Standing There By You
Ch. 8- Pink Flamingos
Disclaimer: Let it be known... I hearby declare that by legal binding matters, any recognizable material belongs to the infamous J.K.Rowling.
a.k.a- it's not mine.
SPECIAL THANKS TO MY *IDEA EXPANDER* (Luv ya Ang!) AND DULCIS, YOU GUYS ROCK!
James and Sirius entered the train station with the Potters following closely behind. Once all of the good-byes were said, the two boys lugged their trunks toward the big scarlet train, and stopped only when James spotted Remus.
"Hey Sirius," James began slowly, "that's Remus's mum, right?"
Sirius looked over to where James was indicating, and nodded. "Yup."
"Well, is it just me, or does she look perfectly healthy?" Sirius's eyes narrowed as he examined Mrs. Lupin, who did indeed look far from ill.
The two boys continued to head towards the train. "Do you think he's..."
"I don't know," James answered Sirius's unfinished question, "I mean, why would you lie about something like that?" Sirius just shrugged and they let the topic go.
*******
"Ahh... home sweet home," Lily said, swinging open their dormitory door and flopping onto her bed. Grace and Julie laughed, and followed suit... jumping on Lily's bed.
"Argh," Lily groaned as her two friends landed on top of her. Laughing, they quickly scooted off (as to avoid any further air deprivation), and sat in their usual positions, stretching across Lily's bed comfortably. As they had already talked about their summers for hours on the train ride there, they decided to instead talk about this year's expectations.
"Well, exam grades are posted tomorrow," said Lily, "I do hope I did alright."
"Oh, hush Lily," said Grace, playfully hitting her with a pillow. "You already know you got top scores. Probably head of the class."
Julie nodded in agreement. "With all of that studying you did, you couldn't have possibly received less."
"Not to mention the non-sodium breakfast," Grace added with a wry smile. She was referring to Lily's pre-exam jitters, which had resulted in a lot of scolding, and a lot of bacon stealing.
"Yeah," Lily sighed, not catching on to Grace's sarcasm.
Rolling her eyes, Grace decided not to persue the subject. "So, I wonder if-"
Grace was cut off as two extremely loud gigglers burst into the room. "Oh my Gawd!" Angie exclaimed, in between shrieks of laughter.
"I know!" Val squeaked. "I didn't think they could possibly get any better!"
"Gee, what could they possibly be talking about?" Grace asked, feigning confusion.
"Like, did you see? Did you see?" Angie asked, gasping for air. "I think he glanced at me, all nonchantedly and stuff, oh that was sooo cute."
Lily sighed. "One guess."
****
"James! Sirius!"
The two aforementioned boys turned around, and grinned at their friend hurrying down the hallway. "Hello Remus," Sirius greeted as they waited for him to catch up. "Why weren't you at the Feast?"
"Hi," Remus responded. Noticing Peter was there too, he acknowledged him as well. "Hello Peter. Anyways, I was, er- just straightening things out with Madame Pomfrey. You know, just eh- got a shot. Yeah, they said I had to get it before I came in contact with any other person, or I could possibly spread an incurable disease."
Sirius raised his eyebrows and looked as if he was about to comment on this, but James decided to let the unconventional excuse go, and move on to more important matters. "You'll never guess what I got," James whispered to Remus as they passed through the Common Room. Remus looked at him curiously, but James just nodded towards their dormitories. "C'mon, I'll show you up there."
Once upstairs, James dug through his trunk and retrieved the sparkling cloak.
Remus stared at the glistening material with wide eyes. "Is that an-"
James grinned and nodded. "Yup."
"What?" Peter asked, turning from Remus to James, "What is it?"
"An invisibility cloak." Sirius supplied, "Isn't it great?"
Remus nodded, but Peter still looked confused. "Well, what does it do?"
James, Sirius and Remus looked at Peter exasperatedly. "It's an invisibility cloak, Peter, what do you think it does?" asked Sirius.
"Oh, right."
"Now, let's get as much use out of this as we can... want to start tonight?" James asked with a grin.
"Sounds good," said Sirius, "what should we do?"
James shrugged. "I'd like to get some of those slimy Slytherins."
"Yeah!" said Sirius, rubbing his hands together, "Now, what to do, what to do..."
The boys deliberated for awhile, then came up with a very... gooey plan. Once they were ready to get started, James grabbed the invisibility cloak and they headed towards the stairs. Just as Remus was about to push open the door, Sirius stopped him.
"You know what," started Sirius, looking as if he was suddenly struck with an idea. "I think we need a name."
"A name?" repeated Remus.
"Yeah... everybody's got one."
"Okay then," said James, "What should it be?"
"I don't know," Sirius said, scratching his chin, "I'll think of something."
**********
The next day, breakfast went by in what seemed to be a normal fashion. Most everyone got there around 7 or so, except for a few late-comers scrambling in at the last minute, hoping for at least a bit of toast. Dumbledore sat chatting merrily with Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, the end of his long beard dangling dangerously close to his contents of his gold and silver flask. The students sat eating in a slow and drowsy manner, most wishing they could be back up in their snug beds. Yes, everything was perfectly normal. Oh, except-
"Arugh!" Lucius Malfoy suddenly cried. Several other yells and shouts were called out from his fellow Slytherins, and many heads of curious students turned to see what the commotion was.
What they saw was a very amusing site indeed. Whenever a Slytherin tried to get up from the dining bench they sat upon, something resembling a large piece of elastic stretched from their bottom to the bench, causing them to spring back into the same position. Laughter roared throughout the Great Hall at the entertaining scene before them, and even Dumbledore looked as if he was chuckling a bit. Some students swore that when one large Slytherin gave a particularly strong heave against the elastic like substance, and bounced back with extreme force, knocking over his bench and all of the occupants with him, that even McGonagall's lips twitched a bit. After a few moments of this, a banner suddenly appeared at the top of the Great Hall, reading:
This Prank Brought To You By the Pink Flamingos
James, Remus and Peter's very amused expressions suddenly turned to looks of disgust. They all whipped around to a grinning Sirius.
"The Pink Flamingos?!" they shouted, turning Sirius's grin into a pouting frown.
"Well I liked it."
******
The next morning, as Lily, Grace and Julie walked down the stairs, they saw a rather large group of students gathered around the Gryffindor notice board.
"Ooh, exam grades!" Lily squealed, hurrying towards the crowd. Shoving her way up to the front, she traced her finger down the list marked second years.
"Good job," Julie congratulated, joining Lily. "All top marks."
"Yes, but..." Lily scanned down the list once more, "where are the ranks?"
"Ohh, that's not important," said Grace, trying to block the sheet clearly marked class ranks.
"Yes it is," Lily ducked under Grace's arm, and examined the paper. With a pang of disappointment, she found herself ranked second. "Hmm.," she said frowning, "who's-"
"Ah, first," James's voice came from above Lily, "expected no less."
Lily scowled, looked up Potter, and saw that he was indeed ranked first.
"Oh, don't worry about it Evans," said James, "you gave it your best shot." He gave his trademark arrogant grin that Lily so very much detested.
"Shove off, you insidious prat."
"Now, now. I'll let that slide because I know you're just trying to make up for your lack of intelligence by using big words."
"Ha!" said Lily, "You don't even know what it means!"
James was about to retort that he did, when he realized that infact he did not. He instead tried a different approach. "So."
Lily was about to make a joke of this, but James continued on before she could.
"I do however, know what this means." He gestured towards the list of ranks and cocked his head mockingly. "Do you?"
Lily scowled again, as James walked off towards a laughing Sirius. "Don't worry about it," Grace put in, as Lily glared at James's back, "it's just some stupid grades."
"Just some stupid grades!?" Lily exclaimed.
"Good job," Julie remarked wearily, as Lily began another one of her infamous rants. "Don't you remember? McGarthy -a variation of Muhstrum and Bloye- says, and I quote, "A good education is the key to a good future. The key to education, is..."
She continued rambling on the importance of academics as they headed out of the Common Room for breakfast; her friends nodding unenthusiastically and tuning out every word of her reprimanding speech.
A/N: Okie dokies, ch. 8 finished. So did you like it? i hope so. If you did.... review! My heart flutters with the prospect of reviews... and even more when I receive them! Pleeease review, just like these wonderful people...
Aerandir- Lol, you have your own quidditch pitch? Awesome ; ) I hope you liked this chappie, there'll soon be more to come. Thanks loads~
Lanette- Oh, Lanette, Lanette, Lanette~ You make me feel sooo good! I- oh wow, I just.. yay.
Dulcis Caelum- Hola! Is my writing different? lol, o well, sounds like its a good thing. I got you a new reviewer? awesome! Maybe I can get more... DUMBLEDORE'S DAUGHTER everyone, check it out. : ) by the way, Sirius may seem innocent....
AnnoyingWeirdo- Hey, thanks for the review~ I actually kinda think my fics a bit cliche (I hope not, but still..) but i'm really glad you don't think so. : )
Akire135- Hey, I'm really glad you like it! Yeah, I wanted to do the younger years cuz i thought when i get to the older years it'd make them tons better. Plus I always wondered how everything happened, so I decided to make it up myself~ Thanks for the review... I'd love for them to keep coming ; )
xxSpAzZiExx- okies, here's MORE : )
RavenSiriusBlack- Argh!! it still won't let me comment, cuz when i looked on ur journal it said "this member does not accept anonomous comments" or something. Argh! lol, anyhoooooo, thanks for the novel length review! i luv the super long ones!
Oksana- Hehe, I noticed you put, "Hey guys" in this one, I guess we're trying to be un-biased now, eh? : ) thanks for the review, i hope you enjoyed!
Secret Lily- I'm glad you liked it, thanks for the review! : )
Headmaster Cromwell- Er... did anyone else get an 'acceptance' letter from this guy?
Petersgurl16- I officially declare you insane.