Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling. But I bow to her.
Chapter 2: Surprise, Intervention, Snow Prank
Lily Evans woke up on the first of November with a smile. It was a gorgeous day outside. She'd opened her eyes to a stream of sunlight, a bright blue sky, and fresh snow atop her windowsill. The room was the perfect temperature, and her blankets were thick and cozy. As much as Lily loved being Head Girl because of the hard work, the benefits were just out of this world! She got her own private bathroom, a big comfortable bed, a quiet common room, a good partner . . . and the list went on.
The night before had been amazing. Gid had surprised her with flowers and took her to Hogsmeade, where he bought her dinner and they had amazing conversation over hot chocolate and cookies afterwards. The one thing she loved about Gid the most was how much he understood her. He got her better than anyone else in the world, and Lily loved it. She was almost positive that she loved him, too. They'd been dating for more than six months now, and she was ready to tell him how she felt. The only thing was, that he hadn't said he loved her yet. It bothered her, but she tried not to let it ruin things between them. He just may not be ready.
Lily was humming slightly as she grabbed her brush off of her nightstand and began running it through her hair. It had been a pretty perfect night, and things were going very well. Other than the occasional run-in with Potter, things were pretty much A-OK. She only wondered what the little prick had been hiding in his cloak the night before. She knew that James was fairly smart, but he was also promiscuous, so it could have been pretty much anything. And part of her thought that she probably didn't want to know what he was hiding anyway. That was his business.
There was a loud knock on the door, which distracted Lily from her usual morning routine. It was about nice o'clock on a Saturday morning, which meant that most people were still asleep, including both Leah and Ari. She was used to getting ready in the peace and quiet before delving back into the regular day, full of regular people.
Lily exhaled and made her way to the door, opening it a crack to see who it was.
"Head Girl's residence –"
"Lily!" Ari hissed, pushing her back into the room. Lily stumbled back towards her bed, landing haphazardly on the unmade blankets.
"Well, good morning to you as well," Lily said with a laugh, curling her legs underneath her. Ari didn't flinch, and Leah was standing behind her looking a little uncomfortable. Something was going on. And it if it wasn't serious, Ari would not be awake. "What? Did someone die?"
"No," Ari said. "It's way worse than that."
"How could it be worse than that!"
"Trust me, its worse than that," Leah said, nodding.
"Okay . . ."
"So we had a little chat with Sirius last night," Ari began, crossing her arms and dropping into a chair next to Lily's dresser.
"Leah, did Sirius bother you? Because I told him to stay away . . . you're too good for him," Lily said, getting distracted.
"Lily, we're friends with Sirius. I am friends with Sirius. Remember?" Leah said, laughing a little.
"Right, I knew that."
"Lily!" Ari said, taking her by the shoulders. "Focus!"
"Right, right."
"So this might come as a shock to you, but –"
"How'd you get in? Did Colin let you in?"
"What, did you wake up with ADD this morning?" Ari said, throwing her arms up in the air. You could read the frustration on her face. "And no, Colin did not let me in. That's what this is all about –"
"Who let you in then? Because I know alohomora doesn't work on these doors. I've tried it."
"That's what this is all about. If you would just listen for more than thirty seconds that would be lovely," Ari yelled, taking a deep breath. She ran her fingers through her blond hair and set her jaw, looking Lily straight in the eyes with an unmoving gaze.
"Okay. Fine."
"Colin isn't head boy anymore," Ari said. That was absurd. Why wouldn't Colin be head boy anymore? Dumbledore almost neverwent back on his choice for head boy. Colin couldn't be . . . But he couldn't have actually . . . died? Could he?
"Why? What's wrong with Colin? Is he alive?" Lily's heart was beating quickly. Who would have done something to Colin? Had Voldemort gotten him?
"No, Lily, Colin's title has been taken away because he's got a drug problem."
Lily burst out laughing. She could hardly control herself. It wasn't until she'd been laughing for a few minutes that she realized neither Ari nor Leah were laughing with her.
"Oh, so this isn't a joke," Lily said, clearing her throat.
"No, Lily."
"Well I suppose I should probably head up to Dumbledore's office so I can help him pick the new head boy. And I should probably help Colin pack," Lily said, hopping off her bed and walking briskly towards her bedroom door.
"Colin is gone –!"
But it was too late. Lily had opened the door and came face-to-face with the infamous, cocky, fat-headed, intolerable James Potter. He was lounging on the couch of the common room, and he looked up at Lily when she entered. He smiled at her, flashing all his teeth, and all Lily could do was stare at him, her insides boiling so hard that she didn't know what to do to herself.
"Lily," Ari tried, but Lily was so wrapped up in whatever was going on in her mind, that she completely ignored her friend.
"This is bad," Leah whispered, as Lily continued to stare at James, her face getting progressively redder and redder as she stood there, her hands balled up in fists. How could James-bloody-Potter get this over someone else? Over Remus Lupin? Over Gideon? How was that possible? Both of those boys worked their rumps off, all while James strutted around the school shaking his little butt like he owned the place. Oh, she and Dumbledore needed to have a little chat!
"Well, good morning Evans, you're looking quite . . . red today," James said.
"You," was all Lily could muster. It was as if she'd been paralyzed with anger.
"Lily, there are mature ways to deal with this," Leah said, laying a hand on Lily's shoulder, but she just shrugged it off.
"You."
"Yes, me. James Potter. I am the new head boy," James said standing up. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you when you first walked in."
"YOU!" Lily shrieked, and all the anger that and been pushing up through her erupted.
Lily took off, faster than a cheetah on hot pursuit, across the common room, her arms stretched out before her, aiming for James' neck. She was going to kill him! How could he ruin this for her! The nerve that he had, raining on her parade. She'd worked her butt of forseven years and there was absolutely no way that he was going to mess it up!
"Whoa there, Evans! We can talk this out!" James said, scrambling backwards as Lily leaped over the couch, grabbing a pillow.
Lily charged towards the window and James backed away, but Lily was quick. She darted back across the room, swinging the pillow back and forth quickly attempting to smack James across the face. This pursuit lasted nearly five minutes, Ari and Leah occasionally running every which way to avoid being mulled over. When Lily got angry, she literally saw red, and both of her friends knew that she got like a bull when she charged, and also that no one should get in between Lily and her target unless they liked to be plowed over.
"Honestly! Evans! You're mad!" James squealed backing up against the couch, and Lily who wasn't expecting him to stop, ran smack into him, pushing him over the back on the couch so they both landed – with Lily on top – onto the cushion of the couch. She laid there in shock for a moment, her face rested on James' chest, breathing hard.
"Bloody hell," Lily said, with the last bit of energy she could muster. She rolled off of James, disgusted that they'd made physical contact, and feeling a little nauseous from all of this.
"Evans, I'm really not that bad," James said quietly, looking Lily in the eye.
Lily paused, breathing heavily for a second. "Ha!" she said curtly, pushing herself off of the carpet and stalking straight past her friends and into her bedroom. The door slammed so hard that the golden plate engraved with the words Head Girl fell to the floor of the common room.
"Oh, oh boy," Leah said, raising her eyebrows, while Ari nodded.
James shook himself out as he sat up from the couch, ruffling his hair and making sure that the coast was clear. Ari and Leah were trying to reattach the gold plate to Lily's door, whispering amongst themselves. Lily had honestly reacted just the way that he'd expected her to; except the plan didn't actually go the way it was supposed to. She wasn't supposed to walk in on him being head boy. She was supposed to have been told by some certain people beforehand to soften the blow.
"Well, it could have been worse," James said sarcastically, strolling over to Ari and Leah. Ari laughed out loud.
"Yeah, she could have actually killed you," Ari said, effectively sticking the plate to the door. It was slightly crooked, but since Ari had never been much of a perfectionist, James could see how this would work for Ari, but not for Lily.
"Lily is going to freak when she sees that," Leah said, pointing at the down-slant of the plate.
"Just what I was thinking," James said, taking out his wand and aiming it at the plate.
"Oh, don't pretend like you know Lily really well," Ari said with a sarcastic tone.
"I do know her well," James replied curtly, bowing slightly. "Just because Evans and I aren't friends, we have the same friends, and alas, I have been able to study her from afar for nearly seven years."
"That's creepy," Leah said, shaking her head. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were a stalker."
"Oh, but I ama stalker," James said in a creepy voice.
Leah rolled her eyes as Ari started moving towards the doors of the head's quarters.
"We're going to head down and get some breakfast. All that anger is really making me hungry," Ari said, rubbing her stomach as she opened the door. "Will Mr. Potter be joining us?"
"Hmm," James said, thinking, "possibly. Mr. Potter will join you shortly."
The girls laughed and left the room, leaving James to his thoughts. There was an eerie silence in their wake, and James turned to look at the fire. He walked around to the front of the couch and sat down, warming his hands on the fire and listening to it crack and spit. He'd known Leah pretty much all his life. She was his next-door neighbor since they were babies. It took him a while to get to be friends with her, because she always seemed so quiet. But there was one day that him and his friends were making snowmen out on his front lawn. Leah had walked outside to get the mail and accidentally been knocked out with a stray snowball. Long story short, the mail had disintegrated because she'd come after them. She'd began talking that day, and the rest was history.
When Sirius had moved in with James the past summer, him and Leah had became closer than ever. But he found that their relationship quickly developed to love-hate, because their personalities seemed to clash. Sirius was very promiscuous, and Leah was not. Leah was quiet, often reserved, and Sirius would get on her nerves with his incessant talking, running, pranking and laughing. That much said, Sirius never stopped talking about Leah since the day he'd met her. It didn't stop him from dating other girls, but she still caught his eye somehow. James was frankly getting sick of it, and told him that there wasn't much of a chance that Leah would give him the time of day.
James stood up and went to his bedroom. He hadn't completely unpacked, so some of his clothes were still dangling off of the side of his trunk. He sifted through his sweaters and made the difficult decision of the morning; red sweater, or green sweater? He debated for a minute, and finally decided on red, pulling it over his head and fixing his glasses before he pulled on his robe. Quickly pocketing his wand, he made his way back out into the common room, checking the door to make sure it was locked, and rapped on Lily's door.
"Evans! We're all getting breakfast! Wanna join?"
"Getbent, Potter! Hell hasn't frozen over yet!"
"Okay," James whispered, mostly to himself, "I'll take that as a 'no.'"
He left the head's quarters and skipped down the stairs, smiling and waving to whomever he recognized in the hallway. A quick glance out the window revealed freshly laid snow out across the campus. James loved snow, but it made quidditch practice hell, and he knew they would be needing to have one soon. As he entered the Great Hall, he quickly spotted his group of friends. Leah and Ari were sitting near Remus, who was deep in conversation with them, Peter was pushing his eggs around his plate into a shape of a rat, and Sirius had fallen asleep in his pancakes.
He took a seat next to Sirius and slapped him hard on the back, which caused Sirius to shoot up so fast that he fell backwards onto the floor. The majority of the Gryffindor table burst into laughter as he realized what happened, and stood up to take a bow before sitting back at the table.
"Was that necessary, Prongs?" Sirius asked.
"Not at all, but it was funny as hell," James replied. "Oh, by the way, you've got some pancake stuck to your cheek."
"Ah." Sirius grabbed Leah's napkin out of her hand and used it to wipe the leftover breakfast off of his face.
"Oy! Sirius! I was using that!" Leah exclaimed. Ari was giggling to herself behind her hand.
"Not anymore, you're not," Sirius pointed out. "Just think of it as today's contribution to the Sirius Looks Ridiculously Attractive Foundation."
"Well that's a load of bullocks," Leah said, grabbing a napkin off of the nearest table and setting it next to her plate.
"Have you gotten a load of this snow?" James asked, nodding towards the large windows in the Great Hall. There was an astounding view of the snow-capped Scottish mountains through them. The lake appeared to be on the brink of freezing, and the trees were capped perfectly like a winter wonderland, sparkling in the morning light.
"Yeah, its wicked," Remus said, turning and looking outside. "How shall we put it to use?"
"Hmm, I'm not sure, but I'm thinking something along the lines ofprank," James whispered, leaning closer to the Marauders. They laughed devilishly, and Peter stuffed his face with the egg-rat he'd finally finished making. "Invisibility cloak?"
"Fake cows," Sirius said, nodding.
The other three of them looked up at Sirius, pausing to stare at him for a moment, before deciding to completely ignore his comment.
"Oh, here it is," Remus said, pushing Ari out of the way as he moved in closer to the Marauder huddle. He lowered his voice to barely a whisper. "Picture this; a snowstorm that never ends."
"Hmmm, I'm liking the sounds of this Moony," James said rubbing his chin and chuckling to himself.
"Indeed," Remus said. "But also, a snowball fight . . . without people."
"So you're saying, make it snow somewhere, and somehow incorporate flying snowballs," James said, nodding. "Okay, so where do we want to centralize this? I'm thinking the Grand Staircase."
"Sounds like a plan to me," Sirius nodded. "It's okay. We can do the cows next time!"
"Right," Remus said, furrowing his brow. "So we gotta somehow find a filter for the snow to get inside, or find a spell that creates snow itself. Either way its entirely plausible. James . . . get your cloak."
A/N: This one took a little longer because I am a busy, poor college s tudent, so I spend most of my time trying to finish all my work so I can pass . . . but I'm doing my best!
Please R & R! That always helps me update faster :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, as well!!
