Damn, I was actually going to update a day early this week and then the whole logging on issue happens -.- At least know I attempted to get something done early this time! The updating took a lot less time than expected actually, although knowing me I'm going to change it more, don't worry though it's not going to change anything recently.
*Three Days left*
Kara was blown awake by Sirius with a trumpet at her window Saturday morning. Groaning, she fell out of bed and limped over to the window, face like thunder.
"BLACK" She screamed, shutting the curtains and shoving a pillow over her head as she fell back into bed, not stopping Sirius from playing before he jumped through the window and poked her with the edge of his broom harshly.
"I'm here by order of the Quidditch captain to get you down to pre match training" He explained, having to shout through the pillow and Kara's groans of protest.
"Kara do you really think we're going to unleash you on even the Ravenclaws with no previous experience?" Sirius bargained, finally giving up and yanking her out of bed and throwing jeans and a t-shirt from the floor at her.
"Oh but" Kara started fake coughing "I've got this thing…"
"You're not jumping on board this team and then letting us down Shaw, now get on the broom" Sirius turned his back while Kara threw on the clothes before flying them down to the changing rooms where James was lying on the bench throwing a quaffle around.
"Finally" He sighed, heaving himself and throwing a bat to Kara "You're going to be a beater, Sirius does enough for two anyway"
"Hey!" Kara argued "I could be the best beater you've ever seen!" To demonstrate she ran forwards and tried whacking the quaffle out of James' hands, missing and hitting his shoulder instead.
"No but you may be the worst" He laughed, passing her the spare broom "Now show me your flying skills"
It was a painful hour for James as he watched Kara wobble two metres off the ground around the pitch, falling over whenever she tried to lift the beating stick up. Finally James interrupted.
"OK! This isn't working" He sighed, going over to heave her off the floor for the millionth time.
"But James I HAVE to do it for…"
"Yeah, yeah, for the list, I'm just trying to think of a better way" James stood in deep thought.
"You know I've never seen you think this hard for this long, I can practically hear the hamster on the wheel in there" Kara laughed.
"Shut up" James huffed, raking his hand through his hair "There's literally no cheating around this, get on the broom you're going higher" Kara gulped and hastily picked up the broom.
"If I die then this is on you" She pointed out, kicking off and shooting straight up into the air at an immense speed "JAAAAAAAMMMMEEESSSSS!" She screamed, clutching the broom as tight as possible before coming to rest near the top of the stands, James floated gently up after her soon after.
"Now the trick with Quidditch is to first open your eyes" he nudged Kara with his beating stick, trying to get her to even sit upright.
"I'll open my eyes when I'm back on the ground thank you very much"
"For goodness sake… Oh my God look Amos Diggory is stripping off!" James suddenly gasped, making Kara look up expectantly.
"That was low Potter" She grabbed the stick he was holding out to her and whacked him with it.
"Yes! Channel this anger into your beating, now SIRIUS, RELEASE THE BLUDGERS!"
"Oh God" Kara squealed as the bludger flied towards her, flailing the bat around managed to just catch it and knock it into James who wobbled backwards looking furious.
"Yeah that'll do" He clutched his shoulder after it had been hit again "Just sit COMPLETELY STILL and wave the stick around, you'll be fine…."
"That may have been the worst Quidditch match I've ever seen" Sasha taunted Kara as the group walked down to Hogsmeade that afternoon.
"Hey! I knocked quite a lot of people off their brooms!" Kara argued.
"THEY WERE ALL ON OUR TEAM" Sirius wouldn't accept that they'd lost to Ravenclaw.
"It was only a MINOR defeat..."
"MINOR!" Sirius was still cranky from losing to the Ravenclaw team "They scored over two hundred points in the first half hour!"
"I don't think they've scored that many in total since we've been here" James pointed out, they spent last part of the game with four players because the others were lying on the ground.
"Fine. I was crap, is that what you want me to say?"
"YES!" Sirius hadn't stopped wining since he got off the pitch "You owe me a lot of sweets from Honeydukes, Shaw"
"I have no problems with make ups involving sweets" She beamed, charging off towards Honeydukes with Sasha and Sirius in tow.
"We're not going to see them for a while" Remus sighed "Anyone up for Zonko's?" James threw his hand in the air and started running off with Peter close behind, leaving Lily reluctantly following them to what she'd always seen as hell.
"Come on Lils, here you get an insight into the deep thought and careful planning that goes into pranking, every intricate detail which links together to perform the perfect joke" James clutched Lily's shoulder and stared profoundly into the distance as he described it. Before he could go on talking about the majesty of it all they pushed open the door to be hit by a wall of noise and chaos, kids running around left, right, and centre, paper airplanes everywhere, and a lot of bombs 'accidentally' going off.
"I can practically feel the deep thought and planning" Lily remarked, looking around for someone to appreciate it but her boyfriend had magically turned into a five year old and was forcing Remus into a chicken hat.
Sighing, Lily attempted to wander around the shop, shocked by the potions range which promised to dye hair of unknowing victims, make you fly, fake arm and leg injuries, and even make you pass out for three days straight. Deciding she wasn't going to be hit in the head by Random Roly Poly Bounce Balls again Lily pushed herself out the shop and stood in the snow leaning against the shop for a bit appreciating the calm.
She'd been stood there for a while before she was distracted by a scrawny black owl flying past, it landed next to her and wheezed a hoot before dropping a note and shakily flying off again.
Before opening it Lily looked around, wondering if it'd been given to the wrong person, but the street was practically empty with everyone inside out of the freezing cold, so she ripped open the seal and read:
Lily,
Don't go to the train station
S
"What on earth?" Lily refused to accept the owl was from who she thought it was from. Crumpling the note into a ball and shoving it into her pocket she wandered down to Honeydukes to find the others so they could go down to the Three Broomsticks.
Sasha politely excused herself before they went, not waning to start another argument, and left to go walk around with Kara.
After James had said the codeword to Rosmerta they were led into a back room where Dumbledore and a group of people were sat in a large circle.
"If you're here then you're prepared to fight" Dumbledore started, standing up once the others had sat down "Before any of you can sign up I need you to know exactly what you're getting into. I can't promise you a win. I can't even promise you your own lives, I can just give you the opportunity to try. I know all of you are immensely talented people and it would be an honour to have you be part of the Order. Thank You" Dumbledore didn't stay long as he had to get back to the castle, but a sheet was left at the front where everyone signed.
James looked over it at the end and was impressed by the people on it.
The Order of the Phoenix
Albus Dumbledore
Aberforth Dumbledore
Elphius Doge
Minverva Mcgonagall
Rubeus Hagrid
Alastor Moody
Gideon Prewett
Fabian Prewett
Alice Longbottom
Frank Longbottom
Caradoc Dearborn
Benjy Fenwick
Edgar Bones
Dedalus Diggle
Sturgis Podmore
Emmeline Vance
Marlene Mckinnon
Dorcas Meadowes
Arabella Figg
Lily Evans
James Potter
Remus Lupin
Sirius Black
Peter Pettigrew
*Two days left*
The next morning Lily had woken up early to grab a hot chocolate before being forced to do something else stupid by Kara when she glanced out the window to see even more snow had fallen that morning and like a miracle, the Black lake had frozen over.
"James!" She shouted, almost in delight because of how much she loved ice skating. As soon as he emerged with his head stuck half way through a jumper she yanked it down and dragged him to the Gryffindor common room to get the others.
Kara had already got the group stood around in a circle outside the common room waiting for her; they were all clutching the skates they'd hired from Hogsmeade the day before.
"Can I just point out that I'm not the greatest ice skater in the world?" Remus clutched his skates nervously "I mean it doesn't help that we'll be doing it three inches of ice above some murderous mer-people, and God knows what else"
"Man up Mooney and put on your ice skates" Sirius paused for a second to consider what he'd said, shrugged it off, and helped Kara drag them all down to the lake.
As they sat on the bank lacing up their skates Lily started giving a safety talk about what to do in the case of an emergency, and scoping out thin areas of the ice. Before she could finish Kara screamed, ran down to the lake, and did a penguin slide straight over the surface, closely followed by James and Sirius.
"Well that lasted a while" Lily shrugged, skating after them with Sasha, leaving Remus and Peter stood looking dumbfounded at the edge.
"Come on Wormtail, what's the worst that could happen?" Remus bargained in denial, nodding and Peter before the two of them stepped onto the ice, immediately falling over and sliding along on their backs to where the others were stood watching Sirius and James act out their ice dancing routine consisting of Sirius repetitively spinning James around, falling over, then spinning on a circle on his knees for a bit.
"This would be the perfect time for an ice related game to stop Sirius and James killing themselves" Kara pointed out, thinking for a minute "Got it, hear me out on this one… football on ice!"
The Marauders immediately whooped in agreement and Lily and Sasha eventually gave in, and Kara skated to the edge and pulled out a football.
"It worries me how constantly ready you are to get out a football" Lily questioned as Kara rolled the ball to James "Actually come to think of it this is probably the worst game to play whilst out feet are disable by…"
Before Lily could finish questioning their safety James had already booted the ball across the ice and Sirius fell after it, Kara close behind. Remus and Peter wanted to join in but they were stood moving their feet backwards and forwards not actually getting anywhere, and Sasha was just floating around the edge not wanting to get kicked in the face by Sirius as he slid around the ball on his hands and knees unable to get up.
It all came to an end when Peter decided he'd had enough of standing still surrounded by ice, scared to move in case he died. When the ball rolled next to him and he saw James skating after it he panicked and jumped on it to claim it, falling straight through the ice and floating to the surface flailing his arms.
"THE COLD. THE COLD HAS TAKEN ME!" He shouted as they hauled him out and wrapped him in Sirius' penguin jumper.
"That thing needed to be taken off him anyway" Remus laughed as Sirius stood shivered, gazing longingly at his beloved Christmas jumper as they hobbled back up to the castle after forgetting to take off their skates.
*1/2 a day left*
"This may have been the worst idea ever" Sasha sighed to Lily as they walked up to the common room Monday evening "I mean we've unleashed the Marauders AND Kara on party planning, it'll be a miracle if someone doesn't die tonight"
"I'm sure it'll be fine…" Lily didn't believe a word she said as the painting swung open and the party was revealed to them.
Sirius was stood in the centre of the common room on a podium wearing a top hat in place of his party hat, a red tailed coat, black boots, and had a fake curly moustache on with a baton in his hands. James and Remus were climbing up a ladder to what looked like a tight rope. Peter was hiding in the corner stuffing his face with candyfloss from the nearby machine, and Kara was swinging back and forth on a trapeze, Sirius' hat placed proudly on her head singing the circus theme tune.
"It's… it's a…" Lily started to gasp before Sirius noticed them and butted in.
"CIRCUS PARTAAYYY!" He screamed, doing a cartwheel and handing Lily a Diablo "Is this not the best thing you've ever seen!" Straight after he said that someone came barrelling past on a miniature bike, crashing into the popcorn stand and shooting it everywhere.
Lily was about to question everything when she shook it off "Who knows when we'll ever have fun again?" She thought, flipping the diablo into the air, catching it, and high fiving Sirius.
James jumped down from the tightrope and hugged Lily, spinning her around in a circle "I'm so excited right now Lils" He babbled, taking the diablo from her hands and whisking her over to the candyfloss machine, making the biggest candyfloss ball possible and handing it to her.
"I never thought I'd say this but seriously, this is a great party" Lily admitted, watching as Sasha and Kara attempted to roll forwards on the giant ball, falling off and landing on the trampoline Sirius have managed to levitate through the window.
Shoving the rest of the candyfloss in her mouth Lily ran over to it and leapt on with them, laughing up Kara tripped up and fell down onto a nearby sofa without getting up.
"Kara?" Sasha jumped down to find Kara and just burst into tears where she sat "Gosh, what's wrong?"
"We're never going to do this again!" She wept, pulling the two of them down next to her "Don't say anything just accept it"
After awkwardly lying there for a bit Sirius burst back into the room rolling a barrel in front of him, Lily caught Remus face palming next to her.
Sirius picked out Kara looking upset and pointed at her "Looks like somebody needs to drown their sorrows!"
"Pads we said no fire whiskey" Remus pointed out.
"Oh THAT, I thought you said 'definitely don't forget the fire whiskey', come on lighten up our bestest mate ever is leaving!" and with that Sirius started handing out drinks and that's when it got out of hand…
Later that night Remus managed to squeeze himself out of the gap between the lone standing spinning teacup and the unicycle, picking popcorn out of his hair, looking around at the chaos around him. After spying Sirius lying flat across his podium he decided to try and get him to bed, hauling him up to his feet.
"You know Mooney I really do love you" Sirius slurred, trying to pull Remus' head to his as he tried to carry him to the stairs, making Sirius gasp "Are you trying to seduce me Mr Darcy?"
"Dear God Sirius I told you not to buy the fire whiskey" Remus muttered angrily, pulling Sirius' hand off his face. Before they got to stairs Sirius leapt out of his arms and swung round.
"It's not midnight yet! I must return to the ball!" He shouted at Remus "My prince is waiting!" James was lying out cold on the sofa but Sirius tried to grab his hands and start dancing with him.
"Pads it's two in the morning, come on"
"We… we never finished the sist… the yist… LIST" Sirius yanked the paper he'd stolen from Kara earlier from under the ribbon around his hat and pointed at the last item "We must make an obstacle course!"
"Pads you'll be lucky if you make it to the stairs let alone an entire obstacle course" Remus pointed out, at the sound of obstacle courses James jumped into life, running up to Sirius.
"Paddy we're going to make the best obstacle course IN THE WORLD!" He jumped up and down, running around the common room grabbing carpets and books, Sirius close behind him. By this point Remus had totally given up on them, and let them stumble out to the staircase to set up their 'obstacle course'.
Author's Note:
Good news, I've had the next chapter written for a while now so I can post that this evening! Check out how organised I am, especially considering it's taking me twice as long to write chapters when listening to FOB, hope you liked this chapter it was really fun to write. I didn't want to drag the sign up, but I figured everyone in the order deserved a place and a mention, so there's everyone in it. Apart from that
- Mischief Managed