"So, how are we going to announce this?" Kara gestured her finger between James and Lily.
"What?" Lily looked shocked "Do we have to tell anyone?"
"Lily, the whole population of the school is in love with James" Sirius began.
"Don't you mean the entire female population?" Sasha questioned.
"No, look at him, have you not heard of a guy crush before?" Sirius stroked James' face and laughed "anyway, this is the biggest gossip of the decade! Plus the sooner everyone knows the sooner we can get over the masses of death threats!"
"Death threats?" Lily looked worried.
"He's only joking, Lils, anyway, can you blame people for being in love with me, I mean come on – who can resist this!" James flicked back his hair dramatically "Ouch!" He squealed as Lily slapped him.
"Why does anyone need to know though? It's none of their business!" Lily argued, looking increasingly worried.
"But I want to tell people!" Sirius wailed.
"Pads, no, if Lily is uncomfortable then it doesn't happen" James put his arm protectively around Lily "no-one hurts her"
"Fiiine" Sirius sighed as he slurped some grape juice out of a goblet "But when the time comes I bagsey announcing it!"
"Whatever" James groaned, he knew that Sirius announcing anything was a bad idea.
At that moment the owls arrived and began dropping packages in front of the students. A little lilac envelope reeking of petunias landed in front of Lily.
"Oh God" She sighed, cautiously ripping open the envelope, her whole body tensing.
"Are you alright Lils?" James looked down at her anxiously.
"It's from my sister" she scorned as she opened up the letter.
Lily,
Mum has told me I'd better apologise you for my behavior last week, so sorry. To make it up to you you're apparently coming to my birthday party on Saturday, so yeah. So you don't feel lost in all my friends you can bring ONE person with you.
I suppose I'll see you soon
Petunia
"Great" She muttered into James' shoulder after she'd buried her heads into it in annoyance.
"What is it?" James whispered into her ear.
"My sister is having a party" She said mournfully.
"Oh no, the horrors that you go through Lily" Sirius remarked "I can feel your pain – a party? Sounds terrible"
"If you'd met her sister then you'd see how sarcasm wasn't needed in that sentence, so anyway, when is it and what should I wear?" James said cheerfully.
"Oh goodness, you're not coming!" Lily said in shock, James just brushed it off.
"A chance to watch your sister dance? I'm coming" and that was that.
"How do I look in this one?" Lily asked desperately as she tried on a poofy, bright yellow, just below the knee length dress with daisies on it and a yellow headband.
"No. No. No. No. No" Sasha said as she leapt off the bed. Only the completely blind would have been able to look directly at Lily without damaging their eyes. "You look frumpy and, no offence, but you look like my nan" she shook her head as she circled Lily.
"But Sasha!" Lily wailed "You know my mum still buys me clothes that make me look like a five year old, I have nothing! What will James think?" Lily had already tried on a range of shocking childish dresses that only brought the words 'bin' and 'eugh' from Kara and Sasha's mouths.
"Ok, we're taking over." Sasha said firmly as she marched over to her chest and began rummaging through the masses of clothes before finally emerging with an emerald green floaty dress with white flats.
"Shove this on" She sighed at her friend who was actually tugging at the ends of the yellow dress trying to make it look nice.
Lily twirled around in the dress looking amazing whilst staring at herself in the mirror after Sasha had attacked her with some hair curlers and her massive bag of make-up.
"I have to say Sasha I always doubted you" Kara said as she stared at Lily "I was wrong"
"Are you sure it's alright?" Lily looked at herself anxiously.
"Girl, you are lookin' mighty fine" Kara wolf whistled jokingly. "Now go show off to James"
"Pfh, I wasn't doing this for James" Lily attempted, and failed, to convince them.
"Yeah, because you were clearly doing this for your sister, whom you love and adore" Kara said sarcastically. "Now hurry up or you'll be late!"
"God, is it the same up there?" Sirius shouted up the stairs as Kara and Sasha bustled Lily down. "James has been up there for two hours trying on every shirt he owns, it's like you two have only just met! I told him 'James, Lily was mental enough to go out with you; she doesn't care if your hair won't go right!" Sirius was interrupted by James hitting him in the head.
"Oh Sirius, what stories you tell" He said sarcastically before he turned and beamed at Lily "Ready to go?" he asked.
"Not really, I'd rather face that Acromantula again instead of my sister, but I feel that every day so it's fine"
"Don't tell me you've never traveled by fireplace!" James exclaimed as Lily stared open mouthed at their method of transport.
"No! I prefer the bus to being BURNT ALIVE!"
"Miss Evans, I'll assure you that you will most certainly not be burnt alive" Slughorn reassured her.
"Oh great, yeah, I'll just get into the fireplace, throw powder all over myself, ruin my dress, and just emerge in front of my family along with a wizard they barely know, it will all be fine!" She began hyperventilating.
"Well I suppose we could always fly…" James suggested.
"Oh my goodness, did you say fireplace? Of course I'll go that way!" Lily absolutely hated broomsticks; James just smirked after getting the reaction he wanted.
Lily's mother and Petunia were stood in the living room as she made adjustments to her party dress when green flames appeared in the fireplace and a shocked Lily emerged.
"What the hell!" Petunia screeched as she leapt back onto the sofa.
"Uh, hi guys!" Lily put on a fake smile, luckily she hadn't been burnt alive but she could tell that the soot around her legs wasn't the most welcoming sight.
"Can we just have one normal thing happen when you're around?" Petunia moaned. She was just getting up off the sofa when James came flying through the fireplace and landed face first at her feet, his glasses flying off onto the floor. "I'll take that as a no" Petunia scowled whilst storming out of the room.
"Oh, James, how lovely to see you!" Lily's mum beamed as she helped him up "Welcome! Would you like to go and freshen up in the bathroom?" she politely ignored the fact that an almost stranger had just come bellowing through their fireplace and covered the pearly white carpet with soot.
"That would be great" James jumped at the offer and pulled Lily out of the room.
"Well I thought that all went very well" Lily giggled as they ran up the stairs and into her room. "There's a bathroom through there" she gestured at a door to their left "you can go clean yourself there"
Once James had gone into the bathroom she quickly looked around her bedroom: stuffed animals, mounds of school books, girly embellishments.
"He cannot see this!" She thought to herself, so she quickly charged around the room shoving things under her bed and closing cupboards until James emerged from her bathroom, quickly glancing at herself in the mirror she charged into the bathroom to clean up "I'll just be a second" She called leaving James alone in her room.
Not knowing what to do James wondered over to the dressing table where a draw was half open. Not able to resist James quietly pulled it open and found an old notebook shoved inside. He turned to a random page.
June 15th:
God, I can't believe the idiot did it again! ("Me" James thought to himself) it's only our first year at Hogwarts and he's proposed to me five times, sent me twelve bunches of flowers, and sung me a love song in front of the whole school! ("Sirius' idea," James remembered what a fool he'd felt, he went on to read the next page)
June 21st:
I hate him. I hate his hair, his stupid hair! It's always all over the place and ruffled. Why does he always ruffle it! Actually I suppose it does look kinda cu…. No, I can't believe I almost said that! I hate his smile, is he always smiling in that stupid… smiley way? And his smell, like outdoors and cut grass and believe me he's thrown himself at me a lot of times for me to know his smell. Not that I like it. I mean it does smell very manly and … No! For goodness sake James Potter why do you do this to me?
"Oh Lily" James laughed to himself in his head.
"James?" Lily asked as she came out of the bathroom, he quickly flung the diary back into the draw unnoticed whilst grinning "Yes Lily?"
"What that one?" One of Petunia's stupid friends shouted whilst pointing over at James as he stood by Lily under the garden arch whilst Petunia tried to hush her.
"Yes!" She murmured. "Great, the freak's heard us now."
"Hey, you know, he's pretty fit!" Sophia stood there gawping at James.
"Sophia this is definitely not the time" Petunia slapped her.
"Just because you've tied yourself to that Vernon Dursley from Smeltings!" Sophia hit her back "When is he coming anyway?"
"He wasn't sure about coming because of Lily being here" Petunia couldn't rip her eyes off her smug sister.
"Ugh, why have you even invited her" Laura grimaced as James and Lily laughed simultaneously.
"My mum wanted her here" Petunia shuddered "It's always about Lily in this family, even at MY birthday party!"
"It's shocking how she came wearing that too" Emily shook her head at Lily flouncing about "It's almost as if she's trying to out stage you! Not that you don't' look gorgeous, Tuny" She didn't forget to mention.
"I know right!" Petunia absolutely hated how Lily was always more popular. She tugged at the skirt of her floor length purple dress covered in white roses whilst glaring enviously at Lily's new dress.
"Where does she go to school again?" Laura asked.
"Uhh, some boarding school somewhere, I don't listen as long as she's out of my hair" Petuinia quickly lied. "Verny!" She exclaimed as a chubby boy walked through the door into the garden wearing a very proper suit and tie.
"Ah, Petunia" he smiled as he presented her with a neatly wrapped gift and kissed her on the cheek "You look lovely darling. Ugh I see she turned up" He started to go red as he looked over at Lily.
"It's Ok Vernon, ignore her" Laura glared over at James and Lily "Everyone else is"
"They're all glaring at us" James whispered into Lily's ear.
"I know, just pretend you're having a great time and laugh. Pretend I just made the funniest joke you've ever heard" They both simultaneously burst out laughing. "Petunia wants us to be miserable"
"I don't see why you put up with her, Lils!" James looked at her pityingly "She's not worth it"
"I have to, she…." Lily couldn't finish her sentence before her mum came running into the garden "Lily! James! Come inside quickly"
On seeing the urgent look on her face the two of them ran inside the house in front of a mass of Petunia's friends who were all shaking their heads at them.
"What is it?" James began to ask before they entered the living room to find a wizard wearing full magenta robes patterned with gold.
"James Potter and Lily Evans?" He asked in a monotone voice.
"Yes?" James replied unsurely.
"You better come with me" He said sternly and walked out of the room expecting the two of them to follow him.
"What's going on?" Lily looked up at James who was biting the inside of his cheek like he did whenever he was nervous.
"I don't know, don't worry it'll be fine" James held onto her hand reassuringly.
The wizard looked around and held out his hand for Lily and James to take. In a flash they were in a massive black room with a shimmering roof surrounded by masses of leather black seats, a mass of formally dressed wizards surrounding them. At a second glance the ceiling had a spell on it so it looked like it was shimmering, behind it dementors flew around menacingly.
"Sit" one of them instructed whilst pointing at two chairs.
"May I ask what this is about?" James said trying to sound strong but his voice cracked half way through.
"You are here to question you about the events that happened at 11:30 this morning" One of their voices boomed across the office. Curious to find out what was going on James glanced around the room and was shocked at what he saw.
At the back of the room sat in a row was Sirius, Remus, Peter, Kara, Sasha, Severus, Rodolphus, Bellatrix, and Regulus all looking guilty.
"What events are these?" James plucked up the courage to ask although his voice squeaked.
"That is not important"
"I have the right to know!" He insisted getting frustrated.
"Alright, Mr Potter" One of them was clearly getting annoyed with the questions "But first we want your recollection of the events that happened before you left."
"Urr" James started, but he was too nervous to carry on.
"All that happened was that we came down, ate breakfast, and chatted. I don't see why this is important" Lily spoke up.
"This is important, miss Evans, because this morning an illegal curse was used by one of these people" He said pointing at the group sat at the back "And someone can get into serious trouble for it" Lily was taken aback by what she'd heard, she never though a Slytherin could take their fight so far.
"Who was is?" James asked curiously, ready to punch a Slytherin in the face.
"A Miss Sasha Betteridge" James and Lily just stared at him open mouthed, but James managed to regain his voice.
"Well, we know nothing about the events, so please may we leave?"
"Not until you've been formally questioned" The man in black robes sat above them said "First we will hear from James Potter" James was ushered into the center of the room and sat on a lone, black chair. "When was the last time you saw Sasha Betteridge?"
"Well, er, I suppose it was after breakfast. Me and Lily went to meet Professor Slughorn and Sasha and the others were going down to the lake"
"Did it sound like they had evil intent?"
"Of course not! We usually wait there until it's time to go to Hogsmeade"
"It's a bit suspicious that you weren't going with them though, did you want to stay out of trouble?"
"No! Me and Lily were going to her sister's birthday party which you just took us from"
"Finally describe Sasha Betteridge's character to us"
"Well for starters she's the kind of person who doesn't shoot out the cruciatus curse! She wouldn't hurt a fly, she's a pretty good wizard with a tendency to set anything on fire" James meant the last bit as a joke because of Sasha's clumsiness but the man wasn't taking it.
"So she can be dangerous?"
"No? That's not what I meant"
"That you Mr Potter that's all we need" The questioner waved his hand at him and James was taken to the back of the room at sat down next to Sirius.
"What the hell Pads?" James muttered to him.
"Explain later" He mumbled, clutching the top of his arm, blood streaked across the side of his face.
"Next is Lily Evans" He called out. Lily walked meekly to the chair in the center and sat down, looking as small as James had ever seen her.
"When did you last see Sasha?"
"Same as James, after breakfast" She mumbled, wringing her hands anxiously.
"Could you tell us about her relationship with Regulus Black, Severus Snape, Bellatrix Black, and Rodolphus Lestrange?"
"Well it's definitely not good, the Slytherins have a tendency to attack anyone who dares look at them, and more often then not we end up rubbing them the wrong way, it's just usually them who take it too far"
"So Sasha would have a reason to torture one of them?"
"No! Sasha's never done anything like that, it's the Marauders who they hate the most. If Sasha was driven to do something like that it would have been because the Slytherins did something seriously bad"
"Has Sasha ever spoken about attacking them before? Maybe even as a joke?"
"Of course not" Lily didn't want to give them anything else in case they changed the meaning.
"Very well, that's enough" Lily was taken to go and sit next to James.
"Now we'll heard a recount from the guilty" Sasha shakily rose from her chair and wobbled up to sit down.
"Are you Sasha Betteridge?" A voice thundered.
"Yes" She squeaked, not sounding anything like she normally did.
"Would you please recall the events that happened this morning at 11:30?" He asked.
"W-w-well" She stuttered "We were out by the lake as usual on a Saturday waiting to go to Hogsmeade, when the group of Slytherins came up to us and started to torment us" She was trying hard to fight back tears "When it got too much Sirius, Remus and Peter got up and tried to make them stop. The Slytherins were going on and on about some dark plan and how our families would suffer" the tears spilled over her cheeks "Then they got violent and started hitting Sirius, Remus and Peter with hexes. That's when me and Kara stood up to try and protect them but they wouldn't stop. Before I knew it Remus was on the floor covered in belts. It looked like he was being suffocated"
James now couldn't stop the tears as they flowed down his face, Lily clutched his hand.
"I should have been there Lil" he whispered.
"No matter how much I begged they wouldn't let Remus go, none of the spells we used could stop it. That's when a stupid though came into my head from a defence against the dark arts class. We were told that these spells were the strongest in the wizarding world. I was desperate. So I used th-the Crutiatus curse on Regulus, and Remus was freed." And that's when Sasha collapsed in tears. Lily tried to run to her but she was held back by a stern looking wizard.
"Please don't hurt me, I only wanted to save Remus" She sobbed into her hands.
"We have the needed information; you may go back to your seat. We call to the stand Regulus Black" The voice boomed once again, and Regulus sauntered up to the seat immediately putting on a distraught face.
"Me and my friends were off to relax by the lake to study" He lied "When we were bombarded by these, these maniacs!"
James clenched his fists out of anger.
"They just randomly started attacking us, yelling something about our parents being death eaters. It was shocking the accusations they were making about us. Then this girl stood up and stormed over to me. It was so hurtful – she was effing and blinding about my family being shameful and how I deserve to die, and that's when it happened" He let out a fake sob. "I'm sorry I just can't take it!"
"You may go back to your chair Mr Black. You are all dismissed and will be called back when a verdict is met"
The Marauders and the girls solemnly walked out of the room whilst the Slytherins ran out laughing and hi-fiving.
Once they had left the room Lily just hugged Sasha and she collapsed in her arms.
Authors note:
Look I'm early! Never underestimate the power of boredom on typing speed. I just want to tell you how much it means to read all of your amazing comments on my little story! It's like a little hug every time I log on – Ok going a bit cliché there but stuff it THANK YOU!
-Mischief Managed