Chapter 7

Time for Mr. Monotone

Authors Note: I don't own anything that you recognise from the Harry Potter series. I also don't own the lyrics below. Enjoy the chapter.

"If love was red then she was colour-blind
All her friends they've been tried for treason
And crimes that were never defined

She's saying, "Love is like a barren place
And reaching out for human faith is
Is like a journey I just don't have a map for"

So baby's gonna take a drive and
Push the shift to overdrive
Send a signal that she's hanging all her hopes on the stars"

"To the Moon and Back" Savage Garden

Joan

Saturday has come around far too quickly this week. It only seems like a few hours ago that I was arguing with Sirius in the corridors again. It's already 7:30 which means it's exactly an hour and a half until a date with Mr. Monotone begins. I'm already ready to go and Lily hasn't even woken up yet. My head is hurting because I've spent most of my sleepless night thinking of ways that I could escape the dreaded date and also weighing up all the possible things that I could do to make the date bearable. I only came up with one solution,

·Don't go.

And I can't do that because Lily would get really angry with me, Robert would be disappointed (not that you would be able to tell) and I want to prove a point to Sirius that I can survive a date with Mr. Monotone without his interference.

THUMP "Aww Shit!"

I turned to where the noise had come from. Lily was sat on the floor rubbing her head with her duvet tangled around her.

"Time to get up?" I asked her. She sent me her famous death glare and then did a double take when she saw me ready and waiting to go.

"I thought you didn't want to go on this date?" She asked me frowning.

"I don't" I walked over to the window sill and sat on the edge of the stone work. Our dormitory had the best views of the grounds which on a clear day you could see the Quidditch teams practising on the pitch.

"Then why are you all dressed up so early?" Lily asked me suspiciously.

I shrugged my shoulders and continued looking out of the window. Today was a really clear day. The sky was as blue as the Indian Ocean and there wasn't a single cloud in sight. It would be typical that the day I have to face the worst social outing of my life would be the day where the weather was good enough to laze about outside.

I heard Lily fumble to get up off of the floor and start to walk around the dorm quietly as not to wake up the other girls that we share the dorm with. Lily padded over to where I was sat. She stood next to my shoulder and looked out of the window.

"What were you and Sirius talking about yesterday?" She asked me in a whisper.

The question was out of the blue. She had never asked before about anything to do with the Marauders. She never even used their first names, she always tried to avoid them as much as possible and that included conversation. Lily also liked to ignore that I was friends with them and that I sometimes chose to hang out with them rather than with her.

"Just the usual."

Lily fiddled with a strand of my hair, she nodded thoughtfully.

"If you don't want to go on a date with Robert we could find an excuse." She told me. I just nodded my head. I was going to go on the date with Robert. He can't talk in a monotone all the time surely?

"I'm going on the date. I said I would and I always keep my word." I replied firmly. Lily dropped the piece of hair I was holding and took a couple of steps away from me.

"If you're sure?" She asked me.

"I'm sure." I replied even more firmly. I continued to look out of the window for longer until it was time to go for breakfast.

Lily

Joan was up earlier this morning and she seems determined to go on this date. I admire her for keeping her word but I can't help but wonder if she's only going to prove a point to someone. It's probably Black. He's always saying the wrong thing around her and annoying her to near death.

I know because he's not the one who has to listen to her rant and rave for hours on end afterwards. I fell out of bead again if there was a world record for the amount of times someone could fall out of bed in one year I would be the holder of it. I'm not kidding it's not just one morning a week I fall out of bed it's every morning of the week.

I was still getting dressed when I heard the dorm door close to signal that Joan had gone downstairs for an early breakfast. It's only 8 o'clock for Merlin's sake. Tying back my bed hangings after me I went to look out of the window. It really was a beautiful day.

My eyes were instinctively pulled towards the Quidditch pitch. I suppose its habit; I've been picked for the team five years in a row. Leaning in closer to the window I could see that there was a tiny black figure flying about high above the pitch. Who in their right mind would practice this early on a Saturday when they could still be asleep? I know I wouldn't.

As Head Girl and also a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team I feel it's my duty to make sure that people get enough sleep and don't practice on a Saturday when they have better things to do. Even Snape doesn't do work on a Saturday and he's weird.

It took me less than five minutes to get to the Quidditch pitch. I walked up into the stands so I could see who was flying this early.

"Potter! What are you doing?" I shouted up at him, flying slowly in circles round the pitch. I saw his head turn and when he saw that it was me he flew across to me so that we were at eye level.

"I'm flying." He replied sarcastically at me.

Sighing I said in a quieter voice, "I know your flying but why its," I looked down at my watch "8am on a Saturday?"

He rolled in the air with a stupid grin on his face. I swear he gets more insane by the day I must ask Dumbledore when I next see him just what he was playing at when he made this idiot Head Boy.

"I was thinking of revenge Lily" he replied simply, at my puzzled look he elaborated, "Against Robert for making us clean up after practice while he buggered off."

I frowned at him. Where does he get the impression that he can tell me that he's planning something and that I won't stop him?

"You told me I could so don't get any ideas Lily" He told me warningly. "Is Joan getting ready for her date?" He smirked as he said date. He seemed sincere in his tone so I decided that I would dignify him with an answer.

Potter's conversation skills have developed when he's around me in the last few months. Back in fifth and sixth year his idea of starting a conversation with me was "Go out with me Evans" in what he thought was a suave tone which actually made him sound like he had a bad case of Asthma. Not that people with bad asthma have funny voices, they don't it's just what he used to sound like.

"She ready" I replied honestly. Potter nearly fell off of his broom when I said that. I couldn't help but softly laugh at the expression of pure shock on his face.

"She's ready…" He trailed off. I think he was expecting me to shout 'Gotcha' or something. It had shocked me as well to see her ready for the date.

"Yep" I put my hands in the pockets of my jeans to keep them warm, even though it was sunny out it wasn't like the middle of summer.

"Wow," he seemed genuinely surprised, "I can't believe she's actually going"

"Me neither," I paused, "What's the revenge you have planned for Robert then?" I was curious for two reasons. One, would he actually tell me and two, would it be a good plan. James looked at me funny.

"You really wanna know?," I nodded my head, "I was planning on jinxing his hand so that every time he went to pick something up his arm just got shorter and shorter. But if that doesn't work I suppose I could always ruin his 'date'," he quoted with his fingers, "with Joan."

James placed his hands back on his broom and he was looking at me warily, waiting for my approval. I studied his face, he had smiling hazel eyes with a thin nose and full lips. Its surprising how you can know someone for years but you never really memorise what they look like. As much as I want to get away from school and lead my own life I just can't imagine it ever being the same without the Marauders, Joan and most especially James Potter. It's crazy but its true, for all the times that I've protested to hate him I don't really. Yes, he annoys me but I still like him.

"Lily." James had lent forward over his broom and clicked his fingers in front of my face to bring me back to reality.

"Huh?" I asked sleepily, a sudden wave of tiredness and something weird had passed over me.

"You zoned out on me there," James chuckled "what do you think about the revenge?" he asked me playfully a happy spark in his eye.

"I think it sounds good," He grinned broadly at my approval sweeping a hand through his already messy hair, "Let's save Joan from Robert." I smiled broadly at him.

"Let's save Joan from Robert," He copied still smiling, "This means you'll have to go to Hogsmead with me."

I hadn't thought of that, I suppose I can survive Hogsmead with James just for one day he was looking at me uncertainly. Sacrifices have to be made to save a friend. I just smiled,

"I suppose it does." I kept smiling and looked away from James I did, however, see him see him run his hand through his hair again and smile even more broadly.

Authors Note: Lily was back in this Chappie (yey!) I hope you enjoyed the Chapter. Next Chapter we find out all about the Hogsmead trip. Thanks for all the reviews on previous chapters I appreciate every single one.

SJRR