Voicing my thanks to all those who had reviewed the seventh chapter. I'm glad you guys enjoyed it! Though right now, I'm on the second chapter, but maybe while rewriting, I'll get over my major writer's block. Thanks again!

miaowkitty - I'm thirteen. XD

Once again, note: Rewrittren on December 30, 2006 (as well as first chapter). Major plot line will not change; not required to reread.

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Chapter Two: How to Bake a Cake

Week One - Day 1

Lily Evans woke in bad spirits. Not only had she had a hairy face all last night, and, instead of receiving that restful sleep that she wanted, she had spent the night chasing down the Marauders across the Hogwarts building, earning disapproving looks from teachers. Not that they really did anything, for they resented the Marauders for changing their appearances as well.

Now, an annoying, persistent pecking sound at her window wouldn't stop, forcing her to roll out of bed and clamber over to open the window, letting the owl flutter in. Dropping a letter onto Lily's desk, it flew off again, likely toward the Owlrey.

Lily frowned. What was so important that couldn't wait until the Owl Post during breakfast? Tearing open the envelope, she took out a letter with loopy penmanship that she instantly recognized, belonging to her mother. Alas, and no good news could fall to her eyes now! She put away the letter, determined not to read it until the night, so that her day wouldn't be ruined from the start.

She washed and changed, going down to breakfast. Before entering the Great Hall, however, she hesitated, and felt for the letter in her pocket. Biting her lip and retracting her hand as if she'd just touched poison instead of parchment, she continued to walk, seating herself in her normal seat by her friends.

Massaging her temple, she reached for some toast and butter. Lora, noticing Lily's tired appearance, said, "Bad night, huh?"

Lily sighed. "Not at all. I run across the whole school at night chasing the Marauders on a regular basis," she said, picking up a butter knife. "Oh, and I'm so excited because I've just received a letter from my dear mum."

Alice suddenly tuned into their conversation at the last statement, diverting her attention from her pancakes. "You received a letter from your mum?" Alice said, alarmed. "That can't be good, can it?"

"What did it say?" Lora continued, reaching for an apple.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I figured that, since I got it in the dawning of the day, it'll be best to wait until night so my whole day won't be ruined."

Lora shook her head. "I don't know about your plan, Lily," she said, furrowing her brow. "It might be really important."

"Give it to us to read," Alice piped up. "We'll measure the situation and tell you if you should read it or not!"

Lily wasn't quite ready to give in; after all, her friends would act different, and it would only make her more apprehensive. But the curiosity was already close to murdering her. She hesitated, buttering her toast some more, before feeling the parchment in her pocket. Looking wearily at her friends, she voiced her concern and they ultimately promised not to act any different.

She wasn't so much concerned about Lora, for she was an amazing actress when she put her mind to it. Alice, however, was much too easy to see through, and she doubted that Alice could carry through her intentions.

Figuring in the end that it would help, she threw them the letter and returned to her breakfast, trying hard not to watch their expression. She tried to, and failed for the most of it. She reached for a muffin for distraction, but it didn't work.

When they were done, they handed it to her. "You'd better read it now," Lora cautioned. "Your mum's letter involves a time limit."

Lily dropped the piece of muffin that she was eating and wiped her hands on a napkin. Taking the letter from Lora, she read,

Dear Lily,

Have fun on your first day of school! Are you excited? If you're the Lily I know, you are! And remember what I said when during the summer. Remember to find a boy. I want weekly updates from you about this subject. Even if you don't tell me yourself, I'll find some other way to learn. I've made contacts, dear Lily. You must fear me and succumb to my demands.

I'll give you this first week to find a guy that you like. If I don't get a reply by next Friday, then I'll take matters into my own hands. Understood? Good. There is no path you can take but the one I have laid out for you. I have eyes everywhere. I hope you remember that.

Enjoy your time as Head Girl!

Sincerely,

Mum

Lily stared at the letter for a moment. There was no doubt that her mum had written this; she had always gone for the "Dictator of the World" kind of thing, not the "Oh, let's bake some cookies together!" kind of mum. She could be rather terrifying at times, actually, even without the help of magic. She'd heard from Alice that her mum would sometimes cast a few spells to make herself look twice as powerful than she normally was.

Thank goodness for being a Muggleborn.

"Maybe she's exaggerating," Lily said as she shoved the letter back into her pocket, reaching for her muffin again.

Alice shook her head. "I don't think so," Alice said. "Your mum seems pretty serious; I don't want to gamble with your chances." Lora agreed. Suddenly, a look of determination crossed Alice's face. "Breakfast's not so important," she suddenly said. "We're going to the library to look up all the names of the guys. Now."

"Wh--but--you--muffin--" Lily started, but her protests did not overcome Alice's fierce will, and she found herself being dragged off.

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"You know," Sirius said, deep in thought, a fork in his hand, "I wonder what it would be like to bake a cake."

James looked at Sirius as if he were mad, stopping in the middle of his breakfast. "Bake a cake?" he said. "What's wrong with just sneaking off to the kitchen and getting a cake from the House Elves?"

Sirius shook his head. "But we do that all the time!"

James sighed and ignored Sirius; he often went into strange moods. Remus helped himself to some pancakes and said distractedly, "You know, if you must, I'm sure there's some cooking club after classes you can join." He looked over at Peter. "Can you hand me the syrup?"

Sirius stood up, a fist in the air. "Come, let us go see the clubs immediately!" He ran out of the hall in a full gallop, leaving the rest of the Marauders, looking at each other warily, no choice but to follow their fellow friend who seemed to be a bit touched in the head. James was the first to trudge after him, Peter soon following them.

Remus, however, looked at the pitcher of maple syrup he was holding longingly. "But it's my sugar day," he said dejectedly as he put the pitcher down (which was instantly claimed by a fourth year) and followed his friends, whimpering all the way.

When Remus finally arrived to the scene, he found Sirius pouting, staring at the notice board with an anger glinting in his eyes. "What's wrong?" he said to James, seeing as Sirius was obviously not in the mood for talking.

"There isn't a cooking club," James explained, running a hand through his hair, then turned back to Sirius. "All right, there's no club. Now, can we get back to eating our breakfast?"

Remus, realizing that Sirius was not keen on moving, awkwardly patting Sirius on the back, quickly tried to scheme up a way to comfort him enough so they could return to breakfast. It was, after all, his sugar day. "Err... it's... okay, I guess... maybe you can get someone to start the club, a House-Elf or something..."

Suddenly, the look on Sirius's face was replaced by one of genuine excitement. "That's it!" he said. "We'll start it!"

Remus, James, and Peter looked at Sirius, a bit of fear in their eyes. "We?" they said in unison.

"Yeah," Sirius said strangely, as if the idea was easy to comprehend. "As in you three people and me." When met only by their cautious stares, he sighed and said, "The word 'we' is a pronoun used to replace the terms for, or represent a party of two or more people--"

Remus was the first one to recover. "Of course we know what the word 'we' means!" he snapped, angry that his intelligence had just been insulted.

"What do you mean, we will accompany you in starting up a baking club?" Peter said, aghast, voicing the mirrored thoughts of the other two.

Sirius looked thoughtful for a minute, then positively beamed. "Why, that's an excellent idea, Wormtail, I'll sign us up immediately!" And that he did, putting their names under a new title, reading, BAKENG CLUB.

"It's an 'i,' not an 'e,'" Remus put in suddenly. Sirius changed it with a flick of his wand, not caring much that he'd misspelled a simple word.

James sighed. "I have a feeling he planned our entire conversation out," he said.

There was a silent agreement upon them, but if it was true, or if it was not true, they would never find out.

That is, until, Sirius began to cackle.

"Heeheeheee."

(Insert silence here.)

James spun around to look at Sirius square in the eye. "Never do that laugh again."

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Classes ran smoothly (for the most part, but we can just skip the part where Sirius accidentally tripped Snape, who landed into a nice stack of niffler manure, which just happened to be in the middle of the classroom right where Snape's head landed), and after dinner, they returned to look at the list. James hoped that no one had signed up, so that Sirius would once more be discouraged and get over his sudden baking mood.

Much to his disappointment, however, the list was three pages long.

"Huh, look at that," Sirius said, beaming. "It's a good thing we started the baking club. See how many people wanted to join, but none of them had the chance to?"

Remus sighed, flicking through the pages, looking at the names. "I doubt that's the reason why the majority of them signed up," he said, shaking his head. "Almost all of them are girls; no doubt they only joined because of you two."

At this, James perked up at the idea of a baking club and attempted to slyly ask Remus if Lily was joined. Only, it didn't come out the way he wished it to, and he ended up being rather blunt.

"Is Lily signed up?"

The other three all sighed and turned to James. "No, Prongs."

James frowned. "But, you didn't even look! Maybe--"

"No, Prongs."

"How would you know? For all you know, she might be really interested in baking--"

"No, Prongs."

"But she might! The chances might be slim, but she still could--"

"No, Prongs."

"But--"

"NO, Prongs!"

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Week 1 -- Day 2

James wasn't in a very pleased mood at the moment. He had never been rooting for Sirius' genius idea for starting a baking club, and, when it pulled through, he didn't support it--especially when he found out that the club took place at six in the morning, before classes. He would have been quite happy and settled to have skipped that particular meeting--well, he would have been quite happy and settled to skip all the meetings, had Sirius not insisted.

Yeah, insisted, James scoffed in his mind. That was a little bit of an understatement, considering that Sirius had more of blackmailed James into coming. After all, James would do nearly anything as long as Lily never found out about that little secret of his under his bed...

He coughed slightly, converting his thoughts to merrier ideas. But these thoughts were immediately dashed, however, when they entered a room full of girls--and one or two guys, and James sincerely hoped that they were there because of their interest in baking--all staring wide-eyed at them.

"Well, this is exciting, isn't it?" Sirius said, beaming, clapping his hands together. He immediately assumed the role as leader and donned an apron which, as one of the girls said, brought out the color of his eyes. James only rolled his eyes and pointed to an empty space in the far corner of the room, where they would be safest from the disaster ready to strike.

"Now," Sirius continued, "Who knows how to bake a cake?"

No one responded. In fact, the response was so still that it would be entirely proper to say:

(Insert silence here.)

"All right, no one, then," Sirius said with a slightly nervous laugh, glancing at his three other friends, watching him with their arms crossed. "Ehh... James! I'm sure you can all teach this group a few starting tips--"

"Sure thing, Sirius," James said, striding to the front of the room. Sirius looked a little relieved. "First things first. Tip number one: never trust Sirius on anything."

At this, Sirius' thankful look turned to a glare. "I resent that," he said. Pushing James out of the way, he said, "Let us now bake a cake!" He then started going through the cupboard and pulling out almost everything he saw--woks, pots, pans, spoons, rollers, and a pitchfork (which made James, Remus, and Peter a little edgy).

"Err..." James started, sliding up next to Sirius, "do you actually know how to make a cake?"

Sirius shot a grin at James, pulling out bags of flour from the pantry. "Nope." Tossing James the bag of sugar, he continued, "Not a bit."

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Ah, how thankful I am for those cake mixes.

So, what did you think? Please review!