Cat stared at Sirius, surprised, as anyone would be to hear that the two most incompatible persons in the school had been made head boy and girl. Then the humor of the situation struck her and she burst out laughing.
"Um, perhaps we should go check on Jamsie," Sirius ventured, edging away from the hysterical girl. "After all, Lily knows an awful lot of curses and hexes and charms and-"
"Alright I get the point!" She said calming down slightly. "Let's go see what damage Lilikins has done now!"
Sirius just stared at her as she ran out the door. Then he shrugged and ran after her.
OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO
When Cat arrived at the meeting room, slightly red faced and out of breath from attempting to run the length of the train and laugh at the same time, the sight she saw nearly gave her a heart attack. Lily was fussing over James' arm as Remus stood by, wearing an amused expression. The rest of the prefects were standing against the wall, some laughing and some looking scared.
"Lily, what on earth..?" She queried. All the inhabitants of the compartment jumped and whirled around, except for James who was sitting in a chair grimacing in pain, but laughing nonetheless.
"It's not really her fault, for a change," Remus began, ignoring Lily's protests to the last part of his statement. "You see, a group of first years and somehow managed to make a pile of chocolate frogs melt and explode, and Lily cleaned it up with a simple charm. When she walked into the compartment and James followed and put on his head boy badge, well-"
"What Remus means to say is that Lily was taken by surprise, much like I was when I received the letter and did a bit of accidental magic, and her wand was pointing at me. Unfortunately, it happened to be a whipping hex." James finished, holding up his arm, which had a nasty red welt running from below his elbow to his wrist.
Cat looked at Lily for conformation and Lily simply shrugged. "I really didn't mean to!" she stated ruefully. "And now, blast it all, no one can fix it! I bandaged it up as best I could, but Mm. Pomfrey won't be exactly happy to have a patient this early in the year. And what a great impression to make on the prefects! Argh! We're supposed to set an example and loo-"
"It's fine, Lily," he cut her off, smiling slightly. "Honest. Don't worry about it. It was an accident. I'm pretty sure the prefects know that there's never a dull moment around you and me, and plus I've had worse problems from quidditch. Course, if you feel really badly, you can always eat breakfast with me tomorrow. Strictly as friends, of course," He added quickly as he saw her start to protest.
Lily stopped, her mouth half open, and stared at him. And stared. And she might have kept staring for quite a while had Remus not cleared his throat and brought her out of her thoughts. "Sure, what the heck?"
James looked as though the Halloween feast had been extended to a week long festival. "That's great! Okay, everyone's dismissed, Head girl and boy have some things to discuss! See you all at the feast, and welcome back to a new school year!"
Remus walked over to Sirius and Cat as the rest of the prefects walked out the door. Cat was staring, her jaw hanging down, at James and Lily peacefully talking. Remus glanced at Sirius and took one of her arms as Sirius took the other and they both dragged her into the hall. "They…no hexing…getting along…breakfast…what the heck is going on?" she asked them weakly.
"Absolutely no idea. However, I think I just saw the trolley lady go down that way. I'll meet you guys back at the compartment. Food is awaiting!" And Sirius ran off.
Remus chuckled and put his arm around Cat's shoulders. "Now I'm sure that God has a sense of humor."
"Maybe," she replied stiffly, "However I don't think I can handle this much more. Now I suppose we'll all be running around together in a big group. The Marauders and the Gryffindor Ice Princess Prudes. Won't that make big gossip?"
"Surely I'm not that terrible!"
"No, but it's just different and plus…." She trailed off
"And plus you're afraid someone might find the unattainable ice princess has been harboring affections for a certain long haired marauder?" He asked slyly.
"No!" she denied, a little too quickly. She caught sight of him laughing at her. "Fine then, yes! And how did you find out?"
"James put me onto it actually."
"James! I thought you were supposed to be the sensitive emotional one of the group!" She cried.
"Well," Remus began indignantly, "I do happen to be very good with the emotional things you know! But there's more to James than meets the eye. You know, we could always drop hints to Sirius if you wanted-"
"Don't you dare Remus Lupin! Don't you ever repeat a word of this to anyone!" She hissed, backing him into the wall and poking him with every word.
"All right, no need to get your knickers in a twist!" he laughed. "Just thought you might want to act on three years of drooling, seeing as it is your last year and everything."
She looked at him in surprise, yet again. "I don't drool!" she stated indignantly. "Isn't anything a secret around here? And how did James find out? Does Sirius know, do you think? Oh, Merlin, I hope not!"
"No secrets with the Marauders around! And Sirius doesn't notice anything. He's kind of like an ostrich with his head buried in the sand."
"Good. And it will stay that way. You won't tell Sirius anything! Do you understand me, Mr. Lupin? Nothing!"
"He won't tell me what?" asked the man in question, strolling towards them a confused expression.
Cat blushed a deep red. "Um..well..you see…it's umm..a..secret! Yes, it's a secret. Nope, can't tell you. Or your wish won't come true. Nope, sorry! Secret!" And she dashed down the hallway and disappeared into the compartment.
Sirius looked rather startled. "She's mental, that one. Oh well, might as well follow her."
OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO
The three were busily engaged singing and dancing the hokey pokey (Sirius was providing the music, and as the people in the surrounding compartments could tell you, he wasn't exactly the best singer) when the door swung open. Remus nearly fell over from shock. James was standing there, staring at them in confusion. What was unusual however was the fact that the head girl was wrapped in his cloak- and was being carried.
"What happened?" Sirius asked, recovering from his surprise.
"Bloody Slytherins!" James muttered, setting Lily down. "I told Lily to go ahead and let me clean up and when I came back out, the gits had hit her with a vomiting hex. She could barely stand up; I had to carry her down the train! Exactly how many times did you throw up anyway?"
"About seven," Lily groaned. "And on an empty stomach, too. Eurgh. Great way to start the year. Just bloody perfect."
"I'm sure the effects will wear off soon, anyhow, Right James," Cat asked, looking worriedly at the bespectacled boy.
It was, however Remus who answered the question everyone was wondering. "Well, it depends on which hex they put on her. And the Slytherins- especially the ones with dark roots- are known for 'fine-tuning' their hexes and such, so there's really no way to know what to expect. Sorry, Lily" He finished, looking at her sympathetically.
"Well, we all know what this means!" Sirius whispered loudly, looking excited.
"That we're in danger of being covered with masticated, half-digested food every time Lily eats?" Cat answered, looking at him oddly.
Sirius looked at her blankly before shaking his head and giving her a scornful look. "Hardly! This means…..this means…" he paused to give a dramatic effect. "This means payback!"
James suddenly smiled and jumped up to retrieve a book from his trunk. "Aha! Alright, marauders, lets get to work!"
The three boys squashed onto one side and started animatedly flipping through the book and discussing it. "We can't do that one! We're doing that for the opening feast!" "Nah, not good enough." "Well, it might work, but I think I ran out of the breast enhancement mints." "No, that would get us in trouble with McGonogall. We can't mess up her classroom!"
Lily looked questioningly at Cat who simply shrugged before turning back to watch the marauders.
"Um, guys?" Lily hesitantly inquired. "What are you doing?"
All three of them stopped and looked at her before James quirked a smile and stated, "This is the marauder's journal. It has every prank we've ever planned or pulled."
"Ah. Well. Plan away then, don't let me disturb you."
James and Sirius smiled delightedly at each other before going back at it, and Lily smiled at Remus amusedly.
OoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO
The rest of the train ride went quickly, and the feast and sorting was a merry affair (during which occurred a marvelous prank consisting of water balloons filled with gravy attacking the Slytherins) and soon the group was off the their dorms. As Lily and James reached the stairs, the headmaster stopped them.
"Good evening, Miss Evans, Mister Potter. I assume the train ride went well?" He asked pleasantly.
"Quite, Professor Dumbledore," James answered as Lily was opening her mouth. She looked at him in surprise, but he was smiling steadily at the headmaster.
"Wonderful. Well, I'll let you both get off too bed, then. Welcome back, and congratulations. I'm sure you will both make this a very interesting year for us all. I'm sure you know where the head rooms are, Mr. Potter, so I shall trust you to find your way. The password is "Vommiting hex, you may change it as you please. Goodnight!" And he walked away, his eyes twinkling madly.
"He knows? But..we didn't even tell him! Isn't he going to do anything?" Lily asked incredulously, looking at James, who was laughing softly.
"Oh, Dumbledore knows everything that goes on. Kind of creepy really. But he trusts us to take care of it. The marauders that is. Trust me, it will be much more fun this way. Come on, lets get to our rooms," he replied, setting off down the hallway.
The head rooms were up on the seventh floor, which Lily didn't really appreciate, but it would most likely be worth it to have her own bathroom again. They were walking down a hallway filled with suits of armor when Lily suddenly paled and stopped walking. She suddenly turned and wretched all over one of the suits of armor, which turned and noisily put its throw-up covered hands on its hips . James turned around upon hearing the clanking and his eyes went wide.
"Lily! Are you alright?" he queried
"Do I look alright!" she demanded weakly. "A little help would be great, you know."
"Oh! Uh, right! Sorry," he stammered, putting his arm around her waist and helping her off the floor and to into the dormitory.
As they left three people crept out from behind a tapestry, all of them smiling at each other.
"Well, would you look at that!" Sirius exclaimed. "Remus and I have been trying to set them up for years and suddenly over one summer they're almost together!"
"Not quite yet. But it was rather surprising that she asked James Potter for help. Instead of hexing him for touching her, I mean," Cat returned, smirking.
"Well," said Remus, always the voice of reason, "Standing here won't make them get together faster. Let's get to bed. First day of classes tomorrow!" He was the only one to look even remotely happy about this.
The three set off towards the portrait laughing happily, the angry suit of armor creaking noisily behind them.
OooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO
The next morning Lily sat up in bed and immediately regretted doing so. Her head swam and she was sick over the edge of the bed. She curled up and held her head, willing the dizziness to go away. As she lay there in misery she heard voices outside her door.
"Moony, Lily never sleeps in. Trust me. Not even on Saturdays."
"Maybe she's just a little tired after that bout of throwing up she did, James! Stop worrying so much!"
"I can't help it! I know there's something wrong."
She heard a knock on the door and a soft voice asking if she were okay. She couldn't muster up the energy to answer so she just stayed there and waited. A few moments later she heard the door open and someone walked over to her bed and crouched down in front of her. She opened her eyes but couldn't make anything out of the haze.
"Lily, you okay?" It was James. She simply groaned and curled up tighter, trying to ignore the increasing nauseousness.
"James, what kind of a question is that?" asked an annoyed Remus. "You're kneeling next to a pile of her throw-up and asking if she's okay? Of course she's not okay!" He nearly shouted. Lily winced at the loud noise and curled even tighter.
"Quiet!" James hissed, looking even more alarmed, if such a thing were possible. "I'll get her to the hospital wing, you go tell Remus and Cat."
James threw a blanket over her and then scooped her up into his arms and practically ran out the door. Remus smiled after the two for a moment before going to find his other two friends.