A/N: Hello folks, Dobby here! Winky sorta… um…drank too much butterbeer, so I is writing this chapter instead!
Disclaimer:
Dobby: Since Winky is…not here (read: lying drunk in the Room for Requirement), I is saying the Disclaimer by myself. We is not owning Mr. Harry Potter sir, we is working for him.
Chapter Five – Loony, Pigtail, Clubfoot and Wrong
End of Chapter Four
She Lily walked down to the Great Hall, eagerly anticipating her meal. She had no sooner opened the door, when someone yelled, "FOOD FIGHT!"
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In less than three seconds, food was flying in all directions and a coconut cream pie – which was incidentally thrown from the Marauders' area – hit Lily in the face.
She turned toward the staff table, but to her horror, it was empty. It was now up to her and James to put a stop to this fight, as their positions were the most authorative in the school apart from the teachers.
Speaking of James…she looked around the Gryffindor table for him, and caught sight of his untidy black hair just as he ducked under the table to avoid an onslaught of pies, potatoes and who knew what else.
Lily felt a twinge of annoyance. He was supposed to be Head Boy, and he was hiding under a table when he should be taking authority! She also had a sneaking suspicion that it was him who had thrown the pie at her.
She walked to the front of the Great Hall and made several purple firecrackers come out of her wand. After five minutes or so, the Hall fell silent.
"Thank you," said Lily somewhat sarcastically. "Though I cannot put the whole school in detention, believe me, I would if I could. If I ever find out who started this food fight, they will be in detention for the next three weeks."
For some reason, when she said this, Sirius Black looked very happy. She continued, "Now let us resume dinner calmly, and twenty points are to be taken off every House in which anybody participated in this food fight."
Everybody immediately looked toward the four giant hourglasses. To nobody's surprise and everybody's dismay, twenty stones flew up in all of the bulbs. Some seventh year Slytherins looked like they wanted to argue, but Lily looked so dangerous with her face covered in coconut cream pie that nobody dared to disobey.
"Scourgify," muttered Lily, waving her wand around the Great Hall. Food disappeared off the floor and people – except for her – and reappeared neatly on the gleaming golden plates on the four long tables. In a matter of minutes, a babble of talk and laughter resumed and peace was restored. With luck, the teachers would never find out about this food fight.
Lily marched purposefully over to where James and the Marauders were sitting. Sirius and James were in a heated conversation when she went there.
"…stupid git!" she heard James storm at Sirius. "What did you go starting a food fight for?"
"Lighten up, James!" said Sirius equally indignantly. "It was just a joke, okay? God, you're starting to sound like- Oh hi, Lily!" said Sirius brightly, seeing her come over. He had his best innocent expression plastered on his face – it was a very good one, having been carefully cultivated over the past six years – but Lily knew better than to believe it.
"Thanks for your help back there, James," said Lily acidly. He had the decency to blush, at least.
"You managed fine by yourself," he mumbled, staring at the floor.
"And you, Black. I've heard enough to give you three weeks of detention as I threatened." She expected him to look annoyed or resentful, but a thoughtful expression spread over his face.
"Three weeks…that's twenty-one days…" he muttered, seemingly calculating something.
"Yes, well done, Black," said Lily sarcastically. "There ARE twenty-one days in three weeks!"
An expression of joy spread across his face, and he started jumping around yelling, "YES! YES! I'VE DONE IT!"
Lily, thoroughly bewildered looked at James as though for an answer.
"Padfoot'll break the record for the most detentions," said James resignedly, answering her unasked question. "Something he has been striving for since his first year."
They both watched Sirius jump around, then start screaming like a girl. Then Lily asked James a question about something she'd never really given much thought to.
"Why do you guys have those weird nicknames for yourselves? Loony, Pigtail, Clubfoot and Wrong, isn't it?" she asked curiously.
James burst out laughing. "Actually," he explained when he had stopped, "it's Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs."
"Yes," said Lily impatiently, "but what do those names mean?"
Maybe she was imagining it, but an odd closed sort of expression came onto James' face. "Oh," he said too lightly, "we just like those names, they don't mean anything." He did not quite meet her eyes when he said that.
She did not press him further. After all, it was none of her business, really.
They both started eating dinner, Lily eating at a speed that would've made Sirius Black proud. When she finally looked up to take a sip of pumpkin juice, she found James staring at her with a dazed expression on his face.
She waved her knife and fork in the air and chewed harder. "What?" she finally asked, having swallowed the humongous bite of chicken she had been eating.
"How did you eat so much?" he asked incredulously. "And so fast? Where does it all go?"
"Oh," she said, somewhat surprised. "Well, it's sort of like a talent. You're talking to the resident pie-eating champion, so I guess I sort of trained for it."
He laughed. "Oh? What kind of-"
"Coconut cream pie, actually," said Lily, taking some off her cheek and licking her finger.
James blushed. "Oh … right," he said sheepishly. "Sorry about that."
"It's okay," said Lily, Scourgifying her face. "At least tasted good – it would've been worse if you'd thrown some of Hagrid's cooking at me!"
They both laughed, and resumed eating dinner.
Later, when the last few dishes had cleared themselves of food and people started heading out of the Great Hall, James turned to Lily. "Oh yeah, Lily," he said as if just remembering something. "I wanted to ask you something."
Lily slowly faced him. Surely not…he had promised before…he wouldn't, would he…?