"Spring!" Lily sighed as she stepped out onto the wet grass on her way to Herbology. Mary Macdonald, Eilidh Nicnevin, and Josie Archer followed closely behind. "Isn't Spring the best time of the year. Everything's so fresh and green."
"And wet!" Mary muttered trying not to slip in the mud.
"Here take my hand," Lily said offering her hand to her friend.
"Honestly they should let us use our brooms to get to class." Eilidh said tiptoeing towards the greenhouse while gripping Josie's hand. Josie screeched every time the ground made and unpleasant squelch underfoot.
"Then we wouldn't be able to fully enjoy the fresh spring air." Lily sang taking in a deep breath.
"But my shoes!" Eilidh winned. "I just got these for Christmas."
"Oh, don't be such a girl." Lily joked.
"Too late." Eilidh sighed with a shrug.
The girls finally got to the greenhouse mildly damp and up to their ankles in mud. This class they shared with the Ravenclaws, much to their relief. Had it been Slytherin or Hufflepuff the class would have been mayhem from start to finish.
Professor Sprat had them cutting open puffpods and planting the beans in large clay pots.
"Careful not to touch the beans. They will sprout as soon as they come into contact with anything solid." He instructed as he passed around the pots to the groups of four.
"How are we supposed to plant them, then?" whispered Josie.
"We'll figure it out," Eilidh said confidently as she rolled up her sleeves.
"Pass me that knife." Lily requested already prepared to cut open their pod. She plunged the knife in much too quickly and got sprayed in the face by the puffpod's juice. This would not have been a terrible occurrence had it not been for their neighbors. Four obnoxious boys happened to be seated by them at this time. Two of which saw the mishap and was currently dying from laughter.
"What a sight that was, right Potter?" Sirius Black said smugly nudging his giggling friend.
"Oh, Sirius don't be such a perv." James responded with a wink. Lily and the other girls decided it would be better to just ignore the boys and return to their work.
"What happened?" Peter Pettigrew asked.
"Guys, we've got beans to plant." Remus reminded.
"Oh, that's right Lupin thanks for the reminder," Sirius said smirking at James. "What was it Sprat said? It sprouts when?"
"When it comes into contact with-" Remus began but was cut off by Sirius magically tossing one of their beans into the center of the girls' group which sprouted immediately. The girls screamed and scattered away from the quickly growing roots. "Something solid."
Peter, James, and Sirius were all rolling on the floor laughing, not caring that their robes were now covered in dirt. Remus moved over to help Mary off the floor and to clean up the resulting mess. Professor Sprat marched over and started lecturing Eilidh and Lily about their carelessness, taking 20 points from Gryffindor. When it was all over Remus moved back to his group and suggested that they leave the girls alone.
The suggestion was taken seriously for most of the period. However Sirius found a large toad hiding in the mandrake plants and the temptation was too much to resist. He held the toad firmly in his hands, crept up behind Lily, and dropped the poor thing in her lap. Lily, naturally, screamed and threw it across the room earning another scolding and ten more points off from Professor Sprat. Meanwhile Mary, Eilidh, and Josie were berating Sirius.
"Oi carrot top!" James whispered after the professor left. Lily knew that James was talking to her but was too irate to say anything. "Carrot top!" James whispered one last time. He saw that he was getting nowhere with her so took it upon himself to give a friendly tug to her ponytail.
"How dare you, you...you…!" Lily exclaimed hitting James with her clipboard, having difficulty coming up with a proper insult.
"You irrevocable arse!" suggested Eilidh.
"Miss Nicnevin and Miss Evans! 50 points for your foul language and your bad temper. And detention this Saturday Miss Evans." Professor Sprat interrupted.
"It was my fault, Professor. I was teasing her." James spoke up.
"Enough Potter, get back to work. All of you." Professor Sprat ordered. "Ladies if you interrupt my class one more time I will send you to your head of house."
The rest of the class was spent in dead silence between the two groups. Lily refused to look at any of them, even when she felt James's gaze burning into her skull. She hid her face in her herbology book and tried to fight through her anger to focus on her studies. Mary and Josie were the only ones to accept Remus's apologetic look. Eilidh, on the other hand, was perfectly happy throwing dangerous looks at the group. Much to her disappointment Sirius was the only one to return them. This and the fact that neither James nor Sirius got in trouble for the trouble they caused fueled her rage and she was suddenly out for revenge.
She walked casually by their group and when she was sure the professor was watching pretended to trip on a strewn rucksack falling into Sirius. Sirius pushed her off as James came to his defense shooting a hex at her causing their table to topple over and thousands of beans to fall onto a very solid floor. She was coughing up slugs but it was worth it for Professor Sprat's voice came bellowing through the chaos.
"JAMES POTTER AND SIRIUS BLACK OUTSIDE NOW!" Sirius and James glared at the grinning Eilidh as they made their way out of the greenhouse. Their Professor was very red in the face and huffing and puffing as he waved his wand returning the table to its rightful position. He took a deep breath trying to regain his composure. "Lupin, Pettigrew, the sprouted beans can just be placed into pots. Hopefully you can save most of your project. The rest of you, Miss Nicnevin in particular, please stay in your seats."
Professor Sprat marched out of the greenhouse forgetting that Eilidh was still spewing slugs. Peter helped her to her feet and handed her a spare pot to keep the slugs contained. Josie looked at her in disbelief, Mary shook with laughter and high-fived her as she returned to the table, Lily looked at her with only concern.
"Are you okay?" She spoke as if Eilidh might have been subjected to a major injury.
"Of course she's alright! She did that on purpose." Josie said, her eyes narrow and lips pursed. Mary burst out into a loud fit of laughter at this.
"Really?" Lily grinned. Eilidh shrugged smiling though she was covered in slime. "Awesome! You knew he'd flip the table?"
"No, I knew he'd do something. Those two can't help it." Eilidh said rolling her eyes. Mary and Lily were both laughing now. Josie just rolled her eyes at them. Eilidh was still spitting up slugs and they seemed to be coming at a faster rate.
"We should get you to the hospital wing, that's only going to get worse. They hit Severus with it a few times, it was awful." Lily said taking her friend by the arm.
"Well that's something to look forward to." Eilidh joked allowing Lily to lead her out the door. They interrupted Professor Sprat lecturing James and Sirius to explain the situation. The moment the word 'slugs' was uttered he seemed to want them as far away from his greenhouse as possible. James and Sirius laughed at them causing the professor to start on them again. Lily lead Eilidh back up to the castle rubbing her back along the way to help her through the sickening process.
James and Sirius were given three detentions each for their misconduct and for their hand in Lily and Eilidh's wrongdoings. They were sent to their head of house with the hope that the reputable Professor McGonagall would be able to straighten them out. It was along the way to Professor McGonagall's office that James had a sudden need to confess something to his friend.
"I'm in love with her," James stated with an amount of certainty most 12 (almost 13) year old boys fail to accomplish.
"Yeah, she's alright mate," Sirius said not paying any particular attention to his friend's declaration.
"No, seriously! I am in love with Lily Evans." James said once again.
"I know who you were talking about. Anyone who's spoken to you for more than five minutes would know." Sirius teased.
"I meant I am really in love with her. Like the sappy stories mum reads. I didn't realize it before, then she started yelling at me and hitting me! Man she's got spunk!" James rambled.
"Yeah, so does Nicnevin. Did you see the way she was looking at us?" Sirius laughed. "We have to get her back for that."
"Sirius, please!" James said.
"Alright, you're in love with Lily Evans. What are we going to do about it?" Sirius smirked anticipating James's brilliant plan.
"We've got to win her over," James said coming to an abrupt stop.
"Right. Why?" Sirius continued turning around to face him.
"Because I'm in love with her and she hates us," James said blankly his eyes narrowed in deep concentration.
"Nah, she doesn't. She just doesn't like when we mess with Snivellus, there's no way we're giving that up, he's too much of a prat. Definite Death Eater material. He already hangs out with Luscious Malfoy, and Rosier, and Mulciber." Sirius answered though James wasn't paying attention. James was about to tell Sirius about the plan he had come up with to win Lily over when McGonagall rounded the corner and cut him off. They were greeted with yet another lecture, more points were taken from Gryffindor, and they were to serve their detentions with her to find a way to make it up to Lily for getting her in detention. She sent them to their dorm room for the remainder of the class period. It wasn't until they reached their dorms that Sirius brought up what he really wanted to talk about.
"The Mandrake's are ready!" Sirius said reminding his friend of what he thought to be a more important and exciting topic.
"Guess we're spending the night in the greenhouse instead of the kitchen." James muttered with a far off look. He moved to the window to immerse himself in his daydreams. Sirius, rather than drowning in boredom, went to the common room to seek entertainment from some of the older students.