Author's Note:
There are a few key things that I want to happen before Harry goes to Hogwarts, but it is coming soon and many more time jumps along the way.
This was just something that I was playing around with doing because I love having those moments with your friends where you talk in nothing but song lyrics or movie quotes and I felt like this was something that the Marauders would do. Also, I personally am not one to advocate recreational drugs of any kind, but there's no way that the Marauders did not get high at least once or twice while they were in school in the 1970s and I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to showcase a moment of them being teenagers in the 70s.
I always thought James dated other girls and had relationships with other girls before Lily. He didn't just pine for her. I also fully support the idea that he may have done so in an attempt to make her jealous. Obviously Lily dated other people as well. Anyway, I hope you like it.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the lyrics to: Don't Bother Me, I Saw Her Standing There, I'll Cry Instead, I've Just Seen A Face, I'm A Loser, I Am the Walrus, Act Naturally, Hold Me Tight, Carry That Weight, With A Little Help From My Friends, Across the Universe, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Something, Eight Days A Week, Can't Buy Me Love, Because, Let It Be, and Strawberry Fields Forever — all by The Beatles, of course.
I've been writing away here lately, Harry just got his Hogwarts letter and I'm considering how to proceed from here. We will see where the story takes me.
Review and Comments: To E-Dett: Thank you! I agree, it is a shame they weren't closer in canon. Thanks for liking the wedding. To alix33: Thank you! I think they definitely all knew James and Lily were meant to be together, no question lol. This chapter goes more in-depth about that. To Claire Fraser: Thank you for saying the memory was beautiful. It's true, there should be more Harry and Lily moments but I can't promise anything as the memories are unfortunately not coming from Lily. Glad you liked the Beatles song, thank you!
Thank you very much for reading and please, please review!
Your reviews give me life! They give me inspiration! And they make me want to keep writing for more than just myself! Thank you!
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR:
The One With Operation Get Lily Evans to Fall In Love With Prongs
After Neville went home and Harry went to bed that night, Sirius took the Pensieve down into the kitchen. Talking about Frank, Alice, James, and Lily made him remember how hard James had worked to prove to Lily that he wasn't the arrogant toe-rag and conceited jerk that she thought he was. Remembering them in love was easy; it had been like breathing for them once they had finally gotten their act together, but the build up of James trying to win Lily's affections — that had been priceless, and it had truly taken years.
After they had written their OWLs, and Lily had stormed off, leaving James bewildered by her lack of interest by the Black Lake, James had seriously decided that it was time to pursue her. He had fallen in love with Lily Evans in third year, but Sirius knew that he hadn't fully realized that he was in love with her until the end of fifth year. And he'd only thought himself in love with her. The moment that James had truly fallen after they were dating, that's when he had become the man she loved.
The man she would love until her death.
Sirius thought of the memory of when he had made the bet with James, ten Galleons that Evans still wouldn't want anything to do with him by that time next year. He had lost the bet. They weren't officially dating by the end of sixth year, true, but Evans was definitely interested.
He hesitated as he remembered the bet they had made. James had gotten some marijuana from a seventh year Hufflepuff named Todd Robson. They had smoked it in their dormitory while drinking Firewhiskey and maybe that wasn't exactly the best thing to show Harry, he thought. He shrugged and then grinned as the memory started. It had been the seventies and they had all been sixteen, he thought with a grin. And they hadn't done it often, maybe five times ever. This had been the second or third time they'd smoked weed, if he remembered correctly.
He watched the memory unfold before him, a smile on his face.
James was lying on the floor in the middle of the fifth year boys' dormitory, records were strewn around him as the album With The Beatles was playing on the wireless record player.
Sirius' eyes met Remus' as they looked at their friend. His eyes were closed and he was singing along to the record, a cloud of marijuana smoke around his head from the joint sticking out of his mouth.
"Uh, Prongs?" Sirius asked, lying down next to his friend, plucking the joint from his friend's mouth and taking a toke, choking a bit as he inhaled. "You okay?"
James' eyes opened and he stared up at his brother. "This song is my life. So go away leave me alone, don't bother me. I can't believe that she would leave me on my own, it's just not right when every night I'm all alone."
Remus' eyebrows rose as he sat down on the other side of James and accepted the joint from Sirius, looking at it in interest before he hesitantly brought it to his lips. He let out a long breath of smoke, finding it rather soothing as he choked softly.
"First of all, where did you even get this? Secondly, this song is not your life. Thirdly, Lily didn't leave you on your own because you've never even had her to begin with. What's going on, Prongs?"
James dragged his fingers through his already messy hair, making it stick up in every which direction. "We go home tomorrow."
"And?" Sirius prompted.
"I thought it was just… I mean, she's beautiful, right? And she's smart and she's funny and she's witty and Godric, she has fucking beautiful green eyes but… well she looked at me, and I, I could see that before too long, I'd fall in love with her."
Remus grinned. "Are you just quoting Beatles lyrics now?"
James grinned sheepishly as he sang in response. "Well, my heart went boom, when I crossed that room and I held her hand in mi-iine!"
"Jamie, mate, how fucking high are you?" Sirius asked, taking another toke from the joint.
"I've barely had any. You know, two years ago I saw her standing there and I just… I fell in love with her. I refused to admit it to myself; it was just a fancy, I'd get over it but today… when she told me that she'd rather go out with the giant squid than me… I've got every reason on earth to be mad, 'cause I just lost the only girl I had, if I could get my way, I'd get myself locked up today, but I can't, so I'll cry instead."
"Jamie, you never had her, mate," Remus said sympathetically. "Are you really in love with her?"
James nodded, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm not sure when I fell, Moony, but today… she's just amazing. That hair and that smile, not that she ever directs that smile at me, but when she does… it lights up the room and her eyes… Merlin, she's just, she's just Evans, mate. She's fucking fantastic."
Peter came into the room, choking on the marijuana smoke. "What the hell, guys?"
Sirius simply passed the joint over to Peter. "Help! I need somebody! Help! Not just anybody!"
Remus rolled his eyes. "Are we all speaking in Beatles lyrics now?"
Sirius grinned as Peter stretched out next to him so now the four of them were lying in a circle in the middle of the dormitory, heads all close together. "If we have to listen to Prongs moan about his lost love then I vote yes."
"Help me if you can, I'm feeling down; and I do appreciate you being 'round. Help me get my feet back on the ground; won't you please, please help me?" James sang, closing his eyes.
Sirius walked over to his trunk and rifled through it before pulling out a bottle of Firewhiskey. "That's exactly why we're here, Jamie." He looked at Peter who was still examining the joint in his hands. "Put it in your mouth, Pete, and inhale if you want it, otherwise pass it back to Prongs."
Peter did as Sirius instructed, coughing loudly as he waved at the smoke. "That's… wow."
Sirius grinned and looked at James. "First things first, Prongs, if we're going to help you, then you better drink."
James accepted the bottle and took a swig of the liquor. "How is this going to help, Padfoot?"
Sirius sat back down, his back against his bed post. "We're sixteen. We'll be sixth years come September and you, my friend, are going to get Lily Evans to fall in love with you. Now drink."
James took another drink, wiping his face with the back of his hand. "How?"
"She thinks that you're a conceited arse, which to be fair, you are. She also thinks you are a bully, which again, you are, at least to Snivellus — that stupid git. But she also knows you as James Potter, Quidditch star, McGonagall's star pupil, and the second best looking guy at Hogwarts, after me obviously."
"Oh, brother," Remus muttered, taking the bottle from James. "Jamie, don't take his advice."
"I have great advice!"
"I was the first one of us to lose his virginity which makes me the advice giver," Remus said, smugly, as Sirius made a face at him.
"Big deal, Moony, I shagged Sarah two days after you lost yours to Ji. Besides, in second year I got a blow job from Deanna Kane," Sirius huffed in annoyance. "Not to mention the first time I went down on a girl was in fourth year… who knew girls would taste so damn good down there?"
James rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes you are both the experts and obviously whores to boot so shut it."
Peter laughed. "And Jamie and I aren't virgins either," he said with a smirk. "I had sex with Ruth two months ago."
"And then she dumped you for Florean, hoping to be the ice cream queen obviously," Sirius said with a laugh.
Peter glared at him. "Well, James slept with Delta this year and with Eesha!"
"Thanks, Pete, I'm aware of who I've had sex with thanks," James said. "That's what I'm saying though! I've had girlfriends and snogging partners and why doesn't Evans like me?"
Remus sighed. "Because with those girls you weren't trying to impress them, Prongs, you were just being yourself. With Evans it's like you don't know how to be yourself."
James sighed at his friends. "You know the moment, it was in third year, all of a sudden it was like I saw her in an entirely different light. All of a sudden, I'd just seen a face I can't forget the time or place where we just met she's just the girl for me and I want all the world to see we've met, mm-mm-mm-m'mm-mm. Had it been another day I might have looked the other way and I'd have never been aware, but as it is I'll dream of her tonight, di-di-di-di'n'di."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Can we please stop randomly singing during conversation it's confusing?"
"I'm expressing my feelings through song, Wormtail!" James moaned, taking the joint again. "And Robson took pity on me and gave me this joint because he said that I had been publicly humiliated by the Black Lake like the loser I am."
"You're not a loser, James," Remus said.
James changed the record to Beatles for Sale, and sang wildly. "I'm a loser. I'm a loser. And I'm not what I appear to be. Of all the love I have won and have lost, there is one love I should never have crossed. She was a girl in a million, my friend; I should have known she would win in the end. I'm a loser; and I lost someone who's near to me. I'm a loser; and I'm not what I appear to be. Although I laugh and I act like a clown, beneath this mask I am wearing a frown. My tears are falling like rain from the sky, is it for her or myself that I cry? I'm a loser!" James pointed at the record player. "This song was written about my life!"
"Don't be so dramatic or I'll start calling you Sirius," Remus said, passing the Firewhiskey to James.
"Hey! I take offence to that."
"Shut up, drama queen," Peter said with a grin as Sirius shoved him.
"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together," Sirius said. "So, that means you're all fucking drama queens, too!"
Remus ignored Sirius and Peter's fight. "James, you're not a loser. You just have to learn how to be yourself. Stop going so out there to get her attention. Lily is a simple girl, James. The more you put yourself as the centre of attention the more you push her away."
Sirius grinned and slapped James on the back. "He can just be the lonely sad man he is. You know: I'm the man that's sad and lonely, begging down upon his bended knee. I'll play the part but won't need rehearsing, all I'll have to do is just act naturally."
"Piss off, Black," James said, shoving his friend. "I'm not sad and lonely. I just… I want Evans."
Peter wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. "He wants to sing to her," he grabbed James' arms, wrapping them over his shoulders as he sang loudly and off key. "Hold me tight, tell me I'm the only one and then I might, never be the lonely one."
"Piss off, Wormtail!" James said, struggling out of his friend's arms as he laughed.
"Are you sad because you're on your own?" Sirius said, taking a drink of the Firewhiskey. "Boy, you gotta carry that weight, carry that weight a long time."
"What weight?" Peter asked, staring at Sirius.
Sirius laughed and reached for the joint again. "Fuck if I know, now I'm just quoting lyrics because I can. Jamie here needs a little help from his friends."
"With a little help from my friends, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends, keep on getting high, with a little help from my friends. I need somebody to love." James muttered, closing his eyes.
"Fuck, we are high," Sirius said, closing his own eyes. "I lost track of the conversation, but Robson has good fucking weed."
"Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup. They slither while they pass, they slip away across the universe. Pools of sorrow, waves of joy are drifting through my opened mind; possessing and caressing me," James sang softly, turning to pat Peter's arm. "With every mistake we must surely be learning, still my guitar gently weeps."
Peter grinned at him and took the Firewhiskey. "Now we're getting way too philosophical here. Let's get back on track. How are we going to get Evans to like Prongs or are we just going to sit here and sing random lyrics?"
James sighed and a foolish grin appeared on his face. "Something in the way she moves attracts me like no other lover."
"We know, Jamie, shut up," Sirius muttered, shoving his friend. "We know you love her eight days a week and all that, but you can't buy her love either, she don't care too much for money. Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you… that's fucking deep, man," he said, grinning widely and his eyes bugged out. "You should fucking sing to her!"
James grinned, sitting up. "She does smile at me whenever I pull my guitar out!"
Remus grinned at his friends. "She has said more than once that James has a beautiful voice and she does love to listen to him play the guitar. But I think if he just sang to her right now she would definitely turn him down. He needs to prove himself to be the man that we all know he is, but who Lily doesn't."
"You are speaking words of wisdom, Rem, let it be," James said, giggling now.
"Show Lily your kind heart and stop being a conceited berk, m'kay?" Remus said, smiling at his friend. "Then maybe, maybe you'll get lucky and Lily will take you down to her strawberry field."
Sirius giggled now, grinning. "Moony! Getting kinky! How do you know she has a strawberry field down there?"
James grinned wickedly. "Bet it's all red and gold and dark browns like her hair. Do you think she'd let me you know, go down on her like that? I bet it smells like her, like flowers and coconuts."
Remus slapped James' shoulder. "Prongs, you have to convince her to go out with you first. Worry about that later."
Peter giggled and burped loudly. "Prongs wants to be in her strawberry field forever."
James shoved him and grinned. "Give me that whiskey and turn up the music. We have some detailed planning for next year."
Sirius did as he asked and grinned. "To stop you from being a conceited berk? Prongs, that might take the whole fucking summer."
"Fuck you," James said simply.
Sirius laughed and took another drink. "So, Operation Make Evans Fall in Love with Prongs; what's step one, Moony?"
Remus grinned. "Do I have to think of everything?"
Peter grinned back. "You are the brains of the operation."
"Nuh-uh," James said stubbornly. "I'm the brains of the operation and I know exactly how to make Evans fall in love with me."
"Do tell then, Prongs, my boy, do tell!" Sirius exclaimed, stretching his long legs out.
James simply grinned at them. "Watch and learn, boys! By this time next year, Evans will be mine."
"Ten Galleons says she won't be," Sirius said with a smirk, his eyes on James.
James only glared at him. "You dare to bet against me, Black?"
Sirius grinned. "I dare."
James gave him the finger. "You're on and this time next year, you're going to eat your words."
Sirius grinned as he finished watching the memory. James had made her fall in love with him. He had dated two other girls that year too and Sirius remembered how Lily had practically been seething with jealousy, not that she'd admit to it of course, but she had been. It had been fun to watch her and to nitpick her about how she was jealous and watch her vehemently deny it.
But James had won her over and watching the two of them fall in love had been a wonderful thing to see. He had never met two people who had belonged together more.
As he put the Pensieve away, he thought about what he told Harry and Neville and decided to add the memory of James and Lily getting married to his stash as well. He liked it when Neville came over. He felt like Neville needed him and he always enjoyed the way the boy seemed to look for affection from him. Harry didn't seem to mind either and Sirius thought it was nice the way they had clearly bonded over something.
They had both lost their parents.
They both couldn't remember a time when their parents were around; being insane didn't exactly count in Sirius' opinion in regards to Frank and Alice.
He knew that Harry didn't want to tell Ron and Ginny about how bad his life had been at the Dursleys. Sirius knew that his godson was a bit embarrassed by it, but he often wondered if Harry had told Neville. The two of them had bonded in a different way than Harry had with Ron and Ginny.
Sirius sighed and snuck a peek into Harry's bedroom, smiling when he saw his godson sleeping with a huge smile on his face. He hoped he was having wonderful dreams, his boy deserved that. He went inside, wrapping him up and kissing his forehead, scratching Marauder's head when he looked up at him.
"Watch our boy," he told him.
Marauder looked at him as if that was obvious and went back to sleep.
Sirius sighed and headed into his own bathroom to get ready for bed. He opened the notebook on his dresser to write down the list of memories he had accumulated so far with a smile:
➾ Young Lily and Petunia
➾ Lily and Snape talking about Hogwarts
➾ First train ride to Hogwarts of James and Lily
➾ First train ride to Hogwarts of Sirius and James
➾ Remus' first train ride and meeting Peter
➾ The Sorting
➾ The first night in their dormitory
➾ The first day of school
➾ Sirius and James defending Lily and Mary from the Slytherins and his big fight with James
➾ When McGonagall told him to make his choice and pick his friends and how he made up with James
➾ Talking to Lily about his past
➾ Talking to James about his past and becoming blood brothers
➾ Sirius' twelfth birthday and the birthday cape
➾ Remus' memory about them confronting him about being a werewolf and deciding to become Animagus
➾ The incident at the Black Lake after OWLs
➾ Christmas at the Potters when they gave him his own room
➾ When Remus found out who had bitten him
➾ The Marauder tattoo
➾ The Singing Howler
➾ The fight after the Quidditch Cup
➾ James and Lily's wedding
➾ The moment Harry had been born
➾ James singing to his son in the nursery
➾ Harry's first birthday
➾ When they chose Peter to be secret keeper
➾ When he found James and Lily dead
➾ When he went to Azkaban
➾ Remus leaving Harry with the Dursleys
➾ Operation Get Evans to Fall in Love With Prongs.
He smiled to himself. The collection was already getting very big. He and Remus had discussed it in length, whether or not to add the memories that Sirius had shown the court in his trial, but they had decided to do so. Harry deserved to know everything about that night; as much as he could know.
Especially if one day Voldemort did actually return.
Sirius didn't want to think about it but he knew that one day, Voldemort would return and he knew that when he did, Harry would have a target on his back. It was something that terrified him.
He looked back at the Pensieve with a smile. He hoped that one day Harry would appreciate the work that he had put into the Pensieve; that he would get to see the wonderful lives his parents had lived and how much they loved him and loved each other.
He closed the notebook and locked it in the vault with the memories and the Pensieve and then crawled into bed, a smile on his face.