peter stumped into the room, all looking extremely tired.
"Where were you last night?" asked Lily, as the boys sat down at the tale next to them.
'Um, doin' homework,' replied Sirius
'Uh huh. And where, pray tell, did you do your homework?' enquired Nat in her sweetest voice.
'Um…' started Peter.
"Quiet everyone," called tiny Professor Flitwick from the front of the class, where he was perched on a towering pile of books.
Nat sat back in her seat looking irritated.
"Oh well," said Sarah, leaning across Lily to speak to Nat, "Maybe next time you'll be able to get the truth out of them."
Lily was only half listening. She had just noticed that James was staring at her again. She turned in her seat to see if there was someone behind her that James may be looking at, but all that was behind her was an old, rotting bookcase that James couldn't possibly be looking at. Turning back to the front, she glanced back towards James. He seemed to have noticed her turn in her seat and was grinning at her. Sirius tugged on his sleeve and he turned. Seconds later, he was immersed in a whispered conversation, over a piece of dirty old parchment, with Sirius and Peter.
ooooooo
James and Sirius walked along the basement corridor, having just left the kitchens. They were both silent, each lost in their own thoughts which coincidentally both concerned Lily Evans. James sighed and stared into space. They had taken less than ten more steps when Sirius broke the silence.
"I have a dare for you", said Sirius, stopping
James stopped dead and turned to look at Sirius, a few paces behind him. They had given up on dares in third year when the two boys got two months worth of detentions. Having Sirius suddenly spring a dare on James was surprising and could only mean trouble.
"I understand if you don't want to", egged Sirius, beginning to walk again, "I mean…"
"Shut up. What's the dare", snapped James, continuing to walk, but getting edgier every minute.
Smiling to himself, Sirius waited before replying, "I dare you to ask a particular girl out."
James breathed a sigh of relief. "Easy", he replied. He and Sirius both knew that almost every girl in Hogwarts would give anything to go out with one of them.
"Good. But I get to choose the girl," smirked Sirius,
James hesitated. "Who is it?"
"Lily Evans" replied Sirius innocently
"What!" yelled James!
All Sirius could do was smirk.
"You know that's impossible," began James, "Lily and I only just stopped fighting. And you know that both Nat and Sarah would kill any of us if we ruined that."
"I know," egged Sirius, "or…is there something ALREADY going on between you and Lily?"
"Why would that bother you?" James replied innocently.
"WHAT!" replied Sirius, stopping dead.
"Oh, yeah," said James, "It's been going on for quite some time now. I think it was…sometime around…the first year we started…"
"Oh shut up," snapped Sirius, "It did sound convincing though until you said it started in first year."
"Yeah, ok. Whatever," replied James, feeling a little calmer, "When do I have to ask Lily out?"
"Oh, whenever you want," replied Sirius lazily, walking up the steps to Hogwarts.
"Good," said James. As they climbed into the common room
ooooooo
Meanwhile…
…In the Gryffindor common room…
Nat had come traipsing in looking extremely tired.
"I think that you need to head off to bed," said Lily, noticing how Nat slumped in the chair. "Where have you been?"
"I tried to follow James and Sirius to find out what they were doing," she replied
"And…" prompted Sarah, leaning forward slightly
"Nothing. I lost them when they were in the grounds somewhere," she replied, yawning
"In the grounds," repeated Lily, looking shocked. "They shouldn't have been out there at night."
"Yeah, but Nat, you do need to head of to bed," said Sarah, concern evident in her voice and face. "We'll talk in I the morning."
"Yeah, ok," said Nat, wearily, "I'll see you both in the morning." And she headed off up the stairs.
"Hey Lil," said Sarah, glancing at Nat to make sure she was out of ear shot, "I think that Sirius likes Nat."
"What!" replied Lily. "Why on earth would you think that, "she inquired
"After Potions, I was walking behind them and I heard Sirius mention Nat's name. So I decided to get closer and I heard him saying that she was really hot."
"What! When was this!" asked Lily, unhappy that she hadn't heard this herself, but surprised as well.
"You were still in class, remember? Slughorn asked you to another of his parties after class and you said not to wait."
"Oh, yeah," replied Lily, remembering now
"Anyway," Sarah went to continue, but at that moment, Sirius and James came through the portrait whole. "Hey Lily, do you think that we should say anything to Sirius?"
"Yeah, ok, let's see how he reacts," replied Lily.
"Hey girls," said Sirius, coming to sit in the newly vacated seat Nat had just left while James sat down in another. For some reason, unknown to Lily, Sirius couldn't stop smirking in James direction.
"Hey," replied Sarah, glancing at Lily, "We have some questions for you." She was not surprised to see James and Sirius exchange glances.
"What question," enquired Sirius, looking slightly concerned.
"Well," began Sarah, "On the way out of class today, I overheard you talking to James, Remus and Peter about Nat and how much you liked her."
For some reason Sirius breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yeah, I think Nat might like Sirius as well," whispered James, leaning forward, "I was talking to her at Diagon Alley on the holidays and she kept said that he was hot and that she wished that she had someone that liked her."
"Oh well, I think I might head up to bed," said Lily abruptly, standing up, "I've done enough talking for one night." She began to turn, when she remembered something. "Sirius, are you going to tell Nat that you like her?"
He shrugged his shoulders
"Yes, I think that you should," replied Sarah, jumping in before Lily could reply.
"Especially if what James' said, if it's true," she added with a suspicious glance at James, "I think that she likes you back. Goodnight." And she and Sarah swept up the stairs.
"Ahh, yes, I can just see you two have been together since grade one," Sirius said once they heard the dormitory door close.
"Oh, shut up," snapped James, unhappy that Sirius had brought up the dare again. "There's more important things to talk about a.k.a. you and Nat," grinned James. "So are you going to tell her?"
"I think so," replied Sirius, casually, "And before you think that if I ask Nat out I'll be too preoccupied to think about out dare, think again. It doesn't save you from asking Miss Lily out."
"I'm going to bed too, if you're going to talk about the dare all night." He stood and was halfway to the stairs when he heard Sirius whisper, "Yes, you need to get some beauty sleep so you look your best for darling Lily." Turning, James was at Sirius' side in two strides and pretty soon the two friends were wrestling each other on the floor.
PadfootsLuva: thank you for your review. I know that my first chapter was short and I'll try to make it up in future chapters. Don't worry, this story will definitely NOT have an overused story line and Sirius is going to play a pretty big role in future chapters – the Nat/Sirius think is just the start
jjchickenthanks for the review. I hope that you like my story and I changed this chapter (pretty drastically) from the one that you beta'd. If you have any ideas for my story, let me know
softlove91hey thanx for your review too! You were my first reviewer eva. If you have any ideas for my story, let me know
If any of you know anyone that may like this story, could you ask them to read and review.