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Chapter Four: Quidditch Captain

At the end of the first week of classes, Lily was having breakfast with her friends when Professor McGonagall approached the Gryffindor table.

"Mr. Potter," she said.

James jumped up as if he was sitting on a spring. "Yes Professor?" he asked with apprehension in his voice.

"I need to see you today in my office," the woman said.

"In your office?" James looked at his friends.

"Oh! Relax Mr. Potter," said Professor McGonagall sternly. "You have nothing to be afraid of. Unless your conscience is not very clean."

"Of course it is Professor," he said a little too fast. "As clean as it can be."

"I don't doubt that. I'll be expecting you in my office after your Defense Against the Dark Arts class." With that she returned to the staff table.

James sat down on his place again and Peter asked, "what does she wants to talk to you about, Prongs?"

"Gee Wormtail! Why don't you ask Alice? She's the one that can see the future," James snapped exasperated.

"Do you think she found out about the plan?" Sirius asked in a whisper.

"Of course not," said Remus. "Besides if this was about the plan, she would be wanting to see all four of us in her office."

"The thing is that I'll have to wait until five in the afternoon to find out what this is about. I'll go crazy before the day is over."

"Relax, Prongs," said Sirius. "We have done this too many times before. We have perfected the art of mischief. You know we can't start looking guilty."

"Especially if we haven't done anything yet," added Remus.

"You're right. It's just that McGonagall seems to be the only one that never falls for my charm."

"I'm afraid she's not the only one, mate," Sirius said with a grin.

Suddenly James looked up at Lily as if he had just remembered that she was sitting right in front of him and listening to every bit of their conversation.

"So," Lily said. "I guess your conscience is not that clean after all."

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Lily," James said flashing one of his trademark charming smiles.

"Don't even try it, James. I'm pretty sure Sirius was referring to me when he said that Professor McGonagall is not the only one who doesn't fall for your charm. Am I right Sirius?" Lily gazed at Sirius, who was staring resolutely at his breakfast.

"You do fall for my charm, Evans. You're just playing hard to get," James said with an arrogant look in his face.

Lily's smile disappeared. She stared at him for a long moment, completely dumb struck at his statement, but before she could speak, he was talking again.

"I'm kidding, Lily. You can start breathing again."

"You know what James Potter?" Lily asked glaring at him. "You are the most annoying person I've ever met."

"I know," he said sweetly. "Actually, I'm very proud of that."

Lily was about to retort but then she realized something.

"Wait! Are you being this obnoxious to distract me from the fact that you guys are planning your first prank of the year?"

"It will not be the first one." Lily glared at him. "But yes, you caught me."

"James!" But she instantly realized it was a lost battle. "Remus!" She turned to him looking for support.

"Lily, I can assure you that it's harmless," he muttered avoiding her eyes.

"Since when the Marauders need the approval of little Miss Perfect here?" Sirius was obviously annoyed.

"Well, if you needed my approval, Sirius, you would not misbehave once in the whole year."

"I'm pretty sure of that," he snapped at her. "But we have always avoided being that boring. We're not about to start now."

"Enough!" said Remus calmly holding up both his hands. "Sirius, Lily, stop it. We don't want to make a scene in front of everybody."

Sirius stood up and left the Great Hall followed closely by Peter. Remus looked at Lily for a moment and then followed Sirius and Peter. James was the last one who got up. When he was walking out of the Great Hall Lily caught up with him.

"James!" she called out.

He turned around. Lily opened her mouth to talk but he held up a hand and she stopped.

"No need to apologize. Yes, you were completely out of line, but let's just forget about it."

It took Lily a couple of seconds to understand what he had just said. She could feel her blood boiling with anger. The nerve of that guy!

"What! Who said anything about an apology?" He was taken aback by her tone. "I only wanted to say that even though you have proven to be very stupid in the past, it would be a very good idea to grow up already."

Lily didn't wait for his response. She was so furious that it took her a while to realize she was walking directly to the library when she was supposed to go to her Charms class. She turned around and hurried to class.

Lily did her best to avoid James, Peter, Remus and Sirius the whole day. Although they didn't seem to be upset about it. Remus would glance at her apologetically every once in a while, but Sirius would only glare at her. James didn't even look at her.

At the end of the Defense Against the Dark Arts class she saw James walk reluctantly in the direction of Professor McGonagall's office. She saw him say goodbye to his friends with a weak smile and the three of them gave him very unconvincing thumbs-up.

For the first time since breakfast Lily thought that maybe she was indeed overreacting. She knew their pranks were generally harmless, as Remus had said. And she trusted James enough to be sure that he would keep his promise of leaving Snape alone.

Maybe Sirius was right and she was just an annoying little Miss Perfect. There was no way she was going to be able to change them. She might as well accept them the way they were.

Granted, they could be very obnoxious, but lately she had discovered that they were good friends. The kind of friends you want to have around, especially if you're in a tight spot. They were smart, loyal and (even though she would probably never admit it to them) fun to be around.

Lily was happy now that things had changed between her and the Marauders and she didn't want their relationship to go back to what it was their previous years at Hogwarts.

She entered the common room and saw Alice sitting with Frank in front of the fire. Remus, Sirius and Peter were sitting silently in a corner.

Alice waved at Lily and she walked over and sat on an armchair in front of the couple.

"I know that look," Alice said raising an eyebrow. "You feel guilty about the row you had with James and Sirius this morning.

"Be honest with me Alice. Did I overreact?"

"I don't want to have a fight with you, but I think you did."

"Lily, if you want my advice," said Frank. "And I'm speaking as a Prefect here. Let them be. They're not bad people. They have never harmed anybody. Physically, I mean. That's why people like them. They're funny and crazy but they know when to stop. Well, most of the time."

"Frank's right Lily. That's the same way Remus and I see it. As long as they don't cross the line, I'm not against a little clean fun," Alice added.

"The thing is that I'm not sure they always know when to stop," Lily said.

"I think you're still a little predisposed against their pranks because you used to be their second favorite target. But that's all in the past now," Alice said.

"Besides, you know why they did it, don't you?" Frank asked.

"What do you mean?" asked Lily and Frank and Alice snickered.

"The only reason why James used to tease you so much was because he wanted you to notice him," Frank said knowledgeably.

"What goes to prove how thick men can be," Alice added.

"You guys keep saying he liked me, but it's a little hard to believe that, knowing that the only other soul he enjoyed tormenting more than me was Snape," Lily said bitterly. "I honestly used to think he didn't like me at all."

"Well Lily," said Frank. "I'll have to agree with Alice. Men are very thick sometimes."

"So," Alice said after a while. "Why do you think Professor McGonagall wanted to see James?"

"Probably she's giving him detention for something," said Lily.

"I'm not sure about that," said Frank. Both girls turned to him. "Don't look at me like that. I have no idea what she wanted with him. I know one thing, though. When Minerva McGonagall is about to discipline a student, patience is not her strongest suit. She would have done it this morning instead of making him wait all day. I can't believe you haven't notice that before."

Lily thought that Frank was probably right, but her attention was now on the Marauders. The three boys were apparently tired of waiting for James and decided to go look for him.

Lily was finishing an essay about the Goblin Rebellions for her History of Magic class (she was not sure why Professor Binns was so obsessed with Goblin Rebellions. It seemed like that was the only thing they had ever studied in that class) when James, Sirius, Remus and Peter entered the common room. They didn't seem upset. As a matter of fact, they appeared to be very pleased about something.

Sirius dragged James to the middle of the room and said so everyone could hear him.

"My fellow Gryffindors, can I have your attention please." He was acting in a way that remembered Lily of a peacock. When everybody's attention was on him, Sirius continued. "It is with great pleasure that I introduce you the new Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, my friend, Mr. James Potter."

There were general signs of approval and enthusiasm. Mostly everybody (including Alice and Frank) walked over to James to congratulate him and talk about Gryffindor's possibilities of winning the Quidditch Cup this year.

Lily was not really the most passionate Quidditch fan, but she knew how important it was for her classmates to win the cup. She also knew what it meant for James to be named Captain of the team. He loved Quidditch and he loved flying on his broom. And right now he was enjoying the attention he was receiving.

Lily saw James talking animatedly about his plans for the team and she couldn't help but smile. He was smiling widely too. She realized it was the first smile she had seen on his face in the whole day. He must have been really worried about his meeting with Professor McGonagall. But now he was smiling. She had missed his beautiful smile today. She was truly happy for him.

Suddenly James turned to her, smiling still, she smiled back. He winked at her and turned back to the people he was talking to.

Lily new everything was fine between them now. He was not angry with her anymore. The thought made her feel at ease. They would have plenty of time to talk some other time.

She went to bed.