Hey :-) I've been looking forward to seventh year for a while now, we didn't see it from the student's perspective in the books so this will be fun! There was one thing I wasn't sure about, and that's the apparent head boy and girl dormitory. I've only head it mentioned in fanfics and I know JK Rowling never intended for there to be one, however I do like the idea of it so I decided to go with it
James and Lily stood outside a large painting of a mermaid who's glistening topaz hair flowed down her back and pooled around her on the jagged rock she perched on, her tail daintily swaying back and forth in the water. An intricate silver frame surrounded the scene with the name 'Temptress of the Sea' swirled underneath. When she saw James and Lily walk up to her weighed down by suitcases she smiled before speaking.
"James Potter and Lily Evans?" she asked in a pure, melodic voice. Lily nudged James in the side as he stared at the mermaid open mouthed. Without taking his eyes off her James nodded slowly "You must set a password for the rest of the year"
"Oh gosh this is a lot of pressure for the first day" The overthinking Lily panicked and started thinking back to every password she'd ever had. James also panicked and blurted out the first words that came into his head.
"Pickled gooseberries!"
"It is set" the mermaid grinned before swinging open revealing a corridor to let them in; Lily smacked James lightly in the arm before laughing and going in to explore the room.
The short corridor opened out into a navy blue and silver common room with a fireplace with beanbags, two armchairs, and one sofa in front of it. The wall adjacent to the fireplace was covered by the names of every head boy and girl at Hogwarts with Alice Prewett and Frank Longbottom engraved above James and Lily.
"They'll be pretty hard to follow" Lily muttered to herself as she looked at every name in awe, picking out the familiar ones like Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall. One name had been burnt off the wall but Lily could just about make out a T, M, R, D and E.
"This is the life!" James beamed as he threw down his bags at the foot of the staircase leading to his room and belly flopped the sofa.
"And this is when I start questioning why on earth you're head boy" Lily chuckled, glancing around at the rest of the common room – the large windows on the far end of the room with blue curtains with silver waves crashing along the bottom overlooked the central tower courtyard and the Gryffindor tower could be seen to the right.
"Hey! I'll have you know I'm an amazing role model to the kids! Now stop questioning my awesomeness and let's check out the bedrooms!" James excitedly leapt up and charged up the stairs to his room, Lily heard a whoop of delight before James charged back into the common room. "I think I may be dreaming, it's like a palace"
"Stop over-exaggerating" Lily tutted, before peering up the stairs to her room. James came up behind her and peered too.
"You don't suppose I can actually walk up these stairs, do you?" He asked.
"Only one way to find out" Lily gestured to the stairs before James crossed his fingers and began to tiptoe up the stairs, when they finally reached the top James breathed a sigh of relief.
"Lovely, now leave immediately I don't want it to get 'Maraudered'" She laughed, trying to pull James out of the room.
"I find that offensive and judgemental" he pouted before sulking off down the stairs "Don't expect an invite to my man-cave any time soon!" He called over his shoulder.
"Oh I won't" Lily giggled before turning to unpack.
"So, how's things in the love nest?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at James and Lily as they sat down for dinner. James flushed before turning to Lily, but she was laughing
"Way to lower the tone Pads" James laughed, slapping him in the arm and filling his plate with chicken drumsticks.
"You know the reputation of that room Prongs, remember the last people in there were Frank and Alice and look at them now! I bet they did…." Sirius was cut off by Lily shouting over him.
"NO, I do not want to think about it, thank you" she had her hands over her ears "What happens in the room, stays in the room"
"I think she's trying to tell us her and James have already done 'it'" Sirius whispered loudly to Remus who was too absorbed in a book to care about Sirius' mad ramblings. He didn't have to reply either because Lily kicked Sirius sharply in the shins under the table making him squeal.
"It's ok Lily, some people just have no consideration for other's feelings" Kara sneered as her and Sasha joined them at the table.
"Yeah, but what 'other people' forget is that it's normally their actions that provoke it in the first place" Sirius retorted, not even looking up from his dinner.
"Well those 'other people'..."
"GUYS!" Sasha slammed the table unexpectedly making everyone jump "Look at yourselves; you don't even see how stupid this is! This is our last year together and I don't want it ruined by this massive dark cloud hovering over us constantly. Now look each other in the eye and say sorry right now and call it quits" Shocked by how passionate Sasha sounded and her deadly glare Sirius and Kara reluctantly looked at each other.
"Sorry" Kara mumbled.
"Sorry, but this doesn't mean we're friends" Sirius said back before returning to his chips. The mood had considerably lowered after actually addressing their problems so they sat mostly in silence for the rest of the meal.
"Seventh year Defense Against the Dark Arts" Professor Gargorus' voice was loud, commanding and shocked the Marauders (bar Peter) and the other students who had chosen NEWT level Defense Against the Dark Arts "This is no joke; this class may be the difference between life and death. If ANYONE here thinks this is going to be a frolic through a meadow of rainbow ponies and sunshine they can piss of now" Ever the class clown Sirius sighed dramatically and began to leave the room.
"Oh, we have a joker in the room" Gargorus growled, stamping up to Sirius and throwing him back in line "Want to be an Auror?" He spat in Sirius' face
"Uhh, yeah?" Sirius leaned back and resisted the urge to wipe the saliva off his cheek through fear of being killed.
"Then I fear for our future" He put simply before punching him in the arm and moving back to the front of the classroom. "Throughout the next year you will not only be learning how to defend yourself, but how to defend others. It's a dark fucking world out there and chances are you'll all be killed, but I'm giving you a shot at life here"
The thirteen pupils in the room who were all stood in a line in the barely furnished classroom all exchanged worried glances before returning to the new teacher's 'inspirational' speech.
"The Defence against the Dark Arts NEWT is like no other, 50% is a written exam, but the other 50% is a practical exam which can only be described as a small scale battle" this was news to everyone there, the NEWT exams were always kept secret until the 7th year but this just seemed a bit much "It's only just been introduced by the ministry because new Aurors had never put their skills into practice in real danger. That's all you can know until the exam. I know you took some of your NEWT's last year due to the war, so no excuses for not completing work. Now, to prepare you for you exam I'm introducing some competition to the classroom"
"This better not be the lame competition like in potions where we see who can make the potion the fastest" Sirius muttered into James' ear.
"You really can't take a hint can you?" Gargorus snarled at Sirius "For that you can be on your own team. The rest of you get into groups of four. NOW!" James shot an annoyed look at Sirius for breaking up the trio before grabbing Remus and going to team up with Benjy Fenwick and Dedalus Diggle. They were ordered to write down teams onto a piece of parchment and the end result was:
Group 1:
James Potter
Remus Lupin
Benjy Fenwick
Dedalus Diggle
Group 2:
Timothy Abbott
Gideon Prewett
Caradoc Dearborn
Reginald Thomas
Group 3:
Lily Evans
Marlene McKinnon
Emmeline Vance
Dorcas Meadowes
Group 4:
Sirius Black
"I think I preferred the old teacher" Sirius complained to James as they stood waiting after writing down their names.
"Oh really, I thought you two had a real connection" James laughed, patting Sirius on the back "What happened to old Fidelis anyway?"
"Ooh, it was bad this time, he was targeted by Death Eaters and they killed him when he wouldn't join them and manipulate us into joining too"
"Enough chit chat ladies, this isn't a mothers meeting!" Gargorus shouted at them "Get into a line and we'll start with a skills lesson. I'm throwing you in at the deep end, getting the really nasty shit done now. You have obviously heard of the three unforgivable spells – the cruciatus curse, the imperius curse, and the killing curse. The one of these I have permission to demonstrate in the classroom from the ministry is the imperius curse"
There were a lot of shocked gasps from the pupils as they realized what was going to happen.
"Don't be such wimps" Gargorus sighed impatiently at the meek bunch of 7th years he'd been given "If you want to be controlled by a dark wizard and be made to murder your best friend please do continue disapproving of my teaching style" silence "Good, now can I get a volunteer?" when no-one answered he focused his eyes on Sirius and grinned "Great, so my friend over here can help, get up here"
Sirius didn't want to be punched or spat on again so just decided to give in and go stand by the teacher.
"Strong mental capabilities are needed to be able to resist this spell, so to give you a chance Mr Joker I'll tell you how. I want you to focus everything on your surroundings. The way the imperius curse works isn't to shut you down, it simply puts you into a trance, a bit like hypnotizing you. This makes you more open to suggestion and you're easily controlled, so just concentrate on where you are and what you're doing, ok?" Sirius was still holding onto the hope that he was only messing with him, but now realized it was actually happening so mumbled what sounded like an ok.
"Imperio" Was the last thing Sirius heard before he snapped awake doing a handstand by the door.
"I'm guessing I failed?" Sirius managed to squeak before collapsing in a heap, he could see James and Remus in fits of laughter at the back of the group.
"So you find failure funny lads?" Gargorus turned to them and gestured for James to come and stand by him "Don't mock until you've experienced it, remember what to do?" James nodded, determined not to do a monkey circus routine like Sirius had just blessed them with. He adjusted the way he stood, planting his feet firmly on the floor, dug his nails into his palms and glared at the wall opposite him, taking in every nook and cranny.
"Breathing in, breathing out, I'm in class, breathing in, breathing out, resist" James thought to himself as Professor Gargorus said the curse. James could feel the curse as it hit him, no, it didn't hit him, it smothered him, like warm air coming at you when you open an oven door. James felt fuzzy and like he was in bed, and began to float away from the classroom when suddenly he realized there was pain in his hands and found his nails digging into his palms, and through a white fog he could see a crack in the wall "I'm in class" He remembered and mentally slapped himself in the face, looked Gargorus in the eyes and said "Free to mock now?"
"You should have seen him" Remus said excitedly to the gang as they sat around the fire in James and Lily's common room that evening "He just leapt in the air and started making monkey noises and doing cartwheels!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever" Sirius blushed "I can't believe he did that to us on our second bloody day back! And don't forget your little fling with the desk, Moony" he smirked remembering Remus swagger up to the desk and ask if it went there often before putting his arm around it and kissing it passionately.
"Ah, yes, well…" Remus stuttered, not being able to bear the thought of the endless torture to come because of it.
"What about James?" Kara asked hopefully "Was he performing and tricks or chatting up classroom furniture?" Remus and Sirius sighed.
"No, he was totally bad ass" Sirius moped, unable to look at James' grin "Every single person in the class apart from him got embarrassed at least once and there was him totally cool just standing. Even Lily couldn't do it one time, she started acting like a chicken and pecked Remus in the face" Lily turned bright red, she'd only been under for two minutes before she managed to snap back into consciousness by singing a song in her head.
"What can I say, it's a gift" James laughed, stretching out his legs and putting his hands behind his head.
"Oh God I can't take any more of it, I'm off" Sirius pretended to wretch before leaving the room in a huff, everyone else left too soon after.
"You know, this is turning out to be a pretty awesome year" James smiled.
"Yeah, and it'll be even better tomorrow after our first prefect meeting" Lily knew that would wipe the annoying grin of James' face.
"The WHAT?" Lily was right, on the list of James' favourite things to do on a Wednesday meetings were down at the bottom next to 'hang out with Snape'.
"Prefect meeting, you do know you've got a lot of responsibility as head boy now, there are a lot of younger students who are going to be looking up to you…" James loved Lily but when she got on a school lecture it was just easier to get off topic as quickly as possible. Thinking fast James got up, dragged Lily towards him, and kissed her mid-sentence.
"Night" He smiled before running off, leaving Lily stood wondering what she was talking about in the first place.
Damn I had plans to finish this by Sunday, I got caught up reading a new AU fanfic which I recommend you go check out, it's called A' Sirius Black Love Story - This Must Be It'. I wonder if you actually read my ramblings at the start and end of chapters? If you do I'd love to hear what you want to read from the Marauders and the girls, I don't want to miss out a thing!
Until next time…Mischief Managed