James and Sirius had finally finished their detention at half twelve, the task was significantly slower once James had started moping about Lily and had to take regular breaks to stare longingly at her cleaning the windows. With barely any sleep and Quidditch practise that Saturday morning, James had the task of waking Sirius up.
"I'm not getting up!" Sirius yelled from underneath his covers. Sirius had spent every year since they joined the team in second year moaning that the quidditch season shouldn't start as soon as it gets too cold to move. Even after their defeat of Hufflepuff before Christmas hadn't been enough to motivate him. Now that James had been named Quidditch captain he was working Sirius harder then ever.
"Padfoot we're going to be late for Quidditch practise!" James was unsuccessfully trying to yank the covers from him, getting kicked in the face in the process.
"You know no-one's going to be there except for us, they're all going to be in Hogsmeade for valentines day. You know, where WE should be?" Sirius cried, rolling himself up in his duvet "It's not even like we've got dates but James, the chocolate!"
"Nothings more important than Quidditch Sirius" James said, grabbing Sirius' beaters stick from the stand on his chest and beating Sirius' duvet cave. Squealing in pain, Sirius jumped out of bed, batting James over the head and snatching his stick back; he spent every evening polishing the sleek wood he'd saved up for since first year and wouldn't let anyone else touch it.
"Well that's arguable" Sirius said to James' disgust "I'm sure you wouldn't be saying that if it you'd actually managed to get Lily on a date today"
"Well, I er, psh" James blushed "I like to think I'd keep my moral code" he stuttered, Sirius patting him on the back as he shuffled past raking a comb through his hair "I've been working on some more pick up lines" he quickly moved on "I'm almost there I swear"
"Have you ever stopped to think it's not the pick up lines that are putting her off" Sirius pointed out, pulling his quidditch sweatshirt over his head and grabbing his broom.
James took a minute to think about it before shaking his head "Definitely not, I just haven't found the perfect line yet"
"You're an idiot" Remus called out from under his sheets, yawning and rolling over "Maybe it's because you're the kind of guy who wakes up his innocent roommates every Saturday at six"
Sirius and James hit the Remus shaped lump under the sheet with their brooms on their way past with no sign of movement from Peter's bed, even when Remus cried out and threw his pillows at them.
Getting in one last hit with his broom, James pushed Sirius out of the room giggling and they made their way down to the Quidditch pitches.
"Ok, so we do three laps of the pitch to warm up, then get into drills, and then work on your beating, I almost got whacked in the head last time"
"I don't need help, I'm clearly the most valuable asset to the team!" He grinned "Anyway that was just to keep you on your toes"
"Oh, great thanks, as long as you know that if it happens again the Bludger's not the only ball getting whacked with a stick" James tried to keep a straight face but burst out laughing as Sirius backed away slowly, raising his hands to his groin in defence.
Finally they grabbed their brooms and walked out into the fresh winter air, making Sirius shudder and think of his toasty bed back in the dorm.
"God, they'll be sending us out naked next! What's wrong with sending cats up there instead of poor us"
"So, so many things Padfoot. Come on, there'll be no point in going up if we don't go now"
"In that case I need the loo,"
"Hilarious, now get up there before I throw you there myself"
"I swear I left it up there Lils!" Kara pleaded.
"Well why would you have left your charms book in the Quidditch stands?" Lily was not convinced by Kara's story, but even the vaguest of school emergencies were a good excuse to get out of prefect duty with Regulus Black.
"I told you, I had charms before the last Quidditch match and left my book in the stands because I went to congratulate Sirius!" Kara said, dragging Lily into the first wooden stand and up the long winding stairs.
"Alright then, but this better not be for nothing!" Lily groaned, physical exercise was definitely not her thing.
Really, Kara had purposely left her book there because she knew she would have an excuse to take Lily to 'accidentally' bump into James after Sirius had left her a messy note after his detention explaining what had happened and how James had been framed, and asking her to get Lily down to give James a chance to apologise.
"Probably still in bed the lazy idiots!" Kara muttered under her breath, checking the Gryffindor entrance as they emerged into the seats at the top.
"Your charms book is still in bed?" Lily frowned, following her gaze to the changing rooms.
"No, I said 'probably in another stand, now … keep looking you lazy idiot'?"
"Right." Lily raised her eyebrows at her, wondering what was going on "So to the next stand?"
"Yup, and I'm almost half certain it's there this time!"
"Hurray, what a great Saturday this is going to be, not" Lilly groaned.
By the time they'd come back down from the stand James and Sirius had finally come onto the pitch.
"Why is James trying to throw Sirius into the air?" Kara asked laughing.
"I would assume he's either trying to show off his muscles, or Sirius has said something extremely stupid. Probably both. Why don't you just borrow my charms book?"
"Don't be a spoil sport Lils, let's go over there!" Kara dragged Lily over to James and Sirius despite her adamant protests just as James was shouting at Sirius.
"IF YOU DON'T GET IN THE AIR RIGHT NOW THAT BROOM IS GOING UP, oh hey Kara! Lilly" James beamed, attempting to suavely lean on his broomstick before tripping and almost falling in the mud.
"I see Sirius is being a pain again" Kara laughed as she pulled him off the floor "Quidditch practice then?"
"No we're hunting elephants, what do you think?" Sirius joked as he got on his broomstick, winking at Lily "Just joking my lovelies, James here has decided to break some human rights by taking away both my warmth and happiness"
"Oh wow, I didn't know human rights were applied to great apes now" Lily mocked, still annoyed at James for the night before.
"Ey, Prongs, she called you great, you're on your way up" Sirius pointed out, nodding at Kara for executing the plan perfectly "Shame we can't help the abnormal hairiness but he gets by" Sirius ruffled James' unruly brown hair and knocked his glasses askew. James shooed him off and tried sweeping it back into a controlled mess.
"Well, ganging up on the innocent is a good distraction I suppose" Lily retorted. James scoffed and raised his eyebrows.
"The only innocent part of Severus is a part of the helpless lost dog act he puts on around you, Lily, you know he faked that fall right?" James rolled his eyes and walked over to the side of the pitch to drag over the box that contained the box of quidditch balls as Lily stood grumbling.
"I think I've known him longer then you, James, he never used to be like this" She looked back on all the days she used to spend fishing for newts and conjuring miniature fireworks with Severus before they'd come to Hogwarts. Knowing how downhill and conversation with Lily about Severus Snape went, James shrugged it off and unlatched the box, throwing it open and whipping out the quaffle.
"Are you a good flyer Lily?" He asked, chucking her the quaffle. She caught it and held it out like it was an alien object.
"I, er, I haven't been on a broom since first year" She said, chucking it back and shivering at the thought of the lessons. James and Sirius had been flying since they were kids, and had whipped around her broom attempting to cheer her on but just ended up scaring her senseless.
"You've got quite a throw though" James smiled, spinning the quaffle round on the tip of his finger.
"Flattery will get you no-where Potter" Lily said, but her voice had slightly softened. Kara and Sirius raised their eyebrows at each other.
"Luckily for you two I think we've got some old training Silver Arrows lying around in the stores, only second generation but very reliable" James stared in anticipation waiting for their answer.
Kara agreed immediately, but Lily stood biting her lip debating what she should do: on one hand flying looked extremely fun and there was no better teacher in the school, but then again that teacher was a goofy pranker who had teamed up against Severus the night before. Then again he'd never been the same since he joined Hogwarts…
"I'll sit on one of those death traps for ten minutes and that's it" she sighed as Sirius leapt up in joy and ran to the changing rooms to grab the old brooms, collapsing in a heap when he finally returned and threw the broom at Lily's feet.
"Ready for the best ten minutes of your life Evans?" James grinned, handing her the broom. Lily shook her head and tentatively stood on top of the broom.
"Ok I need you to kick off into the air now" He guided. Lily jumped up and down a couple of times without taking off and James laughed, floating off the ground with ease "With feeling Evans"
"I'm just not good at this, ok?" Lily blushed, not used to failing at something. She tried one more time where she hovered for a bit then fell back down "I can't do it"
"Shame about that Lily, you were so close" Sirius teased, leaping off his broom "As consolation we can offer you ten minutes with the hottest guy in the school" he beamed, pushing James forwards. James just face-palmed as Lily groaned, shaking her head and breezing past them back up to the castle trying to hide her blushing face.
"PADS WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" He smacked him with the beater's stick.
"Well it is all we can offer her..." He argued as Lily rounded the corner out of the stadium.
When she arrived in the library she grabbed her favourite book and grabbed a chair in the far corner "Happy Valentine's day to me" she sighed, rubbing her cheeks and hoping the redness had gone down.
"You alone too?" A voice asked from behind a wall of books.
"Umm, yes? Who is this?" Lily called back, hoping she hadn't alerted some mass murderer of the fact that she was alone in an almost empty library.
"Aiden" Lily looked up just as Aiden McLaggen swung around the bookcase and sat on the chair opposite her "As much of a Valentines looser as you are"
"I wouldn't say I'm a lo…" Lily stopped mid-sentence and looked down at her book on the history of mind altering potions before bursting into laughter "Ok, fellow loser, what brings you here?"
"The apparent hatred from every girl in existence" He fake sighed and stared into the distance looking mournful.
"I doubt you're that bad" Lily smiled reassuringly.
"What about you then? What's your tale of woe?" Aiden sat up and placed his chin in his hands looking expectant.
"A pair of idiots otherwise known as one half of the Marauders" Lily turned slightly to hide the flush reappearing on her cheeks.
"Ah, Potter and Black, yeah they've always seemed too full of themselves for their own good" Lily nodded along with every word, trying to take it in and shake the thought of James Potter out of her head
"Yes!" She almost shouted "This is what I've always said, he's cocky, he's loud, he's funny…"
"Yeah Potter's not as good as everyone makes out, I've always thought you were the one that should have been getting all of the attention" He smiled down at her.
"Always?" She asked, Lily had never been the kind of person to get attention from anyone other than teachers and idiots like James Potter.
"Of course always, who could not be completely entranced by those eyes?" He made a point of staring into her eyes and pretending to faint making Lily giggle "Now we can't have a beautiful young lady such as yourself sitting alone on a day like this, want to go grab something to eat? I heard the great hall are serving heart shaped pancakes"
"Sure" Lily smiled, relieved to have had a conversation with a boy which didn't involve being mocked or proposed to, which seemed to be James' style.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Kara asked nervously as her and James waited for the perfect moment, after Lily had gone the only logical thing to do with Marauders was pull off a prank, the Quidditch practise long forgotten after their earlier flying.
"When do any of our pranks ever go wrong?" James laughed before looking back on some of the failed pranks of the past and rethinking his reply "OK let's forget I said that and get into position!"
James and Kara just had to sit at the end of the Gryffindor table and cast the charm and then Sirius would do the rest. The start of the feast was the starting cue and they jumped into action.
Totally in sync all roses around the Slytherin table hovered into the air, and started shouting insults at the unsuspecting Slytherins whilst jabbing them in the backs and poking their faces. Some of them tried to run away, but the roses just followed them out of the room.
"Dumbledore! Did you see what they did? It was clearly those stupid Marauders again!" Regulus Black yelled after the roses fell to the floor.
"I'm sorry Regulus, I must have missed it" Dumbledore said with a chuckle. He was wise to the marauders tricks and quite enjoyed them.
As soon as their guard was down Sirius came in and snuck around the side of the hall, discreetly getting out his wand and whispering a spell.
"Alright, what's going on?" Sasha had noticed James and Kara sitting next to each other giggling and looking suspicious and figured out something was wrong. She asked just as the first shriek came from the Slytherin table and James and Kara burst out laughing. All over the Slytherin table Chocolates everywhere were exploding and surrounding them in a massive pink cloud and they disappeared by the time it had gone.
"What on earth was that?" Sasha asked suspiciously.
"Oh don't worry James made sure they're somewhere near here, probably only in the Slytherin common room." Sirius moaned as he plonked down next to them trying to keep in hysterical laughter "I wanted to send them to Australia but apparently that's 'pushing it'"
A massive cheer followed their disappearances, but they were shortly back in the hall and Severus Snape came right up to them.
"Alright Snivellus?" James taunted.
"No I'm not 'alright' Potter, I wish you and your stupid antics would stop" Lily was close behind him, face like thunder, and behind her Aiden McLaggen popped up.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Lily shouted at them, clutching Severus' arm defensively. James almost kicked himself for pulling this off straight after he'd convinced Lily that Severus was faking most of their attacks.
"It was just a joke Lily!" He defended before his eyes focussed on Aiden "What the hell's happening here?"
"Why are you acting like a jealous boyfriend?" Lily glared at him "I don't even like you" Those five words punched James in the stomach and left him speechless. Grabbing Sirius he pulled him back to the table and picked up a heart shaped biscuit, nibbling on it sadly and wondering how it had all gone wrong from that morning.
Hello! Firstly thank you for making it this far into my fanfic, it would be a great help if you can review and tell me what you think. Also a huge thanks to Ranma's girl1 for pointing out the flaws in this chapter because it's allowed me to come back and improve it :) I hope you enjoy what you read from me and keep reviewing!
- Hannah