Disclaimer: still not mine...
Chapter three: Who's the bitchy ranga?
It had been a week since Holly had arrived in England. On this particular morning, the sunlight was streaming in from her large bedroom window illuminating her peacefully sleeping form. She sighs and turns over in her sleep, blissfully unaware of the shenanigans unfolding just outside her door...
"Shhh Sirius!" James whispered, "you'll wake her up!"
"Me?" Sirius whisper-yelled back "You're the one stomping around with your bloody clown feet!"
"AS IF!!" James replied
"Guys, this isn't going to work" Remus said in an exasperated voice.
"For Merlin's sake Remus keep your voice down! She might hear you!" Sirus hissed.
"And what do you mean this won't work? It's a Marauder plan. They always work!" James whispered indignantly.
"Fine, but I'm off. Don't come crying to me when she castrates you." Remus sighed walking down the stairs to breakfast.
"Prongs," Sirus whispered.
"What?" James whispered back
"What does castrate mean?"Sirus asked, giving his friend a puzzled look.
"We don't have time for that Pads! We're on a mission!" James replied "Grab your wand and follow me." With that he reached for the door knob and turned it carefully. The two boys tip-toed into the room and over to Holly's bed.
They slowly raised their wands, "One…two…three…AGUAMENTI!"
"AHHHHHH!" Holly screamed as icy cold water was poured on to her.
"BAHAHAHAHAHA!" James and Sirius burst out laughing.
"What the FUCK do you think you are doing?" Holly yelled.
"Oh…my…gosh…your face!" James breathed in between fits of laughter.
"That was bloody classic!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Ha ha ha, what a friggen GENIUS plan you two!" Holly exclaimed, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Sorry cuz, couldn't resist," James said "Mum told us to wake you up."
"Oh yeah!" Holly exclaimed, her anger forgotten for the moment, "I forgot, we're supposed to be going to Diagon Alley to meet Megan!"
Meanwhile, Sirius had been busy staring at Holly. She was soaked from the water prank. Her clothes were sticking to her body…"Merlin's Beard, she isfit!" he thought. "Wait! No Sirius! That's very wrong. She's James' cousin for goodness sake, you shouldn't be having those thoughts…still…"
Luckily Sirus was snapped out of his naughty thoughts by James whacking him on the back of the head. "Come on Sirius, you'll miss breakfast!"
"Yeah piss off you two now I have to have a shower and get changed!" Holly said ushering them out of her room.
"In all fairness we did just give you a shower." James pointed out with a smirk before Holly shut the door in the pranksters' faces.
"How'd it go?" Remus asked as James and Sirius entered the kitchen.
"Wonderfully my dear Remus, wonderfully" James replied grinning.
"Where is Holly James? I thought I just sent you boys to go and wake her?" Anne called from her place at the stove where she was currently cooking bacon and eggs.
"Um she said was going to get ready before she came down," James replied flashing a smirk at Sirius who returned it.
"You boys didn't prank her did you?" Anne said in a warning tone.
"Course not mum! We'd never prank Holly," James lied, holding in laughter.
"We'll you better not have, otherwise there'll be trouble." Anne replied throwing her son a suspicious look whilst waving a spatula threateningly in his direction.
Just then, Holly bounded down the stairs smiling. "Morning losers, Remus, Auntie A"
"Morning dear," Anne said beaming "What would you like for breakfast?"
"Oh just a piece of toast thanks Auntie Anne," Holly replied grabbing a piece from the plate in the middle of the table.
"Are you sure? Now really dear, you must eat more than just a piece of toast! You're so thin! I don't know what my sister's been feeding you!" Anne said, going off on another of her rants about Holly's food intake.
Holly simply laughed. "I'm sure Auntie A, a piece of toast will do me fine."
"Hmm…if you say so dear" Anne replied casting a wary look to Holly's plate that contained a solitary slice of toast before leaving the kitchen to go get ready.
"I swear your mum's trying to fatten me up," Holly grinned to James as she spread a thick covering of vegemite on her toast.
"Well she's got a point, your breakfast is hardly substantial," He replied, eyeing her toast.
"Hey, just cause I don't consume a whole pig's worth of bacon and 50million tonnes of eggs every morning doesn't mean my breakfast isn't 'substantial'" She retorted taking a sip of her juice. Remus snorted into his cereal.
As Holly, James, Remus and Sirius were walking down Diagon Alley, heading towards Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, they heard a shout come from behind them.
"Holly!"
Holly spun around and saw a mass of brown curls run towards her before she was tackled into a nearby bench.
"Megan!" Evie exclaimed grinning madly.
The three Marauders surveyed the new girl. She had chestnut brown hair that was wildly curly and reached her shoulder blades. She was quite short and more curvy than Holly.
"Guys, this is Megan, Megan, this is Sirius and Remus and I'm pretty sure you've met my cousin James before." Holly said beaming.
"Hey!" Megan said with a bubbly smile. The boys replied with a chorus of "Hello's" before leading the girls to Florean Fortescue's.
"So girls, are you excited to come to Hogwarts?" James asked.
"Yeah, I think I'll miss home a lot though," Holly replied.
"What about you Megan?" Remus inquired.
"If all the guys are as hot as you three I'll be fine!" She replied, grinning at Holly, who burst out laughing. Remus blushed, Sirius smirked and James...wait, where was James?
"LILY-KINS!"
"Oh no," Remus groaned.
Holly and Megan turned around to see a pretty redhead girl screaming at James "LEAVE ME ALONE POTTER!"
James, of course, chose to ignore the girl's screaming protests, "How are you my darling Lily? Did you get my letters? My flowers? My chocolates?"
"I was unfortunate enough to receive all of your pathetic letters and ridiculous gifts," she spat "And I threw them all away!"
Holly frowned, "Who's that girl yelling at James?"
"Yeah," Megan added, "Who's the bitchy ranga?"
"That's Lily Evans, the 'love of James' life'," Remus explained with air quotes.
"She hates him though," Sirius continued, "Poor bugger."
"Oh my GOD!" Holly exclaimed, "That's not the Lily is it?"
"The one and only," Remus sighed.
"Poor James!" Holly gasped, "I'm going over there, she can't just keep talking to him like that!"
"Holly don't-" Remus started but Holly ignored him and walked straight over to James and Lily.
"Potter I don't know how you do it," Lily scowled "You actually manage to be an arrogant prick AND a pathetic loser at the same time!"
"Hey, what's going on?" Holly said as she reached the two.
James looked at her, his face read pure agony and disappointment, "Oh, nothing Holly. Let's just go."
"Who's this?" Holly inquired, ignoring him.
"This...is Lily Evans." He replied in a dejected voice.
"Well hi Lily, I'm Holly, pleased to meet you," Holly said with a smile, reaching out to shake the other girl's hand.
Lily eyed Holly's hand for a minute before cautiously reaching out to shake it. "Now, is there a reason you were screaming at my cousin?"
Lily's eyes went wide, "Your cousin? You're James' cousin?"
Holly shot Lily a funny look, "Um, yeah. Is that so hard to believe?"
Lily turned a rather bright shade of crimson, "Well...I mean...you're accent is Australian and...well, you don't seem like a pig-headed prick."
"Uh...thanks?" Holly said hesitantly, "What has James done?"
"Well, your cousin constantly acts like an arrogant toerag!" Lily exclaimed.
Holly frowned, "Really? He's always been fine to me. Did he do anything to you just then to provoke you to scream at him and be rude?"
Lily's face became a deeper shade of red, out of embarrassment and anger, "W-Well, I'm sick of him acting like every girl should just fall at his bloody feet! I've refused him too many times to count and he just won't leave me alone!"
"Did you ever think that the reason he's being so persistent is because he actually really cares about you?" Holly inquired softly, "He wrote about you all the time in his letters to me."
Lily suddenly looked very uncomfortable. She definitely wasn't used to being confronted about her arguments with James. "I...U-uh...I h-have to g-go." And with that, the redhead ran off in the direction of Flourish and Botts.
"...Wow Holly," James said, "Thanks for sticking up for me."
Holly simply smiled and threw an arm around his shoulder, "What are cousins for?"
A/N (READ): You like? You review! I just want to apologize to anybody who is offended by the term "ranga" to describe a redhead. I love red heads! Please don't be offended!
