Hello wonderful reader – and hopefully reviewer as well! First of all, thanks SO much to all of you that are reading and reviewing! All of the reviews made me want to write more, so here I am, writing more for all of you!
Many thanks and Pillsbury sugar cookies to: Cyborg-chick, L-Ae-D, lucemvicuna, VeelaChic, Sarahrules336, webling-girl05, zippyfox, and Me- Myself- and James! And also thanks to those of you put me on alert or on favorites!
Disclaimer: I don't any of the Harry Potter stuff – JK Rowling does.
Important NOTE: If you haven't read the Half Blood Prince entirely yet, there might be a spoiler in this chapter if you've only started or have gotten only part of the way through. If that's the case, it might reveal who the HBP is. Happy reading!
Chapter 3: Headache
"I love food… Yes I do… Food, food, food," Sirius sang as the four Marauders headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. "Sing it with me now!" Surprisingly, none of the Marauders opted to join in his merriment.
"It's too early for this," Remus complained, rubbing his eyes tiredly.
"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed, undeterred. "Did you know that if you say 'food' over and over and over and over and over again, it sounds really weird?"
"Fascinating!" Peter squeaked.
"Actually, it works with 'over' too," Sirius nodded. "Over, over, over, over, over…"
The Marauders entered the Great Hall, and Sirius became too busy with stuffing his face full of bacon and waffles to care about the word "over," much to Remus' relief.
"So, about five weeks until Halloween Ball," James prompted. "Any dates, yet?"
Remus looked around him cautiously, "No. I haven't really thought about it with, er, that time of the month coming around…"
"Right," Sirius nodded understandingly. "Well, I've got a list to choose from, but I've kind of… been there, done that, you know?"
"Is there anyone that you haven't tried yet, Padfoot?" Remus asked, looking slightly disgusted at his friend's unstable love life.
"Er, no," he said candidly. "I mean, well, uh, I'm sure there's someone."
"Well, you go ahead and find that someone, mate," James looked at him through glasses half covered in egg that had been flung at him during Sirius' whirlwind eating.
"You've, er, got a little something on your, uh," Remus motioned vaguely at his face.
"Yeah, I know," James said distractedly as he stared over at Lily sitting with her friends and laughing.
"We've lost him," Sirius said casually as he polished off his once mountainous pile of food.
"We'll see you in Potions, Prongs," Remus clapped him on the shoulder and walked out with Sirius, Peter following close behind.
"Uh huh…"
Soon James realized that he was sitting all by himself and got up to leave. When he arrived in the dungeons, only Lily was sitting in her seat – apparently, Remus needed an emergency visit to the Hospital Wing.
"Hey, Evans," James began, setting his bag down on an empty table. "I didn't mean – I – Last night – I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to happen."
"It's okay," Lily said slowly, not looking up from her parchment in front of her. She glanced at him and walked over to his table.
"So, next meeting is scheduled for tonight, okay?" she said casually, desperately wanting to change the subject.
"Sure," James smiled at her.
"Potter, you've got, er, eggs on your glasses," she said, staring at the yellow globs on his glasses.
"What?" James asked, confused.
"You – Well, you have…" she trailed off, befuddled by the unusual situation. "There's yellow… Here." She sighed exasperatedly and pulled out a handkerchief. Gently, she wiped off the egg and handed him the smeared, yellow cloth.
"Oh," he said lamely and looked down at the handkerchief. "Must have been from Sirius. You know how he eats."
"Did you, uh, want…" he held the handkerchief out a bit, even though it was covered in what had been trying to escape Sirius' mouth earlier that morning.
"That's okay," she said, biting her lip. "Keep it."
"Right,"
"See you tonight, Potter," Lily made her way back to her seat as other students, including the rest of the Marauders, came filing in.
"In your seats!" Professor Slughorn called out. "Today, we will be making the Draught of Living Death. The ingredients are on the board, and I expect you all to be finished in one hour. You may begin."
"So… James? Remus?" Sirius looked at both of them expectantly.
"Fine," Remus sighed. "Sirius, you get the asphodel, wormwood infusion, valerian roots, and sopophorous bean. James, you and I will figure out the directions."
"What do I do?" Peter piped up.
"You, uh, get a cauldron," James said, peering at the board.
At Lily's table, she had instructed Karise to get the ingredients and for Abigail to help her carry them.
"Let's see," Lily murmured to herself. "This shouldn't be too hard."
Walking towards the cabinet, Karise asked, "Abby, would you mind fetching us a cauldron to work with?"
"Sure,"
"Okay, asphodel, wormwood infusion… or was it?" Sirius muttered to himself, poking his head inside the cabinet's doors.
"Black," Karise said, looking over his shoulder. "Would you mind letting me get my stuff?"
"Uh, sure," he said, forgetting his list of ingredients altogether.
"Thanks," Karise said, as she turned to leave, her arms full of bottles and jars. "By the way, it's on the board."
Sirius turned around sheepishly and muttered a quick thanks, looking over at the chalkboard.
"What an idiot," Karise shook her head and watched him wink jauntily over at his group of admirers.
Sirius and Peter returned to the table to find Remus determinedly copying down the directions and James flirting with a couple of airheaded girls behind him. Remus looked up and cleared the space, then sharply poked James with his wand.
"Alright, alright," James put up his hands in defeat and turned around.
"Now, James, you put the infuse the asphodel with wormwood. I'll chop and stir in the roots, and Sirius, you get the juice out of the bean," Remus instructed.
"And Peter, you can light the fire," he added as an afterthought.
"And, how exactly do you get the juice out of a sopophorous bean, Moony?" Sirius asked, turning the bean over on the table.
"I, er, dunno," he frowned. "I guess you can just cut it open."
"Okidoki," Sirius rummaged around in a drawer for a knife.
After they had added all of the ingredients, though Sirius' juice didn't turn out too well, the potion began to give off blue steam and Peter was allowed to stir it counterclockwise.
"Gee, I love stirring," Peter said amiably as the rest of the group just shrugged.
"Lils, I can't get the juice out of this stupid bean!" Abigail complained on their end of the room.
"Well… that's okay, just put whatever you have in and we'll stir it," Lily looked apprehensively at the board, which said nothing about juicing the bean.
"I wonder if it's in the book," Abby flipped open her textbook. "Nope, it's just as I thought: this book is completely useless."
"Hey, is it supposed to be such a dark purple color?" Karise peered into their cauldron.
"What?" Lily looked inside as well. "It's supposed to be lilac…"
"Great," Karise flopped down in her seat and at least consoled herself with the fact that everyone else in the room was also looking inside of their cauldrons and muttering words like "lilac," "purple," and "oh, bugger," the latter being the most common.
"Well, time's up," Slughorn clapped his hands together and looked in a few cauldrons.
"Well, I see not even our brightest pupils," he looked over at Lily. "Were able to finish this one. But, I see that Mr. Snape is the only one who successfully turned his potion a lovely lilac color. Care to share your secret?"
"Yes, sir," Snape replied, gritting his teeth rather noticeably. "I just made some… modifications to the instructions."
"Yes, well," Slughorn cleared his throat uncomfortably. "That is all for today. Remember! Twelve inches on this potion due on Monday!"
Snape bowed slightly to his professor and hurried out the door, scribbling furiously in what seemed to be an old potions textbook with small notations in the margins.
-----Great Hall during dinner-----
"So she just gave you her handkerchief?" Sirius asked James incredulously.
"Well, thanks to you and your horrible eating habits," James grinned triumphantly.
"Are you at least going to wash that egg off of it?" Remus eyed the dirty piece of cloth warily.
"What! No way, Moony!" James quickly stuffed it back into his pocket.
"That's disgusting, Prongs," Remus countered. "There's Sirius' mouth's contents on there! Who knows where his mouth has been?"
"Uh, I think every girl in this school knows, mate," James said, smirking at Sirius. "Besides, Lily wiped it off for me. It's special egg now."
"I see," Remus said shortly.
"Yep," James said happily and downed another piece of chicken. "This is going to be great." Sirius and Remus gave each other a knowing look before glancing unsurely over at Lily.
-----Head's Meeting-----
"It's official," James said, calling the meeting to order. "The Weird Sisters are coming to Hogwarts!" The classroom burst into raucous cheering and applause.
"And since they're new," James added. "We don't have to pay half as much as we normally would with a live band."
"Which means each committee is receiving an extra 50 galleons for expenses," Lily smiled at their excited faces.
"There's a catch, though," James silenced them. "You must all spend some of your time during one of the two Hogsmeade trips with your committee to do some shopping."
"If you don't mind me interrupting, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore calmly stepped into the classroom. "I think you and Miss Evans should be there to watch them and make sure they are not, dare I say, goofing off." He looked the Prefects with a small twinkle in his eye, then at James and smiled slightly.
"If not anything else," he continued. "You two will be able to plan any extra details or help those who need a bit of motivation. If you don't mind, I'll ask you two to be there to watch them on the first day – together." He eyed them skeptically, knowing the arguments they had a habit for starting with each other.
"Yes, sir," James grinned slightly and glanced at Lily's somewhat paled face. "We would be happy to oblige. Right, Lily? … Lily?"
"Yes," she said professionally, her face now void of emotion. "Of course, Professor."
"Good," Professor Dumbledore looked down at his watch. "I believe it is time for the students to return to their dormitories in any case. Goodnight."
The Prefects filed past the two Heads and chattered excitedly about the Weird Sisters all the way up to their dormitories.
"Well, Evans, it looks like – "
"I don't feel well," Lily said flatly, grabbing her book bag. "I'm going to go to the Hospital Wing."
"What's wrong, Lily?"
She jumped at the use of her first name. "Headache," she replied shortly and turned to leave. (A/N: Get it? Head-ache? Sorry, just had to point that out.)
"Wait! Let me come with you," James scrambled out of his chair and scooped his books up.
"No, I think we know what happens when –"
"Come on," he ran a hand through his hair. "Don't –"
"I'll – I'll see you," she ran off towards the Hospital Wing, not even looking back once to see if he was following. Her bag flopped carelessly at her side, bruising her leg, but she kept running until she finally burst through the Hospital Wing doors, gasping for air.
"Remus! What're you doing here?"
A/N: Well, thanks again to all of you terrific reviewers for motivating me to write! I hope everyone liked this chapter, and I hope that last bit wasn't too cliffhanger-y. I feel like I keep ending chapters with Heads' Meetings – I should definitely change that for the next chapter, don't you think? Well, anyway, Please review! Pretty please with sprinkles, hot fudge, and a cherry on top?