"JAMES" Lily squealed when he walked into the potions lesson the following Tuesday before practically jumping on him.
"Ur, yes, Miss Evans would you mind putting down Mr Potter and returning to your cauldron" Slughorn called over awkwardly from where he was stood admiring Severus' work.
"Yeah Lils, put me down you're suffocating me" James laughed pulling her away and kissing her on the cheek. "I was going to say Madam Pomphrey let me go but, it's pretty obvious"
"You don't say" Sirius remarked as he bounced over and high fived him "C'mon James, we're making babbling beverage"
"You're too excited about potions" James sighed as Sirius pulled them back to the table where their cauldrons were.
"I'm sorry, but Snivellus has been beating me at this all year and I won't take it!" Sirius declared as he threw a fistful of pickled slugs into the mixture. Lily sighed at his childishness.
"He knows Severus is best at the whole year at potion yet he refuses to admit it"
"He can't be" Sirius sobbed.
"Well I hate potions full…" Sasha couldn't finish her sentence as her potion exploded in her face "Why does everything I do end up blowing up in my face!" She moaned wiping the gunk off her face,
"Let's just hope you don't pass it onto your children…" Remus joked through the fits of laugher at watching Sasha covered in a thick brown sludge.
"You better run down to the toilets" Slughorn looked worriedly at her face "Best not start again today, eh?" A polite way of telling Sasha her potion making was rubbish, the mixture she concocted was supposed to be a subtle green.
"How are you doing James? "Lily hadn't taken her eyes off him since he came into the classroom making sure he didn't leave if she looked away.
"A lot better knowing I can't harm any of you lot" He attempted to smile, trying not to reveal to everyone the purpose of him going to the infirmary.
"Good thing mate" Sirius slapped him on the back "Now do you want to test my potion"
"NO" Everyone shouted. Firstly because James babbled enough without a potion to help him, and secondly because Sirius was known for adding extras to his potions for a laugh to see what happened.
"Alright, alright!" He put his hands up in the air.
"James I've had to put up with him since you left, never leave us on our own again" Remus pleaded jokingly and James chuckled.
"I didn't know I would be missed so much, any chance of a cake to celebrate?" James looked at them hopefully but got no response.
"And on the eve of July the eighth a thunderstorm shall kill a sheep, in ur, Wales" Kara announced in a fake mystic voice, the divination teacher congratulated her on her inner eye and skipped away.
"Unbelievable" Lily scowled as she stared into the bottom on a tea cup that Karaa had just drunk out of.
"Come on Lils" Kara pushed her on "Just look at the shape, then in your book, and tell me what it is" The teacher quickly skipped back hoping to see Lily actually do something this year "You swore you wouldn't fail this class"
"That was in first year" Lily sighed as she squinted into the cup desperately, logic was screaming at her to stop being an idiot, but she had to look good. "Well… That lump could be mistaken for a, ur, acorn which means unexpected gold" She flicked through the pages in her book "And I guess that could be a club, which is an attack. So, in the future, you're going to be beaten up… by some unexpected gold?" the teacher just walked away.
"Wow" Kara shook her head. "But don't worry, don't worry" Kara snatched the cup "Kara the divider is here to reveal unto you all my future" She smiled mysteriously as she looked into her tea leaves "That is an anchor, not a club, it's showing a voyage, and there is a face, a loss of friendship?" She looked puzzled at her tea leaves.
"See, total rubbish" Lily took the cup off her and poured the dregs into the bin "Our friends are always there for each other, you won't be losing us" She smiled at Kara.
"The tea leaves don't lie" Their teacher said before returning to marking.
"Don't worry Kara!" Sirius stood up and waltzed over.
"Oh god" James sighed before downing the rest of his tea Sirius was supposed to be reading.
"I can tell you your future!"
"Sirius don't do it" James said tiresomely but Sirius ignored him.
"I see" He raised his voice whilst grabbing the glass ball from the middle of the table and skipping around her "False promises, misleading friends, betrayal, and, and, split ends!" Kara's eyes misted over and began to well up "Oh wait! That's the past! What a stupid mistake!" Sirius shouted throwing the ball on the floor and marching back to his seat, taking James' cup "And you James…." He announced whilst looking into the cup. He stopped dead.
"What? What's in my cup?" James stared at him concerned.
"You… You have The Grim"
The Marauders and the girls sat separated from each other that lunch.
"James, don't worry, you know that Divination is a load of rubbish anyway" Remus tried to convince James as he sat staring into the distance next to Sirius. Who was also staring into the distance. "Come on guys! Sirius, are you really going to let a girl get to you? You're strong, you're a Marauder! We can get through anything as long as we're together, you just have to trust in us and yourself!"
He got no reply, Remus sighed.
"I broke one of your combs"
"What!" Sirius snapped out of it and looked at him intensely.
"I said don't let Kara get to you"
"Oh, of course he hasn't" James piped up after hearing Sirius talking "He proved just then how much he's not going to let Kara get to him"
"Look, guys, I just needed to get that out of my system. It's over now, she gets the point, I'm ok with it now, there's no need to look into it any more than what it actually is.
"Ok, we've got to look into this" Sasha announced to the rest of the girls.
"Totally, what the hell did Black think he was doing, the git, embarrassing me in front of the whole class like that, what have I ever done to him? Right Lils?"
"Well you did kinda snog a guy after you kissed him" Lily mumbled, hating having to stand up to her friend.
"That shouldn't even matter! We weren't exclusive, that was never said, I can kiss whoever I dam well want!" Kara argued.
"Except you can't now" Sasha dared to say.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kara went bright red.
"Oh come on, we've all had crushes on the Marauders, every girl in this school has had a crush on at least one of the Marauders. Mostly three of them, you're a nutter if it's four. I mean, come on, Lily's going out with one and girls are still giving her evils"
"Thanks for pointing that out" Lily turned around and fifty girls averted their glares until she turned her back again.
"But it proves my point! You of all people are the easiest to read, you've clearly got a crush on Sirius you just won't tell us" Kara slammed her hand against Sasha's mouth.
"Shhh, people will hear!" She went accidentally red.
"So it's true!" Lily smiled "Well, that's not really a good thing now, why do you think he did that then Sasha?"
"Oh my goodness, it could have been anything! A cry for her attention, a display of his deep down sadness for losing her… it could be anything!"
"It could just be because he wanted to shout at me. I mean, it's Sirius Black, he doesn't exactly think about what he's about to do" Kara pointed out solemnly.
"I suppose so" Sasha sulked, her dreams of seeing a Romeo and Juliet romance were once again crushed.
Lily glanced over at James for the millionth time that lunch and they smiled at each other and rolled their eyes at their friends. James mimed washing his hands and Lily nodded.
"Sorry girls" Lily said after quietly wiping her hand in a knob of butter "Got to go to the bathroom"
"It's fine Lils, I've got a cleaning charm I could…" Sasha started.
"Oh no, it's fine, I've got this covered" She babbled before running out of the hall.
"Does she think we're stupid?" Kara rolled her eyes as James walked past with jam all over his hands.
The two of them met just outside the door, James licking his hand happily.
"Dammit, why didn't I get something I could lick of" Lily stared annoyed at the butter smothering her hand.
"Forget it" James smiled walking over and kissing her "God I've needed to do that for the whole of lunch, too much testosterone on that table" Lily laughed.
"Is Sirius being that bad?"
"What, Kara isn't?"
"Oh God yes, her and Sasha are probably analyzing his every move as we speak"
"They do know he did it because he's, well, Sirius, and doesn't actually think about anything he does?"
"Apparently, but we're girls, it's in the contract to gossip, now don't let's talk about this over dramatized subject, there's more interesting things we could be doing" James' face lit up.
"You mean…"
"Oh God no, not like that, I meant I need to sort out some prefect papers"
"Yay" James fake whooped as they walked up to the common room hand in hand receiving hundreds of jealous glares just on the staircase.
"Why do you think Dumbledore's asked us to go to his office?" Lily asked everyone as they walked in silence up to the office; half of them still weren't talking to the other half.
"I suppose he found out?" Remus suggested after no-one else answered.
"Nah, not exactly a pressing issue at the moment" James said "Maybe something about Quidditch?"
"Yeah!" Sirius got all excited at the prospect of Quidditch while they walked up the steps to Dumbledore' s office but was let down when Dumbledore told them what it actually was.
"A ball? At the end of the year?" Kara stared open mouthed at him.
"Yes" Dumbledore pushed his glasses up his nose.
"And you want us to help arrange it? Us?" Sirius still couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Of course, that's why I asked"
"But it's a ball!" Sirius just couldn't latch onto the simple concept.
"I've heard that you have experience with parties yourself" Dumbledore started to explain.
"Yeah but those are full blown crazy parties with…" He realised he was admitting to the heat teacher that they had had unauthorised partied and hastily shut up. Dumbledore smiled at him.
"I am fully aware of that, I just thought that considering the quidditch ban has given you a lot of spare time this would help to stop you doing something brash and irrational"
"We'd love to do it" Lily piped up and everyone turned and stared at her "It would be great to get some extra credit for doing it, and hey, it's a ball, we need something to cheer us all up"
"My thoughts exactly, thank you Miss Evans" Dumbledore beamed at her "So it's decided, you may go, I suppose you'll want to get a meeting in soon to brainstorm" He suggested as he shooed them out, Lily hung back briefly.
"You heard about Sirius and Kara didn't you?"
"Indeed I did" Dumbledore chuckled "I merely attempted to find a distraction for you all"
"Thank you" Lily smiled and ran downstairs to catch up with everyone.
"What did you say?" Kara asked.
"Oh just something about prefects"
"Ok guys, brainstorming, let's go!" Everyone was sat in a circle staring at a blank piece of paper, Remus was holding a marker pen desperate to try and do it well. The sheet stayed blank.
"Oh come on guys, this is a chance to have a massive school party, what we've always dreamed of!"
"Waw, no moons, this isn't a party, it's a ball. Ball, as in: get all dressed up, get a date, dance to a few slow songs, punch not beer, and you're lucky if there's a band to play some good songs" Sirius pointed out.
"Well I, for one, am looking forward to it" Sasha smiled "I've been wanting to try on a pretty dress for ages, and this is my chance"
"Cool, then let's get some ideas down to make it good" Remus was so desperate for ideas he'd actually written down dressed up, dates, dance, slow songs, punch, band.
"Ok then, I want a water fountain" Kara said "Always good for when a date tries to go too far and you can just shove them right in" She smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to get with a random stranger quickly enough" Sirius scorned but everyone tried to ignore him.
"There has to be good food" Peter hadn't spoken for ages, and even though it was the most predictable thing he could have said everyone was shocked.
"Ok then, Peter, who just spoke, to us, now, Peter" Remus looked at him in shock and wrote down good food, and a list of suggestions from everyone.
"Ooh, ooh, ooh" Sirius piped up, actually getting into it "A massive dance floor with lights and a smoke machine, a stage next to it, and we'll have to hire a good band"
"That's actually a good suggestion" They'd all been expecting Sirius to just sit there demanding alcohol.
"Don't forget a ban on party hats" James was quick to add, at their last part Sirius had started using his party hat as a death weapon and attacking people with in whilst the bells sang 'hit me with your best shot'.
"He… Ok fair enough" Sirius agreed, one of the bells had bit him. "Wow, so much work" he yawned.
"We've been working for ten minutes" Lily pointed out.
"Wow, that long! I'm hitting the sack"
"Yeah, I want to try and go to sleep earlier than I have the past couple of nights" He glared at Sirius as he recalled the late night karaoke sessions Sirius had started having.
"Fine, fine, we'll carry on another day" Lily folded up the paper and everyone went to bed.
"What are you doing out here so late?" Lily asked as she stepped out onto the balcony a couple of hours later.
"Looking at the stars" James said distantly.
"Why?" Lily asked as she rubbed her arms, it was freezing for the summer so she huddled under James' arm.
"I suppose it's just easier to think out here, it puts it all into perspective how small we actually are compared to the rest of the universe. It helps make my problems seem all the better thinking that there's a sun out there exploding"
"Well, it doesn't explode, as such, once the sun has expanded into a red giant an…" Lily started to say but James just put his fingers to her lips.
"Ok, explosion or no explosion, it helps." James sighed "You know what Sirius said to me from my tea leaves in divination..."
"Oh James you can't believe in that nonsense, I bet people are getting Grims all the time. It's psychological, if I predicted that you were going to fall down the stairs and you genuinely believed me everything you did after that would result in you falling down the stairs"
"You wouldn't be saying that if you got it, Lils. It's a big thing, you know, some people take this sort of thing very seriously, I'm not going to be able to shake this now"
"Well I'm always here for you" She smiled and squeezed him hand.
"Time as well" James continued "I mean look, Lily, it's almost been six years that we've been at Hogwarts – six! How quickly has that gone?"
"I know what you mean, it seems like just yesterday we declared war on each other" She smiled up at him.
"What's going to happen in the next six years?" James looked thoughtfully up at the sky.
"I could always read your tea leaves for you to find out, I've been told I'm very good at it" They both laughed and Lily started shivering again.
"Come on then, Lils, you need to get to bed" James picked her up as she giggled and forgetting the spell attempted to carry her up to her bed and tuck her in. A second later they were lying in a pile at the bottom laughing.
"Ok, I'm pretty sure I can take it from here" Lily laughed pulling James up.
"Goodnight Lily" He beamed leaning down and softly kissing her, stroking her hair before turning and going up the stairs and collapsing into his bed for the first time in five days. He needed sleep.
Authors Note:
Wow, chapter 23 already? James is right time goes quickly... Yes, I have added in a ball, I wanted something happy to work with considering the whole Voldemort/war thing going on, and school isn't exactly the glamorous setting to do it in.
Thank you so much for your support and keep reviewing :-)