DISCLAIMER: The birds still chirp, the frogs still croak, and J.K. Rowling still owns Harry Potter
Chapter 19:
Hermione woke up the next morning to a loud buzzing noise sounding from somewhere on the floor near her bed. However, it appeared to be fading at times while at others it seemed very loud.
Hermione opened her eyes as the buzzing refused to stop and hopped off of the bed, searching for the whatever was making the offending noise and promising silently that she would curse the blasted noisemaker into oblivion.
Hermione also noticed a very frazzled looking Lily, her red hair sticking up all over the place, searching for the object that was making the loud buzz. She could have also sworn she heard the Head Girl muttering obscenities under her breath but she couldn't be too sure on that count.
Hermione looked to the floor and saw at her feet something strange. It was like a muggle top only larger with the top hollowed out. Blue and yellow dust was currently swirling around in the hollowed out part. As it spun, it made a loud buzzing noise. The faster it spun, the louder it would get until it would slowly wind down again and start the process all over.
Lily jumped away from her bed as she noticed what it was and lunged for it, her eyes wild and crazed. As if expecting her move, it spun out of her path and towards the other side of the room. Lily fell flat on her face, growling loudly, and chased it across the floor.
Hermione laughed at this site, causing Lily's agitation to grow. This little "wake-up" call had the Marauders written all over it. She was sure that the boys were going to pay when Lily got a hold of them, James probably more than Sirius because Lily was NOT a morning person.
Hermione glanced over at the clock, one of the few muggle conveniences that had a charm placed on it so that it would be able to work at Hogwarts, and noticed the time. It was five-thirty am AND a Saturday morning! Sirius was going to get it, she vowed.
Hermione angrily stomped across the floor and motioned for Lily to look at the clock. Once the redhead did, Hermione almost felt bad for the boys…almost. Hey, they did wake her up as well.
"I AM GOING TO KILL THEM!" Lily screeched. "I'M GOING TO CASTRATE THEM, THEN CHOP…"
"First we need to catch their little 'toy,'" Hermione interrupted.
"I don't care if I catch it! I'm going to blow it up!" She reached threateningly towards her wand.
"NO!" Hermione shouted as she stopped her before she could cast off the first spell. "We need it."
"Why?"
"Evidence, my dear Lily. If we show up empty handed, then they're going to say that they have no idea whatsoever what we're talking about and that we have no proof."
"But if we have evidence…"
"Then they can't lie their way out of it."
Both girls smiled evilly to each other. Hermione raised her wand, pointed it at the spinning object, and said, "Immobilus." The top froze in mid-spin.
"Very nice," Lily complimented and Hermione merely smiled.
The red head walked over and picked up the top, examining it carefully though careful not to set anything off. She turned it over and over in her hand and then noticed a little door thing on the side of the top that was hard to see.
"Hey, Hermione, look at this," Lily said. She held out the top for Hermione to see.
"Hmm…I wonder if it opens," Hermione muttered half to herself.
Lily shrugged. "Only one way to find out for sure…"
Lily pried open the door and both girls leaned close to peer inside of the dark interior. Curiosity got the better of Lily as she glanced at Hermione briefly before reaching inside, pulling out a small slip of parchment.
She held the parchment up slightly so that she could study it. She looked up at Hermione in confusion. This was definitely not a normal Marauder thing.
All of a sudden, the letter flew out of Lily's grasp and opened itself in midair in a whirl of blue and yellow dust. Words seemed to be coming from it and as it talked, words appeared upon the page.
"Good morning ladies. Listen to my instructions for the day…"
"Bossy, isn't it?" Lily whispered to Hermione.
"Three guess as to who sent it," Hermione muttered back.
"Go down to the common room to start your day. There you will find the two handsomest, smartest, bravest, cleverest…"
"Well, now we know for sure who sent it," Lily said sarcastically while Hermione laughed.
"There you will go your separate ways to spend your day upon this special holiday."
Seeing as how the letter appeared finished since it fluttered lifelessly to the floor, Lily looked at Hermione. "I say we got tell them what we really thought of this little gadget," she suggested darkly, an evil glint in her eyes.
"I agree, but first let's get dressed and make them wait just a little longer."
"Take your time," Lily called as Hermione walked out of the door.
When they were both dressed forty-eight minutes later, they examined each other's outfits with an approving smile. Lily had on a light green sweater and a black skirt with different coloured poca dots (not outrageous colours) that fell mid-calf. Hermione chose an off the shoulder cream sweater and a pair of black pants.
After they deemed themselves perfect and decided that they had made the boys wait long enough, they made their way to the common room. It was still early, and a Saturday on top of that, so most students were still in bed, where both Lily and Hermione wished they were.
As they entered the common room, they saw the boys sitting alone on the couch in front of the fire, deep in conversation. However, they rose as soon as they saw the girls.
James was wearing a pair of black pants and a white shirt. His hair was as messy as ever and even appeared to look more windblown. His eyes lit up as soon as he spotted Lily, making the hazel colour appear more vibrant. Each time he saw her, he fell deeper in love with her.
Sirius, on the other hand, had on a pair of black pants and a dark grey shirt. His shaggy black hair hung around his face to his shoulders. His black as night eyes slowly looked Hermione over, taking their good ol' time. But they widened in surprise when they met her angry eyes and scowl.
"Sirius Black!" Hermione said through clenched teeth. "You can wipe that smirk off your face right now."
James chuckled at his friend getting a tongue-lashing from Hermione, while trying to unsuccessfully wrap his arm around Lily's shoulders.
"Oh, don't you dare laugh, Potter. When I'm through with you, you're going to be wishing that you were dating Hermione," Lily scolded.
Both boys shrunk back, trying to find a way out of this one. However, both boys knew that there was going to be no way out of this one. Their only hope was their plans for the day.
"We had a good reason!" James pleaded, trying to take Lily's hands but she jerked them back.
"Hermione," Sirius started, advancing on her slowly, "we did have a good reason. We're sorry if we got you up."
"Sirius," Hermione growled, clenching her hands at her side, "it is five bloody thirty am on a Saturday morning, did you honestly think that we would be up?"
"Well…"
"You see…."
"We um…."
"Just assumed…."
"We thought…."
"You know…."
Lily held her hand up to stop the boys' incessant explanations that really didn't explain anything. "Just stop and shut up. All we want is to go back to bed and get some sleep."
James smiled a little in a silent plea for her not to kill him. "Well….you can't."
Lily's emerald eyes flashed with electricity as she glared at James and her face went the same brilliant red as her hair. "What do you mean I can't? What did you do?"
James shrunk back, hoping to gain some support from Sirius. Sirius saw how his best mate shrunk from his girlfriend and decided to take pity on him and help.
"Well, we figured that you'd try to go back up so we kind of…."
His voice drifted off as he looked at them, hoping he didn't have to explain and face their impending anger.
Hermione took an akimbo (vocabulary word :D) stance and glared at them. "What did you do?"
"We…er….put a ward up preventing you from going back up to your room after you exited," James and Sirius said quickly and softly. They kept glancing quickly at the girls, awaiting for their reactions.
All of a sudden, Lily growled and lunged at James. "I am going to kill you, James Potter, if you do not take that damn ward down this instant!"
James quickly dodged to avoid her with his excellent Quidditch reflexes and hid behind Sirius. "The ward won't come down till sundown."
"Oh, no I'm really going to kill you!"
Lily was trying to get by Sirius to James. James meanwhile was trying to keep Sirius in front of him while poor little Sirius was trying to move.
Sirius had a frightened look on h is face by this time and it was obvious that he wanted out from in between them. Hermione couldn't help but laugh.
"HERMIONE!" Sirius shouted in a frantic plea. He was looking at her desperately, begging for help. When he saw that she wasn't moving nor did she appear that she was going to, he did his best puppy eyes.
Hermione rolled her eyes, knowing that she couldn't' deny him. Reluctantly, she walked forward and placed a hand on Lily's arm. "If you kill him now, Lily dear, we will never understand their lunatic ideas of why they woke us up. I'm sure there's a good reason?" she questioned, looking at the guys.
"Er….," Sirius hesitated.
"Of course there is!" James said indignantly.
"Are you going to enlighten us?"
"I can't believe that they don't know, Prongs," Sirius said, trying to act shocked.
"I know, Padfoot, I can't believe it either."
"Okay!" Lily shouted. "If one of you does not tell me in the next five seconds, I swear to Merlin that I will make sure there will be no little Padfoots or Prongs in the future!"
Both boys turned towards each other and smiled mischievously before running at the girls and tackling them to the ground.
"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!"
A/N: No excuse on the lateness really so I'm really sorry. I WON A TROPHY AT STATES! Granted, it was a semi-finalist trophy but the fact remains that I was only one slot away from the finals AND I beat the Fiji dude (who I don't really care for)!