Ch. 6 Filibuster's and Frills
"You have a plan?" James asked her. Lily nodded. "A plan for what?"
"Well, I didn't give Sirius a birthday present, and I think he would appreciate this. And I know you're annoyed that he interrupted our post-coital bliss, so missing his birthday cake will be our little revenge."
"Okay, but this better be good because that cake looked delicious."
"You will still be able to have the cake. We can pull this together in a few minutes. I assume you have Filibuster's Firework's around here somewhere?" James started to understand her and smiled.
"Would I be a marauder if I didn't?"
"Well what are you waiting for? We need as much as we can get." James led her to the stash and she looked at it in wonder. They proceeded to bring out every single firework he had outside and place them in the sand. They were still far enough back where no one could see them.
"Are you sure we need all of them?" James looked a little disheartened.
"It's Sirius' birthday, he will want nothing less than extraordinary." Lily said as she started transfiguring the colors shapes of the fireworks and then charming them to set up and go off at the right time. Finally, as they heard a loud and sloppy "Happy Birthday" song begin, Lily said "Its time." She waved her wand at the fireworks and they began briskly walking toward the crowd, trying to act casual.
Sirius opened his mouth to call Lily and James out for being late when a giant 'boom' interrupted the scene. Everyone looked at the sky as the fireworks began to go off. James had to admit he was impressed with Lily's spellwork. All different colors and shapes went off and twirled around in the sky. A Gryffindor lion was chasing people around the beach. There were even crude fireworks, with lingerie clad women who walked up to Sirius and 'kissed' his cheek then disappeared into the night. The show went on for fifteen minutes. Finally, "Happy Birthday Sirius" blew up among the stars, with a giant dog running around the words, upon James' request.
"Well that was strange." James said pretending he didn't know where they came from, but smirking.
"How did you…?" Sirius started.
"Lily's idea. Thank her." James said. Lily blushed.
"I didn't get you a present, so, yeah. Happy birthday."
"I loved it. You are brilliant Lils, we could use you for some of our pranks this year. Did you dip in to our stash of Filibuster's?" Sirius looked at James.
"Er- a bit." James scratched the back of his neck.
"We used it all. Sorry!" Lily laughed and ran away to avoid the row.
"Lily Evans that was marauder's property!" Sirius yelled, but he was laughing.
Lily ran away to let the boys have a moment and grabbed a piece of cake. Yum, chocolate on chocolate. Mary came up next to her, with the arm of some boy Lily didn't recognize around her shoulder.
"I'll catch up with you later, darlin.'" She winked at him and shrugged off the guys arm so she could have some girl time with Lily.
"And who is that?"
"Damien something. He's in Hufflepuff. Sixth year." Mary shrugged, smiling.
Lily laughed. "Going for the younger men now? I love it Mary."
"So you and James then?"
"Yep. I suppose it was a good idea to listen to you girls after all."
"You guys are great together. I bet he's such a good boyfriend."
Lily laughed. "I bet he's…" She trailed off. Were they boyfriend and girlfriend? He hadn't asked her to be his girlfriend yet. True, they had only been on two dates, but it felt like more. "Mary, I don't know if he's my boyfriend. Does he have to ask me or something?" Mary giggled. The truth was, Lily had never had a real boyfriend. She had gone on dates but she hadn't been in an actual relationship before. She had never liked anyone enough to go on more than one of two dates with them.
"Well, from what Alice has told me, it seems like you guys like each other a lot. I mean, its no secret that James has been in love with you since day one. So I think you should assume that by the time we get back to school, he'll be calling you his girlfriend."
"So should I expect him to ask me?" Lily felt silly; she had never known so little about something before, and she never felt so inadequate.
"Some boys do. Some think you should just know and start saying it."
"Huh. Okay, thanks Mary."
"Anytime, speckles. Now I have to go find my fellow before he thinks I've ditched him."
"Have fun." Lily laughed.
James walked up to Lily, seeing her yawn when Mary walked away.
"Come on love, I think its past our bed time and it looks like Sirius has finally succumbed to the firewhiskey." They looked up and saw Remus and Peter walking toward the house with a limp body levitating behind them. A few people were following.
When they got to the house many of the bedrooms were already taken. Thankfully, James had locked his room earlier so they were able to sleep on his comfortable king size bed while others had to transfigure furniture into mattresses.
"Up up up!" He heard clapping. This is a dream. James thought. No one is actually waking me up right now. "Come on, we can't have the head boy and girl being skivers. Lily, I know you can hear me; you have to get up. We are going to Paris today!" James opened his eyelids halfway and saw the figure of Marlene Mckinnon leaning over them. She was in workout clothes and must have gone for a run. He knew that she did this every morning at Hogwarts, but after yesterday, he had no clue how anyone's body could handle that. He supposed that was why she was one of the best quidditch players in the school.
"Marlene…" He heard Lily say. "I don't think I can make it to Paris today."
"I had a feeling you would say that. Drink this and take a shower. We're leaving in an hour." Lily threw a pillow at her but took the drink. James knew it was a hangover potion, and hoped there would be some left over for him.
"Any more of that McKinnon?"
"Don't worry, Sirius whipped up several batches and I convinced him to share his personal stash. We've got a lot of hungover people downstairs."
"Wonderful." James could only imagine what sort of clean up job he had to look forward to today. He slowly got out of bed, and Lily followed suit after chugging the drink.
"Come down when you're ready, Lils. We've got the whole day planned. Our friends Coco Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior await!" She pranced out the door. Lily rolled her eyes and walked toward the bathroom.
"She will kill me if I buy this." Lily said, looking in the mirror. They were in the third boutique of the day, and she was trying on a floor length, midnight blue dress. The material was flowing and smooth, and it fit her curves in all the right places. It had a slit down the left leg that would be quite revealing when she walked or danced. It had a scoop neckline with off the shoulder sleeves.
"Okay, I'll buy it." Marlene said. "But either way, you have to wear that." The other girls nodded in agreement.
"It's beautiful, guys. But I can't. She already hates me! The least I can do is buy a dress that makes me blend in. I should be buying an ugly dress."
"Lily. Your sister is an ugly twat. No offense."
"Thanks, Mar."
"Anytime."
"I'm still not buying the dress. I can't afford it anyway. What about the pink one?" Lily suggested, despite knowing that pink was a terrible color on her. Her friends looked at each other.
"That one was…nice." Alice smiled. Lily sighed. She is a terrible liar.
The search went on for another two hours until Lily found a tea length purple dress with a lace pattern. It was quite pretty and flattering, but definitely not even close to as beautiful as the blue one. It satisfied Lily and the girls approved.
"I'm exhausted." Mary said, sitting on a bench when they left the store with Lily's dress. The girls had been shopping around Paris for hours without a break. Marlene had about ten bags, but she shrank the clothes fit into one. Mary had a fair amount of bags as well. Even Alice had bought a fancy pair of shoes.
"One more stop ladies. Then lunch." Marlene led them down the street and into a lingerie store.
"We should've known." Alice said to Lily.
Mary was beaming. "Marlene, you are brilliant."
"I know. Now come on. Lily isn't the only one who needs to freshen up her lingerie drawer."
"Who said anything about me?"
"No one. But since you recently scored yourself a boy toy who happens to be one of the most coveted boys in school, I think it's a given."
"Oh." Lily blushed. She had nice sets of panties and bras, but nothing like this store. It was an abundance of lace and frills and straps and bows. Practicality would not be a word used to describe the undergarments surrounding her.
"Let's get started then! I think I'm going to get a new nightie." Marlene pondered out loud. She started handing things to Lily, who started laughing as they got skimpier and skimpier. She was saying things like, "James will love this one…" and "yes, this one is definitely necessary."
By the time they were finished, Lily had three sets and two nighties. She didn't even count the amount Marlene bought. Mary bought a set of red lingerie with stockings to match, and Alice invested in a simple but sexy black brassiere and black silk panties.
"James is going to lose his mind when he sees you in those Lily." Alice said, giggling. They sat down in a café and ordered lunch.
"And you're sharing a dorm with him! You are going to drive him mad."
"Trust me, I think he's going to drive me mad first. I really want to be with him but I don't want to act like a slag. I mean if it's a real relationship, I should make him wait, right?"
"Lily, do what you want. Who cares if you've only been out a couple times? If it feels right, go for it. You are never one to care about what other people think; why would you start now?" Marlene said.
"You're right. I just don't know if getting physical will interfere with getting to know him properly."
"I think you're overthinking it." Alice replied.
"As you do with most things." Marlene added.
"Love the support, ladies." Lily said as she grabbed a piece of bread from the basket on the table.
"Merlin, I'm knackered." Peter said, plopping down on the couch. The boys were back at the house and had just finished cleaning up. It took three hours to get all the people out of the house so they could start, and even then they kept coming across stragglers still passed out as they cleaned.
"Me too. I still don't understand why we couldn't have asked the house elves to do it. They would have been happy to help." Sirius complained. James' house elves, Lotty and Shelt, were a married couple that loved serving the Potters. They were technically free elves, but they enjoyed their work and did not want to leave. In this situation, however, James told the boys he felt guilty and a bit ashamed about the state of the house, and thought that Lotty and Shelt would be horrified, so they would have to clean it themselves.
"Trust me Sirius, they will be helping. We can only do so much. They'll be here tomorrow to get every nook and cranny that we missed. And I'm guessing there are plenty those."
Sirius gave him a snort as if to say he did an amazing cleaning job.
"I wonder how the girls are doing. Think they're having fun in Paris?" Remus said as he sat next to Peter.
"No, its probably dreadful there. Its not like they are in one of the most beautiful and romantic cities in the world." Sirius replied, rolling his eyes.
"I think Padfoot needs a little cat nap." James said, pretending to whisper to Remus.
"Excuse me, I am a canine, not a feline." They all chuckled.
"Where do you think they are right now?" Peter asked.
"My favorite place- Aubade." Sirius said dreamily.
"Aubade?"
"A high end lingerie boutique. If the French know anything, it's sexy undergarments."
"Padfoot, you have a one-track mind. And there is no way in hell that those girls went there. Can you picture Lily buying French lingerie?" James replied. And now I'm thinking about Lily in naughty lingerie, hmm, if only.
"I think I would drop dead if I saw McKinnon in something from that store." Sirius was still looking dazed.
"How do you even know about it?"
"Don't you remember? Last summer, I dated that bird Terese from Beauxbatons? Wild minx she was."
"Ah, yes. Well, I think I'm going to have a nap. Wake me up if the girls come back here. Otherwise bugger off." James trudged upstairs and fell on his bed.