All Jo's, not mine.
The week following James and Lily's agreement went uneventfully. James managed to stay within their contract, much to Lily's surprise. He had showed up to every single class, paid attention, had shown up to the meetings she held for the perfects, promptly and stayed the entire time. He and the Marauders had thrown a back-to-Hogwarts party, but it had been held in the Gryffindor common room, and therefore wasn't going against the deal. That Friday, Lily gone come into the common room to retrieve her book and James had been sitting on one the conches, still dressed in his Quidditch robes, finishing homework.
"James? What are earth are you doing?" she had asked, "Don't you Quidditch try outs?"
"Huh? They ended early, so I thought that I get started on the potions essay that Slughorn assigned us. Sirius is coming down later, though. Hey, I've got a question: What are jobberknoll feathers used in?"
"Memory potions and truth serums." Lily answered immediately. "Well… Goodbye."
Lily was so dazed at the sight of James Potter doing homework that she didn't wonder why he had asked about jobberknoll feathers when the essay was on runespoor eggs.
Early on Saturday morning, Lily was dreaming peacefully, when a load crash and slightly whispered "Shit!" awoke her.
"Potter! What are you doing in here?" Lily sat up. "How did you get in? Boys aren't allowed in the girl's dormitory!"
James ran a hand through his unruly locks. "Oh, that's only in the regular house dormitories. They think that Head Boy is responsible enough to be in the Head Girl's room. Anyway, get up! Today is your first lesson."
Lily looked confused. "That's an incredible assumption, especially considering that you somehow got instated as Head Boy. What do you mean? Lessons on what?"
"On having fun! Now get up, because you are meeting Sirius, Remus and Peter in the Entrance Hall in about 20 minutes. Get dressed and I will meet you down in the common room. Don't look so scared, Evans." James laughed, noting her terrified expression. "You're about to have a blast, don't worry."
"I highly doubt that'll happen, since I don't plan on going." Lily said, snuggling back under her blankets.
"In that case," James smiled, "I think we'll go to Hogsmeade for our date. There's a visit in October, I think. We can meet at the Three Broomsticks, walk around for a while, shop, and when the night is over, just cud-" James smiled at the thoughts, but Lily cut him off.
"Fine! I'll let you teach me fun. Now get out, Potter." Lily said, throwing a book at him.
James dodged it, winked and ran out.
Lily groaned and rolled out of bed. Changing into jeans and a sweater, she pulled her hair into a bun. She stared into the mirror. She wanted nothing more than too just curl up and go back to sleep, but that would mean dating Potter.
She threw her shoulders back, took a deep breath and exited her room.
James was sitting on one of the couches, smiling at her.
"Are you ready for this, Miss Head Girl?" He asked, gesturing for her to take a seat. "I know that you consider rearranging the books in the library so they aren't in alphabetical order pulling a prank, but it's not. So you are going to learn how to pull a prank. It's going to be very simple, since it's not something you have ever done." He broke off and grinned. "Great, right? Pranks have got to be one of the purest forms of fun that you can experience, so it's a good place to start, I think."
Lily stood up, grinning. "I win, then! I'm heading to bed, now." She started to leave, but James' words stopped her.
"Actually, I'd be the winner. I'm not in breach of contract, because I won't be helping you pull the prank. Sirius, Remus and Peter are going to help you." James said, placing his hands behind his head and leaned into them.
Lily growled at him. "You're kidding." She racked her brain, looking for something, but could find none. "I honestly have to do this, don't I?"
James laughed. "Well, you can keep your nose clean if you just agree to date me."
"Absolutely not. I'd rather pull a prank than spend time alone with you." Lily said, heading for the door.
"Isn't that what we are doing now? Spending time alone?" James said, cocking his eyebrows. "Does that mean that technically, we're on a date?"
Lily narrowed his eyes. "Not at all. I'm go and meet the Marauders." She turned on heel and quickly exited.
Lily entered the Entrance Hall and looked around. A few students mingled about, but Lily could not spot the Marauders anywhere. They weren't on the stairwells and they weren't by the lingering by the Great Hall's door. Lily was preparing to leave and tell James that his completely unreliable mates had failed to show up when Aira appeared by her side.
"Come on. They are in the closet over there. You didn't honestly think they'd plot in the out in the open, did you?" Aira grabbed her hand and discreetly looked around, then shoved Lily into the closet and quickly followed suit.
As Lily's eyes slowing adjusted, she slowly began to make out the six faces of her three best friends and James' three best friends.
"Alright, now that Lily's finally here, we can get started." Sirius said, glancing around. "Since it's the Head Girl's first time, we're going to do something pretty simple."
"I can't believe you dragged my friends into this!" Lily asked, angrily. "While I don't care about you, I don't want them to get into trouble."
"We didn't drag them into anything. I told them Aira my plan, and she said she was game and Charlotte and Ellie agreed. Apparently, they'd like you to be loosen up a bit, too." Sirius said, ignoring the jibe.
"That is NOT what I said!" Aira said, lightly punching Sirius in the arm. "I thought it would be good for you to do something out of the ordinary and we wanted to help make it happen." She assured Lily.
Lily smiled gently at her friends, and then turned to Sirius. "I don't want to do this. I'm leaving." She turned and reached for knob, but Sirius's words stopped her.
"If you back down, James will win and you'll be stuck with him for an entire evening, maybe longer."
Lily clenched her fists. "He told you?" She said, anger rising. "Rather than just telling you to pull a prank with me, he told you why?"
"He told all of us." Sirius said. "James is our best mate and we're going do everything we can to help him win you over." Remus and Peter murmured their agreement.
Aira, Charlotte and Ellie shot her confused looks, as she hadn't informed them of the deal. "Fine. If we get caught, though, Elle, Aira, Charlotte and I were trying to stop you, not helping you." She stated, ignoring the glances.
"But Lily…." He whined. "We're not going to get caught. We're professionals." He let out a barky laugh, and began to explain the plan.
A half hour later, The Marauders and Lily, Ellie, Charlotte and Aira were crouched behind a trophy case. In less than 4 minutes, the bags of dung that Remus and Lily had been forced to enchant who drop out of the air and coat much of Entrance Hall.
"I can't believe that you're actually doing this! Do you know who awful the smell is going to be? And Filch has to clean it! If finds out who did this, he'd skin us alive!" Lily frantically whispered to Sirius, gripping his arm. "And what if McGonagall finds out that I was involved? I'd be taken out of my position, that's for sure. We'd most certainly get at least a month's worth of detention, which would completely ruin my chance of ever becom-"
Sirius slapped his hand over her mouth. "Lily, none of that will happen if we don't get caught. And we won't get caught if you please shut up!"
Lily obligated and held her tongue. She watched as a few more students went into lunch, and wished that she could follow them.
"Alright, troops!" Sirius said, smiling at everyone. "I'm starving. I know the plan was to drop them now, but we're going to meet James at lunch, instead. About halfway through, I'm going to give you the signal, Lily. When I give it, you will do whatever you need, and the bags of dung will fall and explode all over the Entrance Hall. We're going to be in lunch with James, so they can't say it was us, and if anyone asks, all eight of us spent the morning chatting in your dormitory. Is that all clear, Girls?"
"If we release them during lunch, then we're going to have to go through the smell to get back to the dormitories." Lily stared at him.
"Don't worry, Lily. We'll get you girls out without having to deal with the awful smell. The Marauders know their way around this castle. Now, no questions, correct?"
They all nodded, stood up and headed into lunch. James was sitting near the end, surrounding by empty seats.
"How long does it take you girls to go to the loo?" He asked with a wink. "I swear, women are mad."
Much to Lily's dismay, everyone filled the seats, leaving the only empty chair next to James.
"Come on, Flower, take a seat. I won't bite you, I swear. Snog you, maybe…" He let his voice trail off and smirked as she blushed.
"Switch seats with me, Aira." Lily said, her eyes begging her friend.
Aira looked at Sirius, whom she was seated next to, then between Lily and James. "No can do, lass." Aira said, her Scottish accent shining through. "You're just going to have to sit by James."
She looked at the others, but they looked away. She grimaced and fell into the seat.
"Was that so hard, love?" James asked, smiling at her.
"Even though I'm sitting here doesn't mean I like you. Or can stand to be around you. I'm only here so I can win, then you'll stop asking me to be your girlfriend." Lily said, turning away from him.
"Do you really think that me loving you is so awful, Lily?" James said, playing with her hair. "Am I really that horrible to you?"
Aira had stopped talking and was starring at them, as was Remus, Ellie, Sirius, Peter and Charlotte.
"I've told you many times as to how I feel about you." Lily said, glaring at him.
"I think you lie about how you feel about me." James said, playing with her hair. "I think you love me, but don't want to admit it."
"I think you've taken one to many bludgers to the head, Potter, because I don't love you, won't love and even if I wanted to, don't think I could love you." Lily said, slapping his hands away from her hair. "I don't know what you think you're going to be able do by teaching me to be more fun, but it probably won't work."
James looked at her, completely unfazed. "It's going to work, Evans. You watch and see."
Lily turned away from him, and began to talk absently to Ellie. The group's conversations slowly began again.
Part of the way through lunch, Sirius tapped Lily on the shoulder. She stared at him, shaking her head, but Sirius wouldn't back down. "Do it or date Prongs." He muttered. Glancing at James, who was smiling widely at her, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes and flicked her wand.
When she opened them when she heard the splat. It sounded like gallons of water falling into an empty bucket. She watched as 300 students ran out of the Great Hall to find what the noise was and the Marauders expressions' grew shocked.
"I… I didn't think you'd actually do it, Evans." Sirius stuttered, his eyes wide as his smile.
James looked perplexed. "Bollocks. I thought for sure that you'd back out and have to date me…"
"Well, I didn't. Now, you said there was a way to get us back to the dormitories without having to go through the Entrance Hall?" Lily said, standing. "Let's go. The smell is awful."
James jumped up. "I'll show you." He offered. "It this way, through the kitchens."
The group followed, finally exiting near the kitchens near Flich's office. Remus, Sirius, Aira, Charlotte, Ellie and Peter joined the mass of students heading for Gryffindor Tower, while Lily and James turned and began for the fourth floor.
I had a lovely thanksgiving. Eating, talking, laughing. It was wonderful.
I didn't get a chance to update and I don't really like this chapter all that much, but that's all right. It was needed. Anyway, thank you all for the reviews! It's been wonderful to get input from other people. I would love to hear what you think, and criticism on how I could make the story better would be more amazing than anything else.
So, go ahead… Click the blue button. Do it! Do it! Do it!