RE-UPDATED: 19/02/05
Disclaimer: I own not one character from this fabulous creation… But… for whatever it's worth, the plot is mine! Mine, mine, mine! My preciousss… tricksy hobitsess. Alright, snapping out, I'm sulking because I'm supposed to be at a LOTR carnival right now, but I'm not, am I! Ignore, after all, I'm only totally and completely disappointed. No big deal.
Fine. I'm not going to be bitter just because I'm completely missing out on all the fun and merriment that everyone else is experiencing. I mean, why should I? Just because I'm stuck at home with absolutely nothing to do.
Oh, sod it.
I am bitter. End of story.
Now I'll get on with the real one.
"Black – is - going – to - pay!" hissed Andrea venomously as they stomped out of the hospital wing.
Lily and Taylor glanced at each other, both of them trying to stifle their giggles. They had just been treated by Madam Pomfrey, who would have insisted that they stay in the hospital wing had it not been for their loud protests. After all, if they complied, they would have to postpone their chance for revenge. So, they had left somewhat cured, Lily had an urge to run over to every teacher she saw, but with her usual amazing amount of stubbornness, she resisted. Taylor's skin on the other hand would flash a different colour once or twice in several hours. Sadly, Andrea seemed –in her opinion- to have received the worst fate.
Her normally glossy raven hair that fell in stylishly loose ringlets had frizzed into a strange poofy looking ball with pink stripes. Courtesy of Liz, she had found out that it was Sirius who had been in charge of hexing her. If there was one thing a fashion addict, image conscious girl like Andrea couldn't stand, it was to have her hair affected in anyway not to her liking. Lily seriously pitied Sirius (no pun intended), while her best friend was usually carefree and easy going, a tiny thing like that could trigger her dangerous temper.
She glowered at a couple of second years who were staring avidly at the object of her embarrassment. If it weren't for the fact that she wanted to give Black hell, she would've clung to the hospital wing bed until her hair returned to normal.
After making a short stop in their dorm for supplies, they had gone to class slowly, mainly due to the fact that their bags were loaded. When they finally entered, they were already late. Fortunately, Lady Luck smiled down on them, or it could be that their classmates had guessed that they would want revenge and had done all they could to get out of their way. There were three seats available, one next to James, another behind him and one behind Sirius. Shooting evil glares that spoke volumes to the trio, they slipped in unnoticed by Professor Binns who was busy droning on about Dolath the Dirty.
Although they attracted many stares, (particularly because of Andrea) and a fair amount of snickers from the Marauders, they managed to control their urge to throttle them right then and there. Minutes later though, their arrival was forgotten when Binns's soporific voice began to sink in again. Already, Lily was beginning to feel drowsy. She counted herself lucky for not having to take any more notes as she had done faithfully till the fifth year. Then, she had gone out with Sirius, and after giving him a kiss that had left him breathless and in a strange state of mind (well… stranger than usual at any rate.), he gave her copies of the notes that the professor read from. The Marauders had gone through great pains to steal and copy them from him in their second year. Hence, the fact that she used that time to catch up on her beauty sleep.
Seeing Taylor nodding off and her own eyes drooping, she took out a plain notebook. The moment she grabbed it, two matching ones flew out of her friends' satchels. Andrea had given them those after she received two weeks worth of detention for bitching on Professor Slughorn –who normally would have loved her, had she not been so utterly dismal at Potions- during a note passing session. She had thrown the scrap of paper, sadly, it had fallen into Snape's cauldron, causing his Potion to explode and spelling out all the messages that had been written in haze smoky letters that smelled like rotten eggs high in the air, refusing to fade for two days. The notebooks allowed the other holder's to see what was being written on the paper, letting them have conversations without having to toss bits of parchment around.
L: Good thing we have a double period. How long should we wait?
T: Mmm? (The note book had just whacked her on the head for not paying attention to it.)
L: We're having a note-passing session, duh.
T: Mmm… OW! (It had just whacked her again for inadequate responses.)
L: Pay attention!
T: Please let the whole class fall asleep soon! PLEASE! I cannot take this!
L: Andy? You there? I'm amazed, you look wide-awake.
T: Wait a second, how come the bloody book isn't hitting her for not reading! OY! (She had received another hit for insulting the book.)
L: She gave us these books, what d'you expect?
A: In case you haven't noticed, I've been boring hole into Black's back for the past 15 minutes!
T: Andy, it's only your hair.
L: You should not have written that.
A: Only my hair… (Right then, Andrea had stopped snarling at Sirius and was staring at the book in shock.) WHAT DO YOU MEAN, ONLY MY HAIR? Do you know how much care I put into it? Do you-
L: This is your fault, Tay.
T: Please. Both of you put way too much emphasis on your appearances.
L: Your idea of dressing up is putting on a clean robe.
A- even know about my Sonia shampoo? It cost 10 galleons! Do you-
L: Alright… Andy?
T: What's wrong with clean robes? And, too late… she's gone.
L: Anyway, did you bring the supplies?
A-Even care about the fact that-
T: I've got an aching back to prove it. You know, most of this isn't even my stuff. It's yours and Andy's.
L: Like you even have any?
A- I spend at least three hours a day taking care of-
T: Forget our argument and help me shut her up, she's gonna tear her book if she keeps writing so fast.
L: Andrea… umm… (She cast around for a way to distract her.) Binns is looking at you.
T: He is?
L: Yes. He. Is.
T: Oh.
A-And conditioning! It needs a complete very intricate five step- what? Looking at me? (She glanced up just as Taylor had successfully thrown a ball of parchment through him, making it look like it came from her direction. So he was indeed looking at her.)
"Miss Rose? Did something just happen?" he asked rather blearily.
"No, Professor," she answered with an innocent look.
"As expected. Now in the year of 1753 the particular group of a close comrade of the goblin leader was-"
A: I can't believe he remembers my name! I knew it! He still hates me since third year!
L: That was your own fault.
T: But the good point is that he remembers your name!
A: Oh yeah? How good is that? He won't even let me sleep in class sometimes!
T: It's your fault for being so tactless and blunt.
A: I was honest! I thought it was nice of me to point that out to him!
L: Nice? Telling him 'OY! Professor! Have you noticed that you're dead?' is what you call nice?
A: He floated in through the blackboard! Is it my fault that he scared me?
L: Truthfully? Yes.
T: Break it up, girls. Time for the plan to begin, the entire class's asleep.
The three of them shut their books at the same time. It would be harder for Andrea to help due to the Professor's dislike of her, but she was a professional in the field which Lily only had a fraction of knowledge, and that Taylor completely lacked.
Ensuring that the entire class had indeed fallen asleep, Lily and Andrea crept towards the Marauders, leaving Taylor to cast Sleeping Charms on anyone who should wake up or to distract Professor Binns lest he should notice that the only pupil he remembered wasn't in her rightful seat.
Andrea was of course, in charge of Sirius, while Lily had James, whoever finished first could work on Peter. Andrea dragged her supplies out of her bag, box after box, case after case and tube after tube, until the entire floor around her was covered with stuff. Taking out her last silver safe, she poked her wand in for identification and let everything fold out. As if she had just activated some hidden switch, all the covers of the equipment surrounding her popped open in their respective manner, then another layer of shelves would rise, and another smaller one, and another and another… revealing…
Make up.
Rows and rows of different colours of Witch's Glow Facial, Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, the entire line of Shadowna's Eye Shadow, the newest collection of Rogue's Colour-Changing Lipstick, the whole range Desire's Mascara and basically, enough make-up to open a store with was brought to light. Beside her, Lily was already working away with her much more unimpressive pile.
Andrea smiled evilly to herself; flexing her fingers before letting her skilled hands dance over her equipment, picking out everything.
This was going to be fun.
……
A good half hour later, Andrea was exhausted, the tips of her fingers were covered with powder, lip gloss, liquids, gels and residues every colour imaginable. But she couldn't have been more pleased with the effect of her work on her mortal enemy. Everything she had used was charmed to be water proof, adding several grooming charms of her own, making it virtually impossible to get rid off for days. Lily had already finished with both Peter and James and was now waiting for her inspection.
Adding a dabble here and a touch there, she nodded to show her satisfaction, Lily stuffed her hand in her mouth to muffle her laughter as she examined them. Then casting a Concealing Charm so that it looked like nothing had been done. But, when she got to Sirius, her jaw dropped and she clutched her side, doubling over while Andrea bowed to an unseen audience.
Taylor had been busy, casting Charms on anyone who snorted, running to the other side of the room asking the Professor questions whenever he seemed to glance their way and throwing a book through his stomach when he asked Andrea to give him the full account of the Vampire convention in the year of 1827.
Little did they know, that a pair of grey eyes flecked with blue was watching them intently.
……
"Prongs?" asked Remus tentatively. "Why don't we skip lunch? Go to the library?"
James and Sirius stopped their argument about Puddlemere United and turned to stare at Remus incredulously. Peter, who had been nodding in agreement to either one of them who asked for his opinion followed the suit.
"Umm… I guess that that means no?" he ventures hesitantly, backing away from the looks and quirked eyebrows he was receiving.
"Moony, you feeling okay?" questioned James, peering into his eyes in concern.
"Yes! That's right! I'm… err… sick," he said gratefully, faking a very unconvincing cough. "Need to go to the Hospital Wing right now. Eh- hack hack! Cough cough cough! Erm… cough?"
He added that doubtfully when Sirius's eyebrows rose a notch higher, he said, "Moony. You stink at lying. Are you hiding something from us?"
"Err… no…" he replied, wishing that he could tell them what was in store for them, yet not wanting to break his vow.
"Is it just me, or is there a lot of dust sticking to my face?" grumbled Peter, scratching his cheek.
"Whatever. I'm too hungry to bother. Sorry, Moony ol' boy, but I'm starving!" declared James.
"To the Great Hall!" exclaimed Sirius dramatically, pointing one finger skywards, causing several girls near him to giggle and coo.
"He is mental," sighed James.
"Indeed he is!" yelled Sirius happily, linking arms with Remus and James, forcing them to skip with him to lunch.
……
"This is going to be so sweet," whispered Andrea eagerly.
"You are an artist, Andy," praised Lily. "Make sure you do my makeup next time."
"I never knew that the technique of putting gunk on one's face could be so useful," mused Taylor.
"Useful! It's life!" argued Andrea.
"It is not," she replies firmly. "And neither is fashion."
"I can't believe you, Tay!" wailed Andrea. Then, she frowned and stopped. "No, wait. Actually I can believe you. The same way I could believe you the time you wore that hideous puke green robe with electric blue shoes and an orange headband. Honestly. I have never seen such-"
"Oh, please. It was just robes."
"Girls? We really should be getting ready," ventured Lily.
"Just robes? Just robes! That's like saying that my new Nicola Anderson designer and totally original dress robes are just – just fancy pieces of cloth sewn together!"
"Girls?"
"Your new Nicola Anderson designer and totally original dress robes are just fancy pieces of cloth sewn together."
"How could you!" she gasped. "Lih-lee!" screeched Andrea, looking like she was going to hyperventilate. "She just said that my new Nicola-"
"I know what she said, Andy," said Lily, trying to placate her. "Now, if you could just pay attention to me-"
"Taylor! Fashion is the universe!" barreled on Andrea heedlessly.
"It is not!"
"It is! Fashion is beauty. Beauty is nature. Nature is life. Life is being. Being is existence. Existence is the universe! Therefore, fashion is the universe!" she countered philosophically.
"Well that was deep," commented Taylor.
"Of course it was, did you notice how I used the word 'therefore'?"
"Alright! Both of you, break it up!" yelled Lily, unable to keep her temper anymore. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Potter and his gang have already sat down. We'll need split second timing for our hexes so they can't cure themselves, got it?"
"Don't worry, Lily, we won't screw up," assured Taylor.
"Tay, would you be a dear and leave Black to me?" asked Andrea with a smile that made them fear for his safety. "I've got a score to settle."
"Okay. On three. One, two, three!"
……
James was talking happily with Sirius about his flavor of the week, Marie somebody, when all of a sudden; they (excluding Remus.) shoved their chairs back and leapt on the table. The students quieted immediately, sensing that a good show awaited them. Professor McGonagall had already stood up to end whatever was about to begin, but Dumbledore stopped her, clasping his hands together and seeming quite amused.
Before the three of them knew what was happening, the concealing charm had been removed, giving everyone a clear view of the make up that had been applied earlier on. Next, they were twitching and jerking, being forced into… dance costumes?
The moment everyone saw what they were wearing, they burst into peals of laughter. The three of them would have attempted to change themselves back, had it not been for the fact that they were dancing too hard.
First was Peter, with two large coconut halves strapped across his chest, wearing a multi-colored grass skirt that ended above the knee, revealing his rather flabby form. Around his neck was a chain of tropical flowers and on his head was a bright red piece of cloth wrapping a rather tall pillar of fruits, including grapes, banana, apples and so on. His arms were swinging to the left and right, following the warm soothing music emitting from Taylor's wand. His hips swaying in what would have been a sensuous way had the picture not been so wrong. His make up was… creative, to say the least, with orangey rust colored lipstick, thick foundation, bright yellow eye shadow and blue powder smeared on his cheeks.
This was the result of an amateur make-up artist and a pureblood's trip to Hawaii while getting the hula dance mixed up with others.
James, who happened to be suffering at Lily's mercy, was not enjoying this. In a flaming frilly red dress with cap sleeves, a plunging neckline and many layers of skirts, he resembled a can-can girl, right down to those pointy red shoes. In his hair was a large red flower, speaking of which, Lily had seized the opportunity to do something about the hair that had irritated her so often. She had gelled the entire thing before adding many colorful tiny plastic clips to hold bit of his hair in tufts. (A/N You know, the little plastic ones that are for kids… kinda round?)
His cheeks were even redder than his dress from embarrassment, and from the thick layer of blush that Lily had added. Mascara had been smeared heavily on his eyes and flaming red lip-gloss on his lips, red and purple eye shadow completed the look. But what may have been most amusing was his dance. Clutching his skirt with both hands in order to lift it up, he did a series of high kicks in time with the lively music. They were so high that they resembled splits, leaving him gasping in pain after each one.
Last, was of course, the dashing Sirius Black. He was far by the best, though I'm sure that he wished he weren't for once. He was clad in a lurid pink tutu, clinging tightly to his non-existent curves, around his waist was a slightly darker sash, attached to a frilly, semi-transparent light pink skirt. Matching pink stockings covered his slightly hairy legs along with rather strappy satin ballerina slippers. His hair, too short to be pulled into a bun, was laced with miniscule flowers and a large tuft was pulled up in the center of his hair, decorated with a (you guessed it) large taffeta pink bow.
His lips were just as bright and even more ludicrous than his outfit, the shine of them making them appear rather pouty. The foundation on his face was so thick that it was to the point of cracking, covered by another layer of powder that made him seem very, very pale. Andrea had used her eyebrow pencil to arch his eyebrows dramatically, also trimming them so that they were ridiculously thin. She had gotten carried away with the eye shadow, giving him rainbow colored eye lids that flashed a different colour every few seconds, coordinating with the lipstick streaks drawn on his cheeks for effect. His eyelashes had been elongated with heavy midnight blue mascara.
Although many people were gaping at his appearance, a far larger percentage was breathless by his dance. There was the tinkly music of Swan Lake sounding from Andrea's wand; sadly, she seemed to have trouble in controlling him. He spent the first few seconds wobbling to and fro, jerking violently and tripping over his own feet before she finally got the hang of it. Clumsily, with his hands raised above his head, he spun consistently on one foot, knocking many dishes away with his other foot that was stuck out at a ninety-degree angle. With a flick of her wand, Andrea sent him twirling into the air, bounding over a dish of chicken. Unfortunately, her Charm skills left much to be desired. Abruptly, she lost control; Sirius began spinning madly, his pink skirt flying around him. He leapt into the air with a definite wobble before landing into a very painful looking split atop the mash potatoes that he had knocked over earlier on.
One of his eyes were half-closed, his mouth open and his face screwed up in agony. Strong though Quidditch players like James and Sirius were, they were far from flexible. James seemed to be in almost as much pain as Sirius was in.
At Sirius's tortured gasps, several teachers helped to lift him gingerly off the table, himself unable move his legs. Carrying a still high-kicking James and a swaying Peter to the hospital wing as well, Lily stopped the vigorous music that was being conducted and shot up their symbol in their respective colors, letting it hover magnificently over the Hall.
That alone would've been enough, however, Andrea decided to help add to the insult.
'Hah, take that you stinking perverts!
Mumblers: 2
The obvious winners: 2
That'll teach you to mess with us you fu-'
At that very moment, Professor McGonagall had wrestled the wand away from her, her sixth sense already warning her on the language that she was about to introduce to the first years.
Obviously, lunch ended just about as eventfully as breakfast, the three girls losing thirty house points, (Andrea losing another ten for rudeness.) surprisingly, Professor McGonagall was rather pleased at the way Lily had Transfigured James's school uniform, (compared to the way her work usually went, that was a miracle.) and had decided not to give them detention.
When the victims had made their return to class, they had fortunately stopped dancing and had changed into their robes. But thanks to the strength of Andrea's techniques and enchantments, the make up remained as clear as ever. All of them, this time including Remus were rather resentful on how she had gotten their name wrong. Not only that, James and Sirius, particularly the latter, seemed to have difficulty walking. Many a student saw them shaking their fists at the symbol that still floated around the hall, refusing to disappear until the day was over. In the week and a half that it took for the last traces of the prank to disappear from their faces, their social calendar with girls was completely empty.
Needless to say, the Marauders were out for revenge.
……
Pranks went flying throughout the months, their immeasurable creativity keeping the whole school entertained. They stopped for short periods of time; maybe there would be several days or a week entirely free of disturbance before they sprang back into action, ridding the school of any resemblance of peace. However, when the girls did run out of ideas (though Lily refused to admit it.) they'd just wait until the Marauders did something to them, and then improvise on the original idea, turning it back on the originators. The Marauders on the other hand, were too proud to use anything but their own patented brand of mischief while the girls understood, if you want to win, sometimes you have to fight dirty. Many a morning would find either side with strange colored hair, eyes or body parts, even so, the Marauders now took great care not to mess with anything that had to do with Andrea's appearance, remembering the fury that had befallen Sirius. (His make up took two weeks to fade.)
There were Prefect meetings, of course, which turned out to be extremely tense for the leaders of both sides, forcing an exhausted Remus to stamp out bush fires that flared frequently during those times. The good thing for the both of them was that the teachers organized the Halloween Feast, allowing them to avoid awkward circumstances in which they'd have to cooperate. Not so fortunately, Christmas was coming up, and the Prefects had voted for a ball, which meant that the organizing fell upon the shoulders of the Head Boy and Girl.
Which basically meant working together.
Not bloody likely.
It was two weeks till Christmas that they had a meeting without the Prefects. Lily had to admit that she was beyond apprehensive about this meeting. She had no idea what to expect from him. Probably another prank, she thought wryly. Most likely due to the fact that she'd chosen that very day to counter the time he'd caused them to plunge into a pile of rotting fish. (The smell didn't wash away for days.)
In return, they had modified the trick. Not only did their opponents smell of dead fish, rotting eggs and other ghastly items which shall not be mentioned, Andrea had stumbled across an interesting hex, (DADA was about the only other subject besides Transfiguration that she was good in.) causing them to attract all sorts of animals, for example cats, rats, owls, mice, toads, spiders and a few more of Hagrid's pets. This resulted with their entire fan club keeping a good distance away from them. Last Lily had seen of them was when they were covered in droppings and running away from persistent owls and cats who had decided to try to get the rodents clinging on them.
Making her way up to the Head's Room with a grimace, she prepared herself for the worst, expecting undiluted Buboter pus to fall on her the moment she stepped in. Coming across the statue, she gave the password and entered. She knew the place fairly well, having been there a few times when Taylor had Quidditch practice and Andrea was off with some boy or other. If it weren't for the fact that James might have been there, she'd probably have gone there more often. The entire place was done in red and gold (each year differing depending on which house the heads belonged to.), there was a considerable snack bar, two bedrooms, a small but cozy common room and a bathroom almost as good as the Prefects'.
She walked in nervously, ducking through the entrance quickly lest something decided to fall on her. To her surprise, nothing happened. She frowned when she spotted James, she'd expected him to be late and swagger in at the last moment (if he wasn't being chased by delirious animals). Instead, he was just sitting on an armchair near the fire, looking blankly at a stack of papers on his lap. He started at the sound of her closing the door, staring at her strangely before coming back to his senses.
"Evans," was his typical way of greeting. "You're late."
"Potter," she replied, matching his tone. "You're early. Managed to run from the rodents while Black and Pettigrew distracted them?"
He ignored her comment, his mind going strangely empty as he stared at her. "To work then. We'll need to decide on food, music, decorations and a theme."
"Oh my God!" she exclaimed in false astonishment. "Is the great James Potter actually talking about work?"
"No need to say I'm great, Evans," he shot back, finding his tongue. "I already know I am."
"That is so like you," she said huffily, even though she knew that she had started it with the sarcastic comments. "We'll decide on the food first."
"No, the decorations are more important."
"No, the food is more important."
"Well, I say that the bloody decorations are more important! If not what, you're going to let everyone stand in a blank hall munching on chips?"
"And what would you do? Let everyone stand in a hugely decorated hall starving?"
"They wouldn't starve, they'd've had food earlier!"
This was obviously going to take a while.
……
(An hour later.)
"Green!"
"Red!"
"Green!"
"Red!"
"GREEN!"
"RED!"
"Oh for Merlin's sake! They're BOTH Christmas colors! Use both!" screamed a portrait of a rather serene looking witch, Caitlin the Calm, who right then was not looking quite so calm. In fact, she looked like she wanted to jump out of her picture and strangle the both of them.
They fell speechless, both never having been yelled by a picture before. "Both of you have been arguing for the past bloody hour, and haven't decided on a single thing! You will sit down right this instant and start to agree with one another! And then, you will get out of my room and go to bed!" she continued angrily.
There was another few moments of stunned silence before Lily spoke. "We are being yelled at by a picture."
"A picture that's supposed to be calm," stated James, his mouth twitching slightly.
For some unknown reason, they both found the situation extremely amusing. Maybe it was the tension in the room, or perhaps because it was already almost midnight. Whatever it may have been, Lily let out a slight giggle, covering her hand with her mouth. James joined in, doubling over and laughing loudly. That set Lily off immediately, before both of them knew it, they were clutching their sides and almost howling with laughter. Lily looked up, from her seat on the couch, not listening to Caitlin's furious questions ('What pray tell, do you find so amusing?'). She wiped her tears and smiled, meeting James's eyes. He noted rather hazily that that was the first time she had smiled at him. Abruptly, she was brought back down to earth, thinking, What the heck am I doing? Laughing with Potter!
She sat up straighter and composed herself; James seeing her do so, did the same. There was a rather awkward silence hanging about in the room.
"How about if we just get the Prefects to vote on a theme, and then we decide on these?" she suggested hurriedly after a few tense seconds, wanting to get back before she turned loony. Laughing with Potter. Honestly.
"Alright," he said, looking surprised by how civil she was being.
"So… I guess that I'll just pack my things and go now…" she said, feeling awkward again. She bent over, gathering her stuff and putting them back neatly into her bag.
James's eyes were boring into her back. He looked at her silently as she scooped up her things, getting ready to go. "Actually… actually," he began hesitantly. "I wanted to propose something."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "Look. If this is about the Quidditch theme, we are not going to have brooms whizzing around everywhere and getting the teams into a fight," she said firmly.
"It's not about the Ball," he said, and then frowned. "Well I think that my idea was better than your stupid masquerade. That's so clichéd."
"What do you mean by clichéd? And if you think that mine was stupid, what about your idea of girls waving pompons around and dressing up as cheerleaders?" she snapped, staring to sound shrill.
"Oh yeah? Well at least it was better than-"
"If you kids do not stop this argument right this instant," hissed Caitlin from behind them, "I'll get the statue to lock you in here for two days."
They both quieted again. Lily huffed and was about to pick up her bag when she turned around and asked. "If it wasn't Ball related, then what were you going to say?"
"Well… well… I know that we've been at war this past couple of months," started James.
"Duh," she interrupted.
He gave her a glare before continuing. "You've probably been getting sick of always ending up in the hospital wing or losing, right?"
"Excuse me," she cut in again. "But if I recall, the score for both teams is even. I haven't lost, neither am I planning to, and may I add that I am rarely in the Hospital Wing without your company."
"Since when- I mean…" he paused, wondering why he was doing this. "Well I just thought that if you'd make a formal apology to the Marauders in front of the whole school, we'd let you off." He mumbled as quickly as he could, flushing for unknown reasons and fearing the look on her face.
Lily's eyes widened and she gritted her teeth, spluttering in indignation. "Why- y-you arrogant- you-"
"Come on Evans," he said before she could form proper sentences. "We know who's going to be the winner, why should you suffer first?"
While he stared at Lily who was steadily turning redder and redder from rage, he groaned inwardly, knowing he had presented the entire thing wrongly. It was all her fault really. Whenever she was around him, he'd have a huge urge to just show off and impress her. He'd always assumed it was just his male ego still trying to get her to go out with him, then drop her like a hot potato and go snog another girl. But, after being mercilessly tortured by her for the past few months, he had begun to develop a certain respect. She had stood up to him when no one else would, she had continued where others would have crumbled. True, he didn't like her any better, but he wanted the entire thing to stop before she got hurt too badly. He knew that he'd get carried away with the plans and get completely out of control soon, Sirius would influence him, and they might end up seriously hurting each other.
Sadly, that wasn't exactly the way he's made it sound like, was it?
She raised her hand and slapped him across the face. "You prick!" she snarled. "Just as I was beginning to think that you could be halfway decent sometimes, you act like a complete git! So! You think that I can't fight against your stupid pranks! Is that it? I'll show you James Thomas Potter! I'll win this war and shove it up your friggin' arse!"
She then stomped out of the room, leaving a very confused James Potter in her wake. He stood there for sometime, gingerly touching the red handprint that was already beginning to form before picking up his things and leaving silently.
"That poor boy," muttered the portrait. "He's hung up on her and he doesn't even know it."
A/N: Well, I guess that that's the end of Chapter 6. I'm sorry if it really sucks, because right now, it is very late, and I just wrote out the last part without a draft 'cuz I was to darn lazy to write one out.
Anyway. It is beyond late now. I desperately need sleep!
See ya.
Remember! Reviews really matter