Authors Note: So Dude, yeah. Summer has started. Yay! xD This chapter might be a little shorter than normal, if only for the part that I was going to include a very big scene, but it was too sad and I'm in a good mood and don't want to put it in the story yet xD
Disclaimer: Er… not mine! Everything you recognize from HP Books is J.K. Rowlings… and by now, it should be easily recognizable what is mine xD
Oh, and just to let everyone know… I don't exactly say "Hey, yeah for underage drinking!" Its just that I'm 17, and I know what goes on at parties. I go to some of those parties. So yeah. That's all xD
Please read and review!
A somewhat somber two weeks passed, during which the entire gang was extremely aware of the new 'relationship' between Lily and James. Previously, it had been something akin to a strong friendship, but over the course of one tumultuous day it became something more. Not entirely a loving relationship, but something more.
However, they did nothing about it. They hung out more often, but neither brought up that fateful kiss at the Valentine's Day Ball. And while they both shared laughs over the stories Lily told James the day they looked through the contents of the box, neither mentioned how safe Lily felt in James' arms, or how right it seemed when she was there.
And so the group tiptoed around them, skirting around the issue and being careful to comfort Lily whenever possible. This provided for a quiet atmosphere, except for the three days each week they were practicing quidditch; perfect for completing that homework that had been waiting for a week, or building card towers in the shape of leprechauns and the such.
At least until the twenty-seventh of February.
- -
"I can't take it anymore!" Cai Brown cried out dramatically as she sprinted down the dormitory stairs. Everyone in the common room looked at her oddly as she flung herself onto the occupied couch.
"Ow!" A voice cried from under her.
"Oops, Sorry Sirius," She said, but didn't get up. "I can't take it anymore!" Cai repeated, and Sirius asked,
"Can't take what?"
"The silence!" She said, throwing her arms out and gesturing at the common room. Sirius looked at curiously, for the common room was ablaze with life. In fact, there was a game of exploding snap going on in the corner that he might join in on once Cai got off of his lap.
"It's just too damn quiet!" Cai yelled, and immediately she heard Lily say sharply,
"Language, Cai!"
"Fine, its too darn-diddly-arndt quiet!" She reiterated, and both she and Sirius laughed.
"Er, Cai," He said. "You do realize it's very noisy in here, right?"
She nodded.
"Then why are you saying it's too quiet?"
She looked around cautiously before murmuring, "We're too quiet. All of us."
Sirius nodded in agreement.
"But I've got it covered, don't worry!" She told him, and got off of his lap. As Sirius went to join the fourth years in their corner, she went to Ash and Stephanie, before they all dragged Lily to her own common room.
- -
"All right," Cai said loudly, pacing in front of the three girls like a sergeant. "Tomorrow is my birthday, correct?"
"Aye, aye, Cap'n!" The girls said with a salute.
"We shall commence the day by referring to myself as 'Queen Cai' at all times, right?"
"Aye, aye, Cap'n!"
"And no day will be complete without a prank, correct?"
"Aye, ay-"
"All right, all right, enough of that. And it's 'Queen'. Now, for the planning…"
The girls immediately clumped together, and all that could be heard was a few odd statements, such as, "Polka dots!" and "Neon Pink!" and "Lime Green!" and "Spain!" followed by very loud giggles (from a very loud blonde).
Once they had ironed out the minor details of their prank (such as what it was), they set about to actually talking.
"Well, let's settle out positions." Stephanie said logically. "Or rather, roles. Cai is like James, our leader… mainly because its her birthday. I suppose Ash can be the Sirius, or the goofball," Here she good-naturedly smirked at Ash, who buffed her nails against her collar and grinned back. "I suppose I'm like Remus… the mediator of sorts, although without that furry little problem. I mean, if someone has an insane mad rabid rabbit, wouldn't you just give it to Sirius to have to deal with? And Lily…" Here she paused, and grimaced. "I swear Lily, I didn't mean for it to work out like this. I completely swear. I didn't mean for you to turn out to be-"
"The lackey!" Lily yelped. "I'm Peter? The lackey!" She pretended to faint from shock, falling back on the plush sofa. They all giggled, somewhat drunk on laughter and pranks at this point.
"All right girls," Cai said seriously, clasping her hands evilly and punctuating it with a somewhat maniacal laugh, "We're going to need to sneak around and get some things…"
- -
The four sat excitedly in the center of the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall the morning of the twenty-eighth. The boys looked at them warily, knowing that they were up to something, but not exactly sure what.
"Er… Happy Birthday, Cai," Remus said slowly while Sirius, James, and Peter edged to their seats cautiously.
"Yeah, Happy Birthday," They chorused, checking their seats inconspicuously before sitting down.
Cai grinned. "Happy Birthday to me," She sang quietly, and the four of them started laughing evilly.
"Just for the record," James asked, "Does this have anything to do with us?"
The four girls shook their heads, and the boys relaxed somewhat. However, their attention was piqued as the girls ceased their laughing and a small boy entered the Great Hall. Now, for the first time, the boys noticed the lack of certain people in the hall.
To be precise, the lack of Slytherins. None of them were located in the hall, except for the small boy, now to be identified as first year Slytherin Andrew Lewis, currently walking up to the Headmaster rather quickly. Leaning across the table, he listened to the boy's explanation, and pondered for a minute before murmuring to him. Andrew shrugged and walked back to the double doors at the entrance, before going through and apparently motioning for people to come.
However, when first, second, and third year Slytherins entered with no visible afflictions, the boys' spirits were crushed.
"Too bad, girls," Sirius murmured to them. However, they were still grinning gleefully.
"Wait, what did you do?" Remus inquired, but they shushed him as impeding footsteps heralded the arrival of the rest of the Slytherin house.
Immediate laughter broke out in the hall, exempting the teachers and Slytherins, although Dumbledore and McGonagall seemed to be trying to stifle smiles.
For as soon as they had entered, the population of Hogwarts had set eyes upon a very funny sight.
The entire population of upper years of Slytherin wearing bright pink and lime green robes, as well as sporting those hair colors.
Even the younger Slytherins were laughing, although some were looking around cautiously, trying to avoid anything happening to them.
No one was laughing harder, though, then a population of eight currently residing at Gryffindor table, although Remus was trying to stifle his laughter at McGonagall's glare. She strode down from the Head Table, and immediately grabbed James and Sirius' shoulders, dragging them up from the table.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Black," She seethed, "Up to your shenanigans again?" They paled.
This just made the girls laugh harder.
"Maybe two weeks in detention will help to cure these reoccurring problems," McGonagall continued.
"But Minnie!" Sirius pleaded. "It wasn't me! I swear it wasn't!"
"Always with the pretend innocence Black, always with the innocence. I won't take your excuses or reasons anymore! It's been close to seven years that I have been listening, and I won't take it anymore, do you hear me?"
The girls had now dissolved into laughter, falling weakly onto the table (Cai landing in her pancakes and bacon on the way down) as McGonagall dragged James and Sirius away to iron out the details of their detentions.
"Part of your plan?" Remus asked dryly, arching an eyebrow.
"No," Cai said weakly, "But it was one of the best birthday presents ever!"
- -
"Scratch my previous statement," Cai said gleefully during History of Magic. "This is the best birthday present ever." The entire class of Gryffindors laughed yet again as Professor Binns mentioned Spain-
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Snape crowed from his seat, his robes changing to bright red for a few seconds before going back to pink and green.
Cai and Stephanie had added, thoughtfully, a bit of a tribute to Monty Python in their prank, enjoying themselves immensely.
They, however, had planned on talking about Cai's trip to Spain that would occur over the summer any time they came in the vicinity of one Severus Snape.
What they did not count on was Professor Binns talking about Spain and La Escuela de Los Artes Magicos, as well as impressive graduates from Spain-
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Snape crowed again, and then tried to scrunch down in his seat unsuccessfully as the class burst out into laughter again, the entire situation completely ignored (Or not noticed) by the ghostly Professor.
- -
"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" Could still be heard faintly down the hallway as the group of eight trudged outside for the final stop of Cai's day. Jumping onto broomsticks, they immediately started a game of pass the quaffle.
Or, in other words, pass the quaffle to Cai, prevent Lily from falling off her broom, keep Ash from trying to bash Sirius' head in, pass to James, save Sirius, avoid Peter, bonk Remus in the head and take the 'book' out of Stephanie's hands.
"Best birthday ever!" Cai exclaimed gleefully as they went back up to the common room two hours later. With almost all of the snow melted, and fairly warm temperatures, they had persuaded a few other students to join them in a pick-up game of quidditch. Now, as they all sat in the common room in front of the fire, Cai was opening the presents her friends gave her, as well as things from her family.
"Thanks so much, Lils!" She exclaimed as she opened a stack of bracelets from her friend. She already had received earrings from Ash, some Monty Python 'books' from Stephanie, and a broom polishing kit from Peter and Sirius. After opening a set of Quidditch handbooks from James, she set about to opening her family's things. While her brother got her an authentic jersey from Mauricio Travis, star chaser for the Magpies (and it was authentic, for the note that accompanied it said 'Cai, don't tell Mauricio who took his extra jersey, all right? Much love, Chris'), her father got her a silver heart necklace, her grandmother gave her a new wizarding wireless, and her mother…
"I still can't believe that your mum sent you a brochure for a Spanish school!" Stephanie exclaimed a few days later. "We're already three quarters through our seventh year!" Cai shrugged, and continued eating her way through the contents of the Gryffindor Table.
"It's nothing new," Cai replied after she finished chewing. "She's already sent me brochures for Beauxbatons and the Salem Witches Institute." She wiped her mouth with her napkin, and stood up.
"Ready to go, boys?" She asked, smoothing out her quidditch robes. Today was their first game against Ravenclaw, and James was understandably nervous.
"Yeah Cai," Sirius said, and pulled James up by the shoulder. "We'll see you guys out there," He told the rest of them before he and Cai dragged James over to their other teammates and then out of the hall.
- -
"And welcome to another exciting game of quidditch!" Brian Miller shouted. "Today we have third place Ravenclaw against the reigning champions, Gryffindor!" Here he paused for effect as about half of the stands cheered. "And now let's hear it for the Ravenclaw lineup. Chasers Kaller, Loon, and Moore…"
The Gryffindor team drowned out his voice as they huddled together by their entrance to the pitch.
"All right team," James said loudly. "We've got this one in the bag. We're unstoppable."
"Nothing can stop us!" Sirius broke in, and the entire team rolled their eyes.
"I think I just said that man," James said good-naturedly. "But what we said. We can't be stopped. So let's go out there and win this one!" He high-fived everyone on the team before taking his position at the flapping curtain.
"And now for Team Gryffindor!" He heard Brian Miller say. "Chasers Brown and Oaks, Beaters Black and Callwell, Keeper Bennett, Seeker Lloyd, aaaaannnd…their Captain and Chaser, Potter!" They all zoomed onto the pitch as their names were called to the cheers of the crowd, Cai and the exuberant sixth year Katie Oaks exchanging high fives and doing loop-de-loops as they went.
"Madam Hooch has the quaffle," Brian announced excitedly, eager for the game to start. She releases the snitch and the bludgers, and… off they go! The first game of this quidditch season has begun!" The crowds whooped in appreciation, and all watched excitedly as the three Gryffindor chasers raced for the Ravenclaw goals. Pulling an extremely difficult reverse pass, James rocketed the red ball back to Cai who easily put it through the left hoop, earning Gryffindor ten points. The three quickly reverted back to Parkin's Pincer, successfully distracting the Ravenclaw chasers and earning themselves another point as Katie quickly tucked the quaffle into the center hoop.
However, as the score reached 160-40 in favor of Gryffindor, the spirits of both teams were reaching new and lower depths.
"Hurry up and catch the snitch quickly!" James shouted to Tristan Lloyd. "It's not the heat of summer, and we're all freezing!" True to his word, the somewhat brisk temperatures had caught up to both teams, causing frequent spasms of shivering to go through them. Tristan seemed to not notice James' words for he lazily spiraled around the pitch. Changing direction at the last second however, he quickly rocketed for the Slytherin section of the stands and grasped the Golden Snitch in his left hand.
James' face seemed to explode his grin was so big, and he screamed joyfully as he flew his broom down to the ground. We won! Was the only thought racing through his mind as he was tackled by the rest of the team, and subsequently the entire Gryffindor population. He came out of his stupor to find Cai crowd-surfing with Sirius, Katie twirling in circles with Tristan and Aaron Bennett, their keeper, and Harvey Callwell was excitedly shaking everyone's hands and telling them about the great bludgers he hit.
Lily's face swarmed in front of him, and they both smiled.
"You were excellent!" She shouted over the din of the crowd, and when he didn't seem to hear at first she leaned in close to yell it in his ear. However, the jostling crowd had other ideas, as Lily suddenly found herself off balance and colliding into James. He wrapped his arms around her waist to keep both of them from falling, and looked down into her eyes.
"You were excellent," She said again, and this time he heard her.
"Thanks," He said sheepishly before releasing her. After a moment's pause, he said loudly, "Let's go to the kitchens and get some party food, all right?" Lily nodded, so James grabbed her arm and safely dragged her out of the crowds.
- -
"And so I said to the man, that's not a hippogriff, that's my mother!" A slightly inebriated Sirius said in the common room.
"Sirius," Peter said, "You haven't even seen your mother in two years. How could you tell what she looks like?"
"Beats me!" He replied, and both broke out into laughter.
"All right," Lily called out. "Who spiked the butterbeer?" They all looked at James, who shrugged.
"I think it was Sirius," James said, pointing to the man in question who was now on his ninth 'butterbeer' and dancing with… no one.
Lily sighed, but just shrugged. "Ah well," She told a slightly shocked James, "We won. It's time for celebrating. But if I think I'm going to keep Sirius and Ash away from each other, if that's all right with you."
James grinned wryly, remembering what happened last time Sirius and Ash were near each other while drinking the 'butterbeers' Sirius provided. They had snogged for a bit before passing out (They had both been on the team at that point and were exhausted), and although they had both remembered what had happened, Sirius had decided to ignore it and Ash had gotten very upset.
"Oy, Lils!" Ash shouted as she came in the room. "Have you seen Sirius anywhere?" Both of them sighed, and went to separate their friends before anything could happen.
- - -
A week later, the Gryffindor Quidditch team was found on the pitch, this time against Hufflepuff. Due to the excessive amount of snow and ice present at Hogwarts during the past few months, they had decided to schedule the spring games to start in March instead of early February. As a result however, the games were scheduled for nearly every weekend, with Gryffindor drawing the short stick and having two games in a row.
"All right team," James said in the locker-room a few minutes before they had to set out. "I know that we won the last game, and that Hufflepuff is currently in fourth place. But we need to keep it together. We can't get all cocky and just assume that we're going to win. D'you know why?" He asked, and Cai shouted,
"Because we'll make an arse out of you and me!" The entire team chuckled nervously, and heard Brian Miller announce,
"And now, Gryffindor!"
They all walked calmly out of the room, slapping each other on the shoulders before mounting their brooms and entering the stadium.
- -
"Sirius!" An extremely annoyed James Potter yelled twenty minutes later. "Would you actually hit the bludgers for a change!"
He watched on as Sirius performed two loop-de-loops in succession, and then stuck his tongue out at him.
"Give me a few, Jamesie!" He replied back, blowing a kiss to someone in the crowd.
"Sirius!" James shouted again, this time flying over to him. "If you don't get your act together, I'm calling in the reserves."
"You can't do that, Jamesie," Sirius replied cheekily as he blew another kiss, "We don't have any reserves!" James rolled his eyes.
"I'll get Ash up here-"
"You can't do that!" Sirius shrieked. "She's-"
"I don't want to hear any reasons," James told him, "Just get to work!" He sped off as he heard Cai calling him, and got there in time to catch the quaffle and enter the scoring area. Distracting the keeper, he then rocketed the cherry-colored ball back to the blonde, flying out of the scoring area just in time for her to enter and neatly put the quaffle in the right hoop. After doing a quick barrel roll to celebrate, she pumped her fist in the air. However, she did not notice the bludger coming right for her.
"Cai, move!" James yelled, but she didn't hear him, and he watched as the bludger hit her right knee and she fell to the ground.
Madam Hooch blew her whistle to signify a stoppage in play, and the entire team minus Tristan quickly flew to the ground and huddled around their injured chaser; James having told Tristan numerous times during the season to keep circling and keep an eye out for the snitch.
The tall blonde girl was currently huddled in a ball, one hand protectively holding her knee, the other keeping her broomstick from hitting the ground. Katie quickly took hold of the broom, and Cai shrieked as the movement jostled her, moving her knee around.
"Cai, this looks pretty bad," Sirius said bluntly, and James hit him on the back of the head. They were pushed aside as Madam Hooch and Madam Pomfrey entered the huddle.
"Honestly," Madam Hooch muttered, "Aiming the bludger at a player without the quaffle is illegal!" She then looked at Madam Pomfrey, who was tending to Cai's knee. "She'll have to exit the game," She informed James, who frowned.
"No, I'm all right!" Cai chirped, plastering a smile on her face. "I'm fine! I can keep playing!" She tried to rise, but Madam Pomfrey gently pushed her back down.
"Now Miss Brown, would you please relax. This knee has to be wrapped, and you must come back to the hospital wing so I can heal it."
Cai broke free of her hold, and stood. "No, I swear, I'm fine." When Madam Pomfrey glared at her, she insisted, "It's just a flesh wound!"
"Really?" Sirius asked, "It looks like a giant orange to me." Indeed, Cai's knee had swelled, and was bright red. Of course, Sirius couldn't identify colors.
"It's red, you numbskull, not orange," She replied. He shrugged, and Katie handed Cai back her broom.
"We're ready to go, Madames Pomfrey, Hooch!" James said. The team mounted their brooms, and Hooch sighed before blowing her whistling, announcing a resume in play and a foul shot that would be taken by Gryffindor.
"Seriously Cai, are you all right?" James asked her as they flew side by side. She grinned wryly.
"It's as dad says, James," She told him.
"Pain is a state of mind that prevents you when helping your teammates when they need you the most," They chorused together, and chuckled before Cai flew off to take the shot and James situated himself halfway along the pitch in order to block any returns.
- - -
The next day, after winning the game 360 to 50, everyone (meaning everyone fourth year and under) was gathered around Cai in the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Does it hurt?" One of the first years asked, reaching out a hand to poke her knee before having his hand slapped away by a fourth year.
"Don't touch!" They admonished, and listened to Cai's words.
"It hurts terribly," She replied with a sigh, "But I'll pull through."
"Would some chocolate cake help?" The first year asked, and Cai sighed again.
"It might," She replied weakly, and the boy ran off to the Great Hall. James started laughing, and watched as Ash waved off the crowd.
"All right, children, all right," She announced. "Cai needs to take a little nap now, so why don't you lot go do homework or something?" They all looked at Cai, and she nodded to them, so they all ran in opposite directions.
"Ah, the life of being a celebrity," She said weakly with a wave of her hand.
"They're all gone now, Cai," Stephanie said, and the blonde sat up straighter.
"Oh, all right then!" She said exuberantly. "Can I go now?" The entire gang burst out into laughter. After the game, they had trooped to the Hospital Wing to have Madam Pomfrey check out Cai's knee. Finding only some swelling and a few very nasty bruises, the matron bustled the entire group out of the infirmary, stating that maybe having an injury would teach Cai a lesson.
It seemed to not be working, as the first year returned with an entire chocolate cake.
"I found a house elf!" He exclaimed excitedly. "And he said anything for the great Cai Brown, blonde of all blondes and Chaser extraordinaire!"
"You found Hula-hoop!" Cai replied as excitedly.
"His name is Harvey," Lily told her, but Cai shook her head.
"No, it's Hula-hoop!" Having been through this battle before, Lily just shook her head before settling into an armchair and opening up a book. However, her reading (As well as the conversations of everyone else) were interrupted by a scream emanating from the boys dormitories of the tower. Doing a quick check, Remus deduced that the only one missing was Sirius.
"Oh dear," Ash said sadly, "I wonder what's wrong now?"
They did not have to wait long to find out, as Sirius made his way down the staircase dejectedly. When he sensed everyone's eyes on him, he looked up at them and bawled,
"They're dead!" They all jumped, and looked around to make sure that all of the Marauders were present.
"Who's dead?" Stephanie asked.
"The goldfish!" He replied, wiping a tear away from his eye. They all sat silently, a bit stunned by this statement, until Ash started to chuckle.
"It's not funny!" Sirius said sadly, and she quickly sobered.
"Not very funny, Siri," She said in reply, "But you do realize they had to die eventually. I mean, they're goldfish, for Merlin's sake!"
"They're supposed to live longer than two months and-" Sirius replied earnestly.
"Sixty three days, Sirius, is the lifespan of a magical goldfish," Remus replied as everyone looked at him strangely. "And no, that's not something I researched. It said so on the tag." Once everyone seemed reassured that Remus was not some person who researched goldfish for fun, he continued. "And yours lasted sixty five. A miracle of sorts, but they had to die soon."
"But muggle goldfish-"
"Muggle goldfish last less than two days," Stephanie said. "Wouldn't have been much better, Sirius… Oy, Sirius, where are you going?"
The entire common room found out fifteen minutes later as they were assembled onto the edge of the quidditch pitch in a makeshift funeral.
"Here lie Fred, George, and Fork," Remus said solemnly as Sirius wiped his eyes with a tissue. "They were the best goldfish a boy could have. And they will be sorely missed." At a shake of Remus' head, the younger students started to disperse, although one could hear a few of them murmur,
"Why did we have to come to a funeral for goldfish?"
"Why are they buried on a pitch?"
"Where did my jewelry box go? It was in my pocket a few minutes ago!"
Sirius just continued to wipe his eyes on a tissue.
Peter tried to be compassionate. "Y'know, Sirius, its really hard to say goodbye to someone. Especially goldfish."
Sirius nodded tearfully, although everyone just looked at Peter strangely.
"Well," He replied indignantly, "It is rather hard to tell where their ears are!"
"They so loved quidditch," Sirius murmured. "They loved it when I took them to quidditch games-"
"You took them to quidditch games?" Stephanie asked curiously.
"Yeah," Ash replied grouchily. "And I was the one who had to make sure they weren't hit by the bludgers that Sirius would hit all over the place, trying to impress them."
"So that's what was going on at the game yesterday," James said thoughtfully. "I was wondering why Sirius was doing loop-de-loops and blowing kisses into the crowd. He stopped doing that after fifth year, when you sidelined a bludger at him," He told Ash. The brunette grinned.
"Ah, I remember that. We-" She broke off as Sirius let out an extremely loud sob, and rolled her eyes as he collapsed to the ground.
"Note to self," She said, "Never let Sirius get anymore pets."
Authors Note: So that's the tragic end of the goldfish.
I actually had a friend who brought her goldfish to one of our soccer games, so that's where that came from xD
-tear-
So… please review!