The First Night
This chapter is dedicated to aussiechick249, Cassie93, and Heather gernenz. My first reviewers.
A/N
The last chapter began to get confusing so italic is Harry at age 17, bold is James and Lily grown up, and regular is James and Lily seventh year.
Harry finished his lunch and walked back up to Ron's room. The others had been curious as to what he was doing but he had waved off the questions. They had let it go after he promised to come back down for his party. He had agreed and rushed off to read more of the notebook. He picked up the book and continued where he left off;
Jamesjumped out of the carriage. The other Marauders followed suit. He walked up to door and stopped. A second later Padfoot was standing next to him. "The first day of our seventh year," he said, "You know what this means."
"Pranks extraordinaire."
"Starting right now,"
"What did you have in mind," Prongs turned to look at Padfoot as he began to explain.
"Well….,"
Lily stepped out of her carriage after Jen. The trio walked through the doors and sat down. Soon enough they were joined by who else but the Marauders. "Hi" Jen said happily to Sirius.
Lily on the other hand was anything but happy. "What are you guys doing here." The question was directed at Remus but James was the one who answered.
"Padfoot couldn't stay away from Jen so he dragged us over here."
Sirius stopped talking to Jen when he heard the conversation. "Not true. Although I would drag these three idiots anyway to talk to Jen, Prongsie here wanted to talk to you."
"Thanks mate."
"No problem James." Sirius turned back to Jen.
"You wanted to talk to me about what?" Lily asked suspiciously.
"About our Head duties. I heard that we have our own tower." James quickly invented.
"Sadly, that's true." Lily admitted. "Is that it."
"Yes."
"Then leave."
"By now all the other seats are filled."
"You planned this." Lily accused.
"Yes," he admitted. Lily would have continues but at that point the Sorting Hat started it's song. They all sat there bored listening for familiar names as the first years were sorted. The fourth person called up was Regulus Black. Three faces turned to look at Sirius.
"You have a brother?" Jen asked for all three of them.
"Yeah. Prongs." Sirius replied.
"I mean biological." Jen clarified.
"No."
"Then it's a freaky coincidence."
"Not really."
At that point in time James decided to jump into the conversation and save everybody a lot of confusion. "They are blood brothers but Sirius's family disowned him for not hating muggles and being a Gryffindor."
The Sorting Hat choose that moment to call our, "SLYTHERIN" Slughorn was one of the loudest people clapping. He secretly hoped that Regulus was as talented as Sirius.
James continued, yelling to be heard over the clapping from the Slytherin. "My family adopted him."
"Oh." All three girls said at once. They were thinking that that explained a lot. The three girls turned back to the sorting. They were so engrossed that they didn't notice the boys standing up and sneaking away. Five minutes later they were back and the sorting was over. Dumbledore stood up and began to talk.
"Welcome back." he would have said more but at that moment the hens stood up. The cooked hens that were lying on the table waiting to be eaten stood up. The ones on the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaws table started dancing and challenging each other to duels with forks and spoons. On the Slytherin table the hens were challenging the people to duels using knives. The third years and above knew enough magic that the hens were sitting down. On the other hand the first and second years were having a bit of trouble with controlling the hens that were attacking them. A couple of then got scratched pretty bad before an older student stopped their hen for them. With the exception of the Slytherins, McGonagall, and Lily, of course, everyone was laughing. Even Dumbledore let a chuckle loose before stopping all of the hens.
"Potter, Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin. I will see you in detention tomorrow night I hope."
The four in question stood up with a grin. "Yes sir." They took a bow and sat back down.
"Well let the feast begin." Everyone dug in with the exception of the first and second year Slytherins. They were still looking at the hens as though they might attack.
"That wasn't funny Potter." Lily said.
"Really everyone else was laughing."
"You could have really hurt those kids. What did they ever do to you."
"They became Slytherins. They deserve to be beat up."
"That is not a valid reason or a good example for the Headboy to give."
"Then it's a good reason that the Headgirl didn't follow. You set a good enough example for both of us."
"Also not a good reason."
"So you want to go check out our room? Maybe get some private time?"
"I'm done talking to you." Lily turned to face Jen. When she looked and saw Jen laughing with Sirius a look of disgust grew on her face. She turned to talk to Katy instead but found her discussing Quidditch strategies with Remus. She turned back to Potter who smiled.
"Looks like I'm the only one to talk to." he said cockily.
"Not quite." With that Lily decided to join in the Quidditch talk. Potter looked dejected but turned to talk to Peter. The only one left to talk to.
After dinner everyone headed off to their various dormitories. That was everyone but the Heads and Remus. Remus headed to the Hospital while the Heads headed (no pun intended) off to the Heads tower. Their feelings about this could not have been more diverse. Lily was currently thinking of different way to kill Potter without it being traced back to her. So far she was up to thirty-five. On the other hand Potter was currently thinking of different ways to make Evans change her opinion about him. So far he was up to a big fat nothing. However all thoughts vanished as soon as they saw the common room. If Lily had thought that the train was impressive it was nothing compared to this. The fire was huge and in front of it were two cosy looking chairs and a loveseat. On opposite sides of the room were two desks supplied with everything they could need for written assignments. Two doors were engraved with gold and were bearing their names. Lily walked into her room and saw her room at home recreated. Her bookshelf containing muggle books were there.
James was equally amazed by the recreation of his room. At least he would have been if his half-done pranks were there. Dumbledore hadn't felt the need to include them. He closed the door and walked back out to the common room. He threw himself down onto the chair. Lily wandered out to sit by him.
"We still have to patrol tonight." She reminded him.
"Says the person who volunteered us to patrol three times a week versus everybody else's two."
"We have to set an example."
"What is it with you and examples."
"What is it with you and trouble."
"Fair enough. So when does our patrol start?"
"Midnight. Weren't you listening." James started to answer before Lily answered for him. "Of course not. What a stupid question."
James argued. "Hey, you never know. I pay attention sometimes."
"Like when?"
"When ever I get assigned to detention."
"That doesn't count."
"Okay then I've never paid attention. So what time is it now."
"11:30."
"So what do you want to do in our spare time."
"Unpack and ignore you."
"'Cause your doing such a good job ignoring me now." Lily cringed realizing that he had a point. "Instead of unpacking we could share all of our secrets and become best friends."
"Your kidding right?"
"Yeah, but still you have to admit that it sounds like fun." Lily didn't bother to dignify that with an answer. "But seriously I can't patrol tonight."
"May I ask why?"
'Because it's a full moon.' James thought. Then quickly he thought of another excuse. "Remus' grandmother wasn't feeling well so he has to go visit her today. I promised to go with him."
"You're lying." Lily accused.
'Doesn't take a genius to figure that out.' James thought. "Honest. I even have a note from the Headmaster." 'Faked of course'
Lily still looked suspicious. "Well I guess I can get a prefect to patrol for tonight. But if your one of the people we catch goofing off….." Lily trailed off. She didn't need to finish the threat. James knew perfectly well why Lily was the only one other then Sirius matched with him in D.A.D.A. class.
"I swear O Powerful One." James mocked. "You better leave now to find someone to ask."
"You owe me major for this."
"How about I make it up to you on a date."
"On the other hand you owe me nothing."
"C'mon Evans I was really hoping to make it up to you on a date." At that point Lily got up and waked out of the room hoping to find Alice before she went to bed.
The minute she was gone James ran to his trunk and grabbed his invisibility cloak. A minute later Sirius and Peter had joined him under it. "What took you so long?" Padfoot asked.
"Lily." Prongs replied as if that answered all. And apparently it did for the conversation had moved on.
"We're to big to big under here. Wormtail change to a rat." Padfoot commanded. Wormtail protested but eventually complied. He always did what the others told him. Especially when they were more powerful then him. It was still a tight fit with two seventeen year old boys crammed under one cloak but it was easier. With minimal more squabbling they reached the Whomping Willow in time to see Remus disappearing up the tunnel. As soon as the nurse was out of sight Wormtail pressed the knot and the night began.
"I never figured out that you were doing that that night." Lily said.
"I still don't believe that you bought that excuse." James snickered.
"I got it eventually."
"I suppose I should be grateful for that." They turned back to the story. For someone reason Lily felt like this was the only time she had left. She needed to finish it.
Harry put the book down, grinning. He wondered when his dad actually grew up as Remus had said. If nothing else he was loyal to his friends. At that thought Harry grew suddenly grim, remembering Sirius. He couldn't remain grim for to long because at that moment Ron and Hermione burst through the door. "It's your party Potter, come down." Hermione told him. And then there were off again. Ever since Dumbledore had died those two had been inseparable. Harry banished the thought of Dumbledore and went downstairs.