"ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE ME DO THIS ON MY OWN?" Lily shouted angrily down the hall at Sirius who was sat nonchalantly on the teacher's table whilst Lily struggled to measure the width of the Hall.
Sirius laughed "When you put me on your team Lilypop I thought you knew it meant I wouldn't me doing any work!"
"You know, for some reason, when I asked you to help me with measuring the great hall, I thought you were going to help me measure the Great Hall" She grumbled whilst attempting to unroll the tape measure straight along the floor.
"I wish I could have gone on the food testing team" Sirius moaned, reluctantly hopping down from the table and holding onto the end of the tape measure.
"You know Kara is on that team with Peter, I'm not having you two killing each other before this ball" Lily warned.
"Whatever" Sirius sat there fiddling with the end of the tape measure fidgeting for ten minutes whilst Lily tried measuring the length of the Hall. "LILY I'M BORED"
"Black, so help me if you let go of the end of that tape measure I'm going to hex to into oblivion" Lily yelled from the other side of the hall as she struggled with a pen and paper.
"Fiiine" Sirius sighed. As if to tempt him from the other side of the Great Hall Winnie came skipping into the Hall carrying Frisbee-like place mats.
Lily saw the glint in his eye and tried to stop him "SIR…" but it was too late, with a grin on his face Sirius leapt up.
"WINNIE!" He called skipping over to her, the tape measure flying back to Lily and cutting her hand.
"BLACK, YOU… YOU…" Lily couldn't find a word offensive enough to cover how annoyed she was. On realising what he'd done, and how close Lily was to murdering him he froze in a Frisbee throwing position, trying not to move so he blended in with the Great Hall.
"I'M NOT AN IDIOT I CAN SEE YOU, JUST GET OUT" Lily ranted at him before angrily muttering a healing charm on her hand.
Everyone knew that when Lily started muttering she was either nervous or secretly planning your murder, and Sirius was pretty sure he knew which one it was, so he dropped the placemat, grabbed his wand, and charged out of the room.
"Napkins" James muttered "I say I want to do something important. So she gives me napkins"
"It's not just napkins James, it's table enhancers" Remus mimicked Lily's encouraging voice and they both burst out laughing.
"Yeah, alright then" James laughed as they walked down to Hogsmeade. "What's all of this table enhancing rubbish we need to get then?"
"Well there's centre pieces, napkins, glasses, candle holders… the usual rubbish" Remus sighed flicking through the list.
"Great, where first then?"
Remus pointed at a large vicorian looking shop with golden angels above the doors and pink ribbons strung above the windows.
"What… There?" James stared open mouthed "Remus, I can't go in there. I have a reputation, that place is for girls!" In the window of the shop was intricate metal cutlery and roses in ornate vases.
"Oh for goodness sake James, we're out buying centre pieces for a ball, embrace your feminine side!" James put his hands on his hips and pouted "Ok, ok, please hide your feminine side and never show it to me again" Remus jokingly shielded his eyes before shoving James through the door of the shop.
"Good morning gentlemen!" An overly keen shop assistant skipped over.
"Uh, yeah, hi" Remus was overwhelmed by the massive smile and the over-confident hand shake he gave them "We need stuff for a masquerade ball?"
"Ooh, yes perfect! Come with me then" The assistant lead them into a massive side room full to the brim with decorations.
"Oh God" James murmured as he looked at the mass of decorations in shock. "We're going to be here a while"
"Peter! Stop eating all of the cake!" Kara slapped the cake out of Peter's hands as they sat testing food in the kitchen and glared at him "Save some for me!" Kara proceeded to snatch the cake off the table and engulf it herself.
"For goodness sake you two, we're supposed to be deciding what's going to be in the buffet, not eating all of the cake!" Sasha droned on as she reached into her bag and got out a notepad.
"Sash, food's easy, that's why we're here!" Kara explained whilst shoving another piece of cake in her mouth "You have a lot cake, a massive bowl of punch, pizza, fancy-ass crisps and dip, some weird fruity thing no-one's heard of, salad no-one goes near, and a lot of junk food!" Kara laughed.
"I'm sorry, can you start again from 'fancy ass crisps'?" Sasha asked from her notepad, never being to a ball before this was the best she had.
"Ugh, give it here" Kara quickly scribbled down random food, threw it back at Sasha and inhaled a delicious looking double chocolate fudge cake.
"Peter, any ideas?"
"Food" He managed to say from behind a carrot cake.
"Great, why didn't I go and get napkins" Sasha sighed before giving in and nibbling on a lemon drizzle cake.
"GUYS SHE'S GOING TO KILL ME!" Sirius scream as he ran into the kitchen with Lily close behind him.
"What on earth?" Sasha exclaimed trying to stop Lily from pelting Sirius with a tape measure.
"You couldn't just leave it, could you" Lily shouted under the table.
"Lily! Lily calm down!" Sasha forced Lily to sit down on a chair and tried to calm her down.
"He…he" Once Lily had calmed down she saw how petty the argument was "He told me my tape measure was crooked" she muttered.
"Really Lils?" Kara sighed, but wasn't interested enough to take her eyes off the strawberries and cream cake.
"Hang on" Lily looked over the table "Where did all of the cake come from? You were only supposed to ask the elves what food they could make for us"
Sasha, Kara, and Peter sat there looking guiltily down at the cake before Kara thought of an excuse.
"We were, ur, making sure the quality was alright?" Before Lily could go into prefect mode she looked down at the masses of cake, shrugged her shoulders and they all tucked in just as Remus and James burst through the door clutching hundreds of bags.
"So… Much… Shopping" James gasped as he threw them all to the floor and sat down next to them.
"Hang on" Remus looked at the rest of the gang "Have you lot just been eating cake whilst we put up with the most annoying shop assistant ever and spent two hours picking out centre pieces as if we were some sort of woman!" Remus got angry raised eyebrows from the girls "I meant… like we were some sort of centre piece maker?"
Lily knew saying she'd sort of measured the length of the Great Hall wasn't the best excuse "We were… just testing the quality was alright?"
The girls had sent the Marauders out to put up posters on all over the school to advertise the ball.
"So who are you taking?" James asked the group.
"Taking where?" Peter looked confused.
"To the ball you idiot!" James sighed slapping Peter in the back of the head.
"Well I was thinking about asking Mary?" Remus suggested.
"What, Macdonald?" Sirius sniggered but saw he wasn't joking "Moony, no offence but she's never going to go out with you!"
"What, and you have a better chance?" Remus said trying to big himself up.
"Please" Sirius flicked his hair back "Watch this" He sauntered up to a random hot Ravenclaw and tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey" He grinned. After five minutes he came back with a ripped piece of parchment with a phone number scrawled on it "Don't underestimate my powers" He laughed.
"Yeah, well then I challenge you to a battle of girls. Ok that's weird, let's just see who can get Mary to go with them first" Remus suggested.
"Fine!" Sirius smiled to himself, he was obviously going to win.
"What about you Wormy?" James nudged Peter in the side.
"Don't joke" Peter sulked.
"Oh come on, there's someone in this school with low enough standards, surely!" Sirius pinched Peter's cheeks.
"Yeah, thanks" He muttered.
"Oh don't be like that Wormtail!" Sirius laughed "Me and James will set you up, yeah! You just stay here" Sirius dragged James over to a group of girls to try and find one suitable, well desperate enough, for Peter.
"God, they're like a pack of wolves" James muttered to Sirius as they tried to find a way into the group, Sirius ended up leaning with his arm against the wall and coughing loudly. Peter stood turning bright red over on the other side of the corridor.
"Hello ladies" Sirius grinned at them, the girls exploded into fits of giggles.
"You're Sirius Black, aren't you?" One of them stood forward and asked.
"I am, yes, and this is my wing man, James Potter, not that I need one" he smiled. "Now, I have a problem and I was wondering if you could solve it"
"Shoot" the girl who stepped forwards said.
"I need someone to go to the ball with…"
"Yes!" The majority of the girls shouted, not knowing that Sirius was actually asking for Peter.
"Ah, cool, then I'll get Peter to…" James was cut off.
"Waw, Peter as in Peter Pettigrew?" one of the girls asked with a disgusted look on their face.
"Uh…. Yeah" James could see where this was going, and as soon as it was confirmed they all turned and walked off.
"We didn't think they were suitable Peet" James muttered and they walked on.
"Well what If we got the girls to give you a makeover?" Sirius suggested.
"Yes!" James grinned.
"No!" Peter argued.
"Do you think he'll ask me?" Sasha asked Lily and Sasha eagerly.
"Well, he might" Lily didn't want to hurt Sasha's feelings.
"Yeah, but you saw the way he looked at me!" Sasha gazed over at Amos Diggory.
"For goodness sake, Sash, have you seen how vain that guy is?" Kara tried to talk some sense into her "He's in the year above us and way out of your league"
"Fine" Sasha huffed "Who are you going with"
"Well…" Kara hadn't actually thought about it.
"You've got to find someone soon, everyone's finally heard about it and it's in three weeks. All the good guys will be gone!"
"Fine" Kara threw a drumstick at Davey Gudgeon.
"What?" He asked irritably.
"Wanna go to this ball thingy?" Kara asked, flicking her hair and attempting to pout her lips.
"Yeah, alright then" Kara smiled, then turned back around to an open mouthed Sasha.
"Done" She beamed.
"You just got one of the fittest boys in our year to go to the ball by throwing a drumstick at him" Sasha moaned "I'm going to try this"
Sasha then went on to grab a drumstick and hurl It over the table to Amos Diggory where it landed in his soup and splashed him in the face, he turned around angrily.
"WHAT?" he demanded, glaring at Sasha whilst wiping soup of his face, she panicked.
"You've, ur, got a nice face" She shouted back. He rolled his eyes and turned back around. "Dammit" she blushed.
"Smoooth" Kara said through the fits of giggles.
"Girls!" Sirius shouted across the hall "We need your help with make overs, meet us in our dorm!"
"Oh god" Lily buried her head in her hands as the whole Great Hall laughed at them.
"Sirius you're an idiot!" Sasha shouted back before bustling Lily and Kara out of the Hall threw all of the laughter.
"Sirius you're an idiot" Sasha scorned as they walked into the boys dorm with a bag of make-over equipment.
"But this is urgent! We need you to make Peter look suitable so we can get him a date!" Kara snickered.
"Oh gosh you were serious, sorry" She apologized looking Peter up and down "But isn't that going to be a bit… hard?"
"We leave him in your hands" James pushed Peter over to the girls and they spun his around.
"Fine, I'm sure we can try" Sasha sighed "But I'm going to need to get another bag of stuff"
"Hey!" Peter was starting to get used to the constant remarks, and then having his protests completely ignored.
After three hours with Sasha, Kara, and Lily Peter had been showered (not with them in the bathroom); had his hair straightened (against his constant protests); had his eyelashes curled; had his wardrobe turned upsidown before they could find a suitable outfit; then, under restraint, had concealer put on parts of his face.
"I feel like a girl" He announced when they'd finally finished.
"Aww, you look cute!" Sasha cooed.
"I don't want to feel cute, I want to feel manly!" Everyone erupted into masses of laughter. "Thanks for the confidence boost guys" he sulked.
"Now you go get 'em tiger" Sirius slapped his shoulder as started to push him out of the room.
"What?" Peter asked confused.
"Oh, didn't we say? We're not letting you back in here until you've got a date, not a pity date either like you did in second year with Lily" Lily went red remembering how bad she'd felt for Peter so she just said yes and went to the dance with him.
"Sirius finally got Peter out of the door and shut and locked it behind him "Our little Peter's growing up" He pretended to wipe a tear away from his eye.
Author's Note:
Hey, just a warning if I don't get a chapter in by the end of the week, I'm acutally doing loads for once, I'm going on holiday for two weeks to a place where there's no internet D: so I'll write a lot of chapters whilst I'm there, then post them all when I get back, and please review, the amount of times I've started smiling just because I see I've got a new email is unbelievably sad, but still great!
Mischief Managed