Chapter Six: A Fool Moon
Lily was stretched out across the bed with a very battered and worn copy of The Hobbit. She had elected to stay in her dorm room for the rest of the weekend to avoid embarrassing herself further. She had managed to avoid most of her friends as she slipped back into the dormitory while everyone else made their way down to the Great Hall for supper. Lily was a quarter of the way through her book when Mary and Alice came into the room. Mary smiled at Lily, collected her Herbology books and left. Alice sat down on the foot of her bed, opposite from Lily.
"That bad, huh?" Alice smiled kindly at Lily. "Colin didn't mention anything to Frank about the date being bad."
Lily looked up at Alice. She couldn't hold it in. She spilled everything. The date was wonderful. Colin was such a gentleman. They had a great time in Hogsmeade and came back later than most of the students. They went and had a snog behind a tree. Lily told her about how all of a sudden James Potter's face had appeared in her head and she practically shoved Colin away from confusion and terror. And then she proceeded to tell Colin he was a good kisser after he asked her what was wrong. Lily look as mortified telling Alice as she had when she told Colin he was a good kisser.
Alice couldn't help herself, she started to giggle and then laugh and then she was on floor. Marlene entered just as Alice rolled sideways and slammed her head into the leg of the bed. Lily, who had been pouting before, couldn't help but start to laugh at Alice hitting her head.
"You two are absolutely nutters," Marlene stood and watched them before sitting down on the floor next Alice. "Lily, do you want to stop laughing and put your healer aspirations to use, I think Alice hit her head pretty hard."
"Lily told Colin he was a good kisser and then ran away because she was thinking of James Potter," Alice continued to roll around laughing. Lily attempted to throw pillows at the tiny girl but Marlene happened to be in the way.
"One: Lily you're hitting me with the bloody pillows, stop. Two: You said what to Colin? Three: Because you were thinking about James?" Marlene looked at Lily with a mix of shock, awe, and humour. She burst out laughing too and joined Alice in rolling around on the floor in fits of giggles.
"You're both bonkers!" Lily shouted at them as she dashed down the stairs to the Common Room. She ran straight into none other than James Potter, who was accompanied by Sirius Black.
Lily was falling backwards from her collision with James. He was a lot more solid than you'd expect. James reached out to catch and steady her.
"Alright, Evans?" James asked slightly concerned, Lily looked like the world was ending.
The girl couldn't even manage a 'sod off, Potter.' She spun around and ran back up towards her dormitory. The two boys watched her go.
"Are you sure you want to date her mate? She's a little odd." Sirius was incredibly skeptical.
September faded into October as the last of the summery weather disappeared. The sun still shone brightly but the air raised goose bumps on the flesh. It was the first week of the month and the full moon was on Friday night. Remus was irritated and a little on edge Wednesday afternoon during the sixth-year double Arithmancy lesson. James and Sirius were trading notes back and forth about the plans for Friday night while Remus tried to focus on the lesson. Peter wasn't taking the class with them. On the other side of the room Lily and Alice were discussing plans of their own for Friday night, however, they were paying a little bit more attention to the lesson than James and Sirius were. The girls had placed a third piece of parchment between them where they occasionally jotted down a comment unrelated to the lesson. Both had dates on Friday night.
"Would you two cut it out?" Remus whispered harshly as the umpteenth note passed in front of him. James and Sirius had thought it would make the most sense to sit on either side of Remus while passing notes.
"Oh, come on Moony, we're planning for Friday night." Sirius had a dopey grin stretched across his face. James looked apologetically at Remus. Instead of passing his response to Sirius in front of Remus, he passed it behind his back.
"Thank you." Remus grumbled as he scribbled something down on the paper.
Snape was sitting a few seats away from Lily and had been staring at her for most of the lesson. Occasionally he'd send a glare towards James but for the most part he kept his eyes on Lily. Sirius had noted this and urged James to hex the slimeball. James reminded him that hexing Snape was on the 'Lily will hate me list' and that he was just going to ignore the greasy git. When the bell rang signaling the end of the lesson, James watched Lily give Snape a look that could kill. He quickly turned away so that Lily didn't think he was watching her. On the inside, he was elated. Remus had told him that she had stopped talking to Snape but to watch her send him a look that was usually reserved for when James was being a git was magical.
Lily and Alice walked out together, whispering excitedly about Friday night. Snape skulked along behind them. The three Marauders followed behind. A handful of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs brought up the rear as the sixth-years that were taking Potions traipsed down to the dungeons. Marlene McKinnon was waiting in the Entrance Hall for Lily and Alice. She smiled and joined their conversation as they entered the passageway that led to the Potions classrooms.
NEWT Potions had proven a true test for the sixth-year students. Not because Professor Slughorn was a particularly hard teacher but because instead of taking classes with their fellow housemates and another house, the four houses had been combined. They had been forced to pick partners the first day of class which led to some confusion among the students. There was the possibility that a student might not stay partnered with a housemate, or even a friend at that. Nine Gryffindors, twelve Ravenclaws, nine Slytherins, and eight Hufflepuffs. The Marauders were particularly at a loss because instead of four they were now three since Peter wasn't taking Potions.
Remus had accepted graciously that Sirius and James should remain partners. This was how he had ended up being partnered with Lily in the first week of classes. There had always been an odd number of Gryffindor students in their year and somehow Lily had always ended up partner-less. Which was never an issue as she was brilliant at Potions. She secretly believed that Slughorn would never have believed a muggle-born witch could be as talented as she was at potions if she had had a partner. As the students numbered thirty-eight and Remus had lost his partner, he took the empty seat next Lily on day one. Today, Lily was bubbly and peppy. Remus was tired, irritated, and about ready to strangle Sirius.
"Alright, Remus?" Lily smiled brightly at him.
"Just a little tired is all. McGonagall was right when she said NEWTs were going to be challenging." Remus was grumblier than he meant to be but damn it Lily did not need to be so peppy.
She nodded her affirmation of how challenging the past month had been in comparison to last year. "She told me when she handed out timetables that we need to support each other over the next two years seeing as we have the hardest course load."
Remus exhaled slowly. Lily was just being her kind self. He didn't need to bite her head off because he was feeling tired and grumpy. Especially when it was this close to the full moon. "Thanks, Lily."
The lesson was going without incident. Lily and Remus's cauldron was the appropriate shade of mauve. Lily had set Remus to crushing the beans with the flat of his knife while she stirred the cauldron. Lily looked at her watch and looked up.
"Just on time Sirius, what would you like this time?" Lily had decided last week that Sirius always found his way over to their table at exactly halfway through the lesson. It was more amusing than annoying, considering James seemed to have a difficult time with whatever potion was brewing while Sirius chitchatted.
"Have you been keeping track of what I do during class, Miss Evans?" Sirius stood aghast, ever the drama queen. "That's a little stalkerish. I'd expect that kind of behaviour from Snivellus but from Miss Lily 'Prefect' Evans? Never!"
"Don't get too close to our potion, Sirius. Wouldn't want your pretty hair to get singed." Lily smirked as Sirius, playing along, jumped back.
"You demon woman! How dare you threaten my hair!" Sirius tossed his head. "Remus, I'm going back over to James. If she threatens your hair, call for help and we'll come to the rescue."
Remus exhaled deeply. One of these days he was going to push Sirius off the Astronomy tower. "We could actually burn his hair off if you want to."
Lily looked at the tall boy rather surprised. It wasn't often that he made comments like that about his friends. Lily watched him carefully as she began stirring counter clockwise. Remus looked rather grey and he was very irritable. She hadn't missed that he had snapped at the two boys earlier during Arithmancy. She and Remus were the only two sixth-years taking eight NEWT classes and she had to admit the load was taking a toll on her too.
"We could toss a dungbomb into their cauldron? Get both of them at the same time?" Lily stated matter-of-factly. "Plus we could take points away from them for accusing because we're the prefects."
Remus put down the knife and looked at her. "Am I hearing this correctly? Lily Evans wants to throw a dungbomb into Black and Potter's cauldron and then take points away when they get upset because their hair gets singed?"
"Yep." Remus looked shocked for a split second and then burst into laughter. The students around them looked confused. Remus and Lily weren't usually the ones who were off task. Sirius looked concerned. He hid behind James and covered his hair. Alice and Marlene smiled at the pair of prefects. Marlene was glad that Lily could get along with one of the Marauders as well she did. It would make it a whole lot easier to get her to realize James wasn't so awful.
Both James and Sirius had to admit that Remus was in much better spirits after Potions than he had been before. James didn't quite understand why Sirius was so jumpy though. He kept ducking behind things and covering his head as they made their way up to the tower to drop off their books before dinner.
"Hurry up, Peter!" The boys were sprinting down the lawn towards the Whomping Willow. Peter, the shortest and roundest of the trio, was a good twenty meters behind James and Sirius, "He's going to see the moon before we've transformed!"
Peter transformed into Wormtail as he got within striking distance of the tree. He scurried across the remaining feet and hit the knot in the tree. James and Sirius went scrambling through the hole at the base of the tree. The boys could hear the screams at the end of the tunnel. James and Sirius transformed as soon as they got inside the Shrieking Shack. Padfoot scampered into the room where Remus was transforming. Prongs waited for Wormtail to emerge from the tunnel. Rat and stag joined the dog and wolf in what used to be a dining room before Remus had completely destroyed it during his earlier transformations. There were claw marks down the walls and any furniture that had been in the room was a pile of rubbish now.
Moony snapped at Padfoot. Prongs pawed at the wooden floor and tossed his head. Moony snapped again and Prongs snorted. Padfoot made a sort of yipping noise and snapped playfully at Moony's heels. Prongs knelt down so that Wormtail could climb onto his back. Padfoot snapped again at Moony's heels, guiding him towards the door. The Marauders were off on another adventure. Tonight they had planned to explore the depths of the Forbidden Forest. Padfoot let Moony chase him into the trees, Prongs pranced along behind them with Wormtail bouncing on his back.
Three tired boys scrambled through the portrait hole, one under an invisibility cloak and the other two with a piece of folded parchment. It was the wee hours of the morning. Fortunately, it was also Saturday, which meant they didn't need to be up in three hours for a class. They were making their way towards the stairs when James noticed the Common Room was not as empty as they had come to expect when they returned from their monthly adventure. A redhead was asleep at a table. Notes spread out in front of her. Her hand awfully close to tipping an inkwell over.
Peter grumbled something and left his friends. He was in no mood to stay up any longer. Sirius shook his head and watched the plump boy enter the door to the stairs. "It's not like we were going to let it actually eat him."
"Think we should wake her up?" James was watching Lily not Peter. "Her neck is going to hurt in the morning if she continues to sleep like that."
Sirius shrugged, "Well it'll go one of two ways. She'll appreciate that you woke her and she didn't spill ink over all her notes or she'll question why you're down in the Common Room at four-thirty in the morning." The shaggy-haired boy didn't wait for an answer and trudged off to bed after Peter. James sat down in a chair and watched Lily for a few minutes. He decided that waking her up and dealing with her questions was probably better than her having a sore neck and spilling ink everywhere.
First, James closed and moved the inkwell away so that Lily wouldn't accidentally knock it over when he woke her up. He knelt down beside and put his hand on her back and gently rocked her back and forth. "Lily. Lily, you've got to wake up. You can't sleep on a table like this." It took a minute or two for the rocking to stir Lily.
"Wha? Wha time izit?" Lily barely opened her eyes.
"It's about half past four in the morning, you fell asleep studying." James's voice was soft. "You should go up to bed."
Lily was only half awake. She looked at James and let him help her up out of the chair. The boy helped her put her things back into her bag and made sure she got to the stairs to the girls' dormitory. "Goodnight, Lily." James watched her through the doorway and up the first couple of stairs.
"Goonight, James." A grin stretched over James's tired face. He stood at the bottom of the stairs until he heard a door open then close near the top of the stairs. He turned around and made his way to his own four-poster bed. He was certain Lily wouldn't remember it in the morning but James was going to hold it close to his heart. Something that meant there was hope.
Lily sat down next to Alice at breakfast. Marlene had stolen a pot of coffee from down the table and wasn't letting anyone touch it. It was just the three of them that morning, Frank and Colin were nowhere in sight. Lily craned her neck around. It was incredibly sore for some reason. She wrote it off to sleeping in a strange position. She had had odd dreams all night long. One of them involved James Potter and she was sure that she was starting to lose her mind with her schoolwork.
"Lily, when did you end up going to sleep last night?" Alice covered a yawn as she grabbed another piece of toast from the tray.
"I don't remember, I must have fallen asleep in the Common Room and woke up at some point." Lily put her fork down and thought for a moment. "Actually, it's rather odd. I had a dream last night that someone woke me up in the Common Room and told me I should go to bed."
Marlene raised an inquisitive eyebrow. She had thought Lily was starting to let loose a little and that she had snuck out with Colin somewhere. "Was that someone Colin and was he telling you that instead of spending the rest of the night studying that you should go have a snog?"
Lily ignored her. "Actually, it was Potter."
Marlene opened her mouth to say something snarky about maybe Lily was actually in love with James and she fancied snogging him.
"No." Lily glared across the table. "Anyways, I'm dating Colin. I can't like two boys at the same time."
"So it's just a question of liking two boys at the same time? Not a question of whether you dislike James anymore? Interesting, I'll make sure to tell him." Marlene winked at Lily and took another sip of her coffee.
Lily rolled her eyes. "As if Potter could mature long enough to not play a prank on me while I'm asleep in the Common Room."
"Sounds like he did." Alice stated. She looked at Lily and shrugged. "It would certainly explain your odd dream and how you got from the Common Room to our dormitory without really remembering it. I know I read somewhere that sometimes when you sleep you can wake up without really wak-"
Marlene cut in, "It's too early. Stop with the teaching of interesting facts."
Alice stuck her tongue out at exactly the moment Frank sat down beside her. She smiled and kissed his cheek. Frank asked Marlene to pass him the coffee. The blonde glared at him and moved it farther away. Lily took the opportunity to snatch it as it was now within arms' reach for her. She poured herself a cup of coffee much to Marlene's dismay then passed the pot back. Three very tired looking Marauders made their entrance and sat down next to the girls and Frank. Marlene was trying to fend Sirius off as he tried to steal her coffee too. James and Lily caught each other's eye for a split second. James gave Lily a very tired smile and sat down next to Peter, leaving a few spaces between them at the table. Lily didn't smile, she was confused. Had she dreamed about him last night or had he actually woken her up and sent her to bed? Lily shook her head, she needed more coffee before trying to figure out such a confusing question.