Previously: James's parents are still recovering from the toll of the Manchester attack while they see him off to Hogwarts. Petunia claims that she can't see Lily off because she has to pack for London. Lily realizes that the brief reconciliation they shared last summer was a fluke. Lily's dad insists not to worry about him as she says good-bye to her parents. The only spot of happiness she has is when Terry gives her yet another poem. James and Sirius nearly get into a duel with Snape, but Kingsley Shacklebolt interrupts them before it happens. James starts to suspect that Snape harbors romantic feelings for Lily, and that only deepens their enmity. In the Great Hall, James tries to ask Lily out again, but she refuses. When Marlene tries to convince Lily to give James a chance because he actually likes her, Lily doubts it and points to James and Silvanah, who are now flirting, as evidence.
Chapter 49: What Best Friends Are For
Lily should have been used to Alice waking her up by now – she should have, but she was not.
"Lily, it's time to wake up!" yelled Alice.
Unfortunately for Lily, Alice had decided to bend down close to her ear, but while the sound was like nails against a chalkboard when it was so early in the morning, Lily still refused to take the bait – doing so would mean getting out of bed, and she was perfectly comfortable where she was. Since she was feeling stubborn, Lily was by no means polite when it came to letting Alice know what her thoughts comprised of at the moment.
"Shove off," grumbled Lily, turning away from Alice and firmly pulling her pillow over her ears in an effort of block out the sound of Alice's voice.
But, like always, Alice did not shove off, and, like always, Lily somehow found herself sitting at the Gryffindor table for breakfast an hour later, full of yawns and bleary as Marlene kindly served her a breakfast of hash browns, sausage links, toast, and a giant cup of coffee. Of course, it would have looked a lot more appetizing if she had not just been ousted from her bed.
Mary, who now preferred to get up early enough to avoid an irritable Lily, had polished off her first plate and was helping herself to seconds when the other three finally arrived. She was currently skimming their most recent timetables and handed the extra three to the rest of them without even looking up. Lily's habit of sleeping in and Mary's avoidance of her when it was time to wake up had now become such a regular part of their routine that Professor McGonagall simply handed all four of their schedules to Mary in the morning while Alice and Marlene worked to get Lily out of bed.
"Looks like you're going to have a pretty boring morning, Lily: History of Magic, double Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Divination – I still don't get why you insist on taking such a useless class," said Marlene as she peered over Lily's schedule, making a face.
"Divination is not useless!" exclaimed Mary. "And Lily said she would keep me company."
That last part, at least, was true. The only reason Lily had declined Ancient Runes was that Mary had practically begged her to take Divination with her, though if the class was as tedious and dull this year as it was last year, Lily would drop it as soon as she finished her O.W.L.S, no matter how much Mary pleaded – Marlene had been proven right that the class was of no use to her in the outside world, and the only good thing that came of those classes was the opportunity to nap all she liked.
"What do you have for fourth period?" asked Lily through a mouthful of buttered toast.
"Ancient Runes with Alice and Remus," replied Marlene nonchalantly. "At least we've got double Care of Magical Creatures after lunch. Hey, Alice – do you have those essays for Ancient Runes that we were supposed to do over the summer? I need to check mine with something. Alice? Alice – I'm talking to you, hon."
Alice, however, was not paying attention. Instead, she was reading the paper, and as she finally set it down, Lily noticed that she was grinning from ear to ear, obviously very happy about something.
Impatient, Marlene ripped the paper away from Alice and started to read it for herself. Lily peered over Marlene's shoulder to sneak a peek too. Nothing about the newspaper had caught her eye recently, but as she had only skimmed the headlines to look for the latest news regarding Voldemort and his Death Eaters, she had clearly missed something. However, she quickly realized which headline had made Alice smile. It was a smaller article, but refreshing nonetheless.
ROYSTON IDLEWIND RESIGNS FOLLOWING DISASTROUS QUIDDITCH WORLD CUP
Royston Idlewind, the International Director for the ICWQC and former star of the Australian National Quidditch Team, where he served as both a Chaser and the team captain for several years, has resigned from his post following the 1974 Quidditch World Cup and its humiliating aftermath, where his strict regulations regarding crowd control were flouted en masse by the spectators at the final match between Syria and Madagascar.
Among the controversial measures was the wand ban that he instituted, giving rise to the Dissimulators, strong-looking objects that honk and emit puffs of smoke (basically all the things that spectators normally use their wands for). During the first couple of matches, only a small percentage of the crowd had brought the strange instruments with them, but it did not take long for the trend to catch on, and pretty soon, almost every single spectator had a Dissimulator of their very own. Nobody is quite sure about where the Dissimulators came from or who made them. (The rumor is that the idea actually came from Cardinia Nicholls, Australia's Minister for Magical Media and outspoken critic of Idlewind's wand ban. Nicholls, of course, has refused to acknowledge these rumors. For more information, see page 8.)
What security officials did not know, however, was that, in reality, the Dissimulators were just a front for a rather amusing conspiracy to break all of Idlewind's most recent measures – chiefly, the wand ban itself. Only after the Syrian National Quidditch Team flew to a sweeping victory over Madagascar did the assembled crowd reveal that the Dissimulators were simply Transfigured wands, much to Idlewind's fury.
Sources close to Idlewind have leaked that he spent the next several weeks trying to determine who was responsible for, how he saw it at least, such a disaster. According to those same sources, most employees at the ICWQC happened to side with the majority of spectators when it came to the wand ban and did nothing to help with the investigation. Idlewind, furious and humiliated, finally decided to resign, much to everybody's delight.
"D'you know what this means?" asked Alice, her bright blue eyes wide with excitement as she looked back and forth between them. "It means no more of his stupid rules at the Quidditch games – oh, this is so amazing. It just makes my day! Although, I didn't really mind the Dissimulators that much – they were quite funny, actually …"
It was not long before the warning bell rang, and they all hurried out of the Great Hall with the rest of the students, Alice still chattering away happily.
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ 1974 ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
History of Magic was every bit as boring as James remembered it being. They were starting the topic of goblin rebellions, and true to character, Binns somehow managed to make tales of vicious, gory battles and toppled Ministers less entertaining than a lunch menu as he droned on and on about how the goblins who were involved in the Rebellion of 1752 had allied themselves with the werewolves to achieve their goals, forcing several Ministers out of office.
Beside him, Sirius was taking a catnap with his schoolbag serving as his pillow while Peter discreetly tried to finish the homework that Kettleburn had assigned them over summer vacation. The rest of the class was not faring much better: the Smith twins were passing notes between the two of them; Mary was chewing on some food she had stolen from the breakfast table while entertaining herself with a book; Davey Gudgeon was gazing at a spot on the wall while some drool escaped his open mouth; and Alice and Marlene were playing hangman on the corner of Marlene's parchment. Only Remus and Lily retained the ability to resist the sleepy lull in Binn's voice, though from the looks Remus continued to shoot James as he doodled on a spare piece of parchment, he did not approve of the other Marauders' tactics during to lesson.
"What will you do," said Remus as they packed up to leave for their Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson, "When you fail the History of Magic O.W.L.?"
After sparing a kick at Sirius's shin to alert him that the class was over, James gave Remus an unapologetically amused look as he said, "Then I will fail it and continue to live the rest of my life as if nothing had ever happened – besides, other than a historian, what good is History of Magic?"
"It's good to know where you come from," said Remus quietly.
"Well, I'm glad you think that, Moony," said James with fake cheeriness, clapping Remus on the back as they left for Defense Against the Dark Arts, "So if Sirius and I ever need to know anything about the history of magic at any point in our lives, we'll just ask you."
Remus, though clearly still not happy with the lack of effort James and Sirius put towards History of Magic, decided to let the topic slide for the time being. That left them to discuss what was obviously on everybody's minds: Professor Oggins, the newest addition to the Hogwarts staff. Banks was neither the worst nor the best teacher – though James knew for a fact that Alice Prewett had hated her with a passion – and both Stoughton and Rawlings had been phenomenal. Sirius was doubtful that the man would be that good considering his age, but Remus was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt after Peter pointed out that Dumbledore would not hire a complete invalid as their teacher.
"I don't know, Pete – it's not exactly like people are lining up for the position," responded James as they approached the door. "Dad's always saying how tough it's getting for Dumbledore to find someone willing to take the post. People think it's cursed, remember?"
Sirius snorted at that.
"I don't think Oggins is too concerned about the curse – I won't be surprised if he drops dead before the year is up."
Remus chuckled darkly as he opened the door to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and said, "You're wrong, Sirius – He probably won't last past Christmas."
"You're on, Moony," said Sirius as he entered the classroom behind Peter.
Professor Oggins was already sitting at his desk when they entered, and though James was not a huge fan of sitting in the front, he and the other Marauders were one of the last groups to enter and so had to sit at one of the few open desks left. When everybody had taken their seat, Oggins gripped his cane for support as he unsteadily rose to his feet and hobbled around the front of the desk, where he could clearly see everybody.
"Hello, everyone," he announced in a scratchy voice. There were a few murmured "hellos" from the class, and Oggins continued, "It is my understanding that you all are in your fourth year here at Hogwarts, which is when you're supposed to learn what you're actually defending yourself from, as opposed to memorizing various jinxes and counter-jinxes. Wands away so you can follow along …"
James groaned internally and shared a resigned look with Sirius before taking out his quill to scribble down what Oggins was writing on the board. Within ten minutes, Sirius was practically falling asleep besides him, and Peter was just staring blankly at the board without moving his quill. It was every bit as boring as History of Magic, and the only difference was that Oggins would occasionally stop for questions, though oftentimes they had to repeat themselves several times for Oggins to get all of what they were asking – James suspected that their old professor was partially deaf.
Sighing, James sank lower into his seat. While Oggins was not mean or anything, he was horribly boring, and James found himself wishing that Rawlings had never resigned from the position. Ninety-five percent of the class was practice while the other five percent was lecture when Rawlings had taught it, but it looked like the opposite would be true for this year: ninety-five percent would be lecture, and the remaining five percent would be practice – and they were stuck here for two hours.
Thirty minutes in, James had taken to charming Snape's quill to dry up and watched with amusement as the boy frantically dipped and re-dipped the tip of the quill in his ink bottle, rushing to scribble down everything that Oggins was saying down before he forgot. However, even teasing Snape soon lost its appeal, and James found himself staring at Lily, who was dutifully taking notes while her friend Mary was trying to entertain herself by tracing her finger down the side of the quill and watching as each barb of the feather sprang back into position as her hand moved farther downwards.
Lily paused and tensed up, as if she sensed that somebody was watching her, before glancing sideways. James felt his heart leap as her gaze locked his – really, the backflips that his stomach was doing right at that moment were quite amazing. She furrowed her eyebrows and mouthed, "What?"
Instead of answering, however, James quickly scribbled on the corner of Sirius's parchment, drawing his friend from his brief nap. Curious, Sirius leaned closer to read what James was writing.
Evans is looking at me.
Sirius frowned and shot James a look that clearly said he did not appreciate James waking him up just for this. However, he still dutifully answered, and James was sure that Sirius did not mind the distraction considering that listening to Oggins was the alternative.
So?
So! What should I do? She was looking right at me.
Sirius glanced at Lily's table before responding.
And now she's looking at Oggins, but I highly doubt she fancies him as well – you really should just get over her mate. Go shag Vane or something.
I'm serious!
Sirius grinned devilishly at that, but before he could start writing, James quickly realized his mistake. He slapped Sirius's hand away from the parchment just in time, pointing a finger at him and mouthing, "Don't!" with as much sternness as he could muster. Sirius, of course, did not listen and again tried to put his quill to paper, resulting in a mini-wrestling match between the two over who could write something first, and it was only when Remus swiftly kicked James in the shin and jerked his head in Oggins's direction that they ceased their struggling.
Not that Oggins had noticed them to begin with. He paused to frown and rub his ear, as if trying to get rid of a ringing sound, but otherwise continued as if nothing had happened. James was pretty sure that a full-scale riot could break out in the room and the mostly deaf Oggins would be none the wiser. However, that did not mean that other people had not noticed the scuffle. Lily stared curiously at the commotion, prompting James to scrawl yet another note to Sirius.
She's looking at me again.
Now annoyed, Sirius scribbled back: Do I look like I care about Evans and her whims?
No.
Then why are you asking me about this stuff?
Because you should care.
Sirius rolled his eyes at that, but James kept his expression perfectly serene. Squinting, Sirius assessed him carefully, as if he was trying to decide if James was joking around or not. He must have decided that his best friend was being perfectly serious because he furiously started writing again.
Shut up, James.
I didn't say anything.
You know what I meant! Besides, you were looking mighty cozy with Vane and her friends a couple months ago when I introduced you. As your best mate, I have to tell you that you would be best suited to someone who is legitimately interested in getting half-naked with you, so why not enjoy their company instead of pining after somebody who won't even give you the time of day?
I never said I didn't enjoy Vane's company.
But …
Her eyes need more green. And her hair's not red enough.
James!
What? It's an honest answer. Besides, if I recall correctly, you were the one who always organized everything with Vane and her friends.
Because you need to get over Evans! Why do you even like her? She's annoying goody-two-shoes with absolutely no sense of humor – AND she used to hang out with Snape. Her idea of an awesome date is probably eavesdropping on a prefect meeting.
That's an idea. At least we would know their schedules so that we can avoid them during their rounds.
Just forget about her already!
I can't. Don't you think I've tried?
Sirius stared at those words, and when he turned to James as if expecting him to elaborate further. However, James only had a simple shrug to give as a response, his mouth set in a grim smile. Sirius moved to write a response, but before he could do anything, Remus suddenly shoved a spare piece of parchment into their hands with a meaningful look. On it, Remus had written his own message with big, capitalized letters that were hard to miss.
Class is over, idiots.
