A/N: We were feeling a little guilty about the long wait between chapters five and six so we updated this chapter a lot sooner. Although we didn't really WANT to update so quickly given the total lack of reviews – we got exactly two (thanks Miko and Asho!). So this time when we say we want to pass the fifty review mark … we mean it. So please enjoy the seventh chapter of Moments Lost in Time.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Chapter Seven: Lucy and Pottygoo

"Let's begin with that one."

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

James paced for a moment, hands clasped behind his back. "The Marauders, not only provide entertainment in your lowly lives, we also educate. Since teaching," he nodded in the general direction of the staff table, "is a renowned art, we have come up with a plan to break the shells of the reclusive and let them fly free." Here, Peter obligingly jumped up for a second and spread his wildly flapping arms out to indicate wings.

Remus snickered softly, before continuing. "What we have come up with is so simple, it's ingenious." He now held the attention of the entire hall and grinned; he was particularly excited about this prank since he had come up with the best part - how to get the robes off. James, Sirius, and Peter had stood still after he had announced it, before identical wicked grins creased their faces.

"Well, to get the robes off, the Slytherin in question has to come up to the Marauder whose name is mentioned on the robe and ask them out. Then, after we give our reply, the robes will immediately fall off. Sounds easy enough, right?" Remus looked around at the Slytherins who were now, if it was possible, even more repulsed than before. Nevertheless they gathered around, keen on getting the garment off.

Everybody else in the Great Hall exchanged amused glances. This could potentially be the Marauder's best prank yet. The first years were watching enthralled, instinctively realizing that their years at Hogwarts were going to be a lot more interesting if these four were involved.

"No!" cried Snape. "I refuse to ask out the not-hot, non-Norse-god Black!" He stamped his foot once more, his greasy hair framing his sallow face.

Sirius turned to face him. "It's quite easy, really. All you have to say is, 'Sirius, I think you are the most hot-hot creature I have ever seen and resemble a Norse god perfectly. Will you do me the great honor of going out with me?' See, easy."

Snape shook his head vehemently. "Fine," said Sirius shrugging, "if you're such a big fan of mine that you refuse to take off the robe…"

Snape's face turned paler, more than it already was, as he replied. "I refuse to ask you out. No. Absolutely not. I mean, what would be in it for me?"

Sirius simply looked at him. "Consider it a privilege, to be given the honor of asking me out. I mean, some people have to ask Peter out."

"Yea!" an anonymous girl from the audience that surrounded them, pitched in, "come on, Snivellus, do you even know how lucky you are? I would love to ask Sirius out, I mean, I would kill for a chance."

Sirius didn't even move his head. "I'm sure you would, hun. Now, moving on..."

Carina sighed; she was sick of Sirius and his antics. "Where the hell did self respect go, people? Pride? Where does Sirius get off being such a jerk? I mean, come on, he is such an arrogant, self absorbed, childish, immature loser!" Carina stood up on her chair to continue her rant, "Come on people, rise above the influence, it's not that hard! Sure he has gorgeous eyes, but where's the substance? When you're all old, and wrinkly; and you will be - so much make up will do nothing else - looks won't matter! Conversation, intellect, substance, what's inside will matter!"

Anonymous girls stared at her in shock. Who cared what was inside? The bottom line was that Sirius was hot. Who cared about the rest?

Carina sighed. Obviously, her well-intentioned message had gotten her nowhere.

Sirius reached up on tiptoe. "Nice to know you think I have gorgeous eyes, and, nice try babe," Sirius grabbed her hand and pulled her down.

Carina yanked her hand from his grasp and swiveled sharply. "Do NOT call me 'babe'! My name is Carina!"

"Whatever babe."

Carina sighed yet again. She could see a clear pattern emerging. Lily and Sierra refrained from grinning. Sirius and Carina had always gotten on each other's nerves but this year was proving to be much more interesting than the last few.

Sirius turned back to Snape. "Now what did you have to say to me?"

Snape, realizing he had absolutely no choice whatsoever, mumbled, "Will you go out with me?"

James, who had been content to observe their genius flourish, stepped in. "Didn't quite hear you there Snape, mind speaking up?"

Lily straightened with a start, realizing that he had said the exact same thing to her not so long ago. She was being treated like Snape now? Lily didn't know what stick was firmly lodged up James's ass at the moment but if he didn't get it out soon, she would snap. And it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

"WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?!" screamed Snape, aggravated beyond belief.

"Why of course not," replied Sirius, unperturbed. "Why would you think I, let alone anyone else, would?"

Snape didn't even bother to retaliate. The robes had thankfully fallen off and he went back to the Slytherin table, wondering how many potions he would have to make before he could get over this traumatic incident.

It seemed that Snape had opened a floodgate with his question. People begin yelling things out at the Marauders, pride shoved firmly aside, wanting to get the stupid robes off and finish their breakfast.

Remus held up his hands. "Now, now, let's form a line in front of the person you're supposed to ask out, in an orderly fashion. Single file, folks, single file."

Sirius leaned over and whispered in James's ear. "How is it that, even in total chaos, Remus can come up with a way to get things done in an 'orderly' fashion?" He grimaced in distaste at the word 'orderly'. 'Orderly' was a word no one would think to associate with the Marauders, besides for the obvious exception of Remus of course.

One Slytherin lurked back. Lucious Malfoy, would not, and could not, ask Peter Pettigrew out. It just wasn't done. But it seemed that Peter had a different idea.

"Now," he said, looking at the people lined up in front of him, "who will go first...? Lucy! Why don't you to the honors?"

Malfoy glowered - he did NOT take well to being called 'Lucy'. "Potty-goo, will you do me the honor of...escorting me...to the facility of Hogsmeade?"

Sierra snickered. "Feel pretty good about yourself don't you, Malfoy? Turned the entire village of Hogsmeade into your personal waste disposal, have you?"

'Lucy' stiffened, but, nevertheless, turned to look expectantly at Peter. "Well?"

Peter immediately flushed. "We don't, ahem, provide that service. Maybe you misunderstood what Sirius was trying to say...?"

Lily, Carina, and Sierra, immediately catching on, burst out into gales of laughter.

Malfoy shot a murderous look at them before turning back to 'Potty-goo'. "What do you mean, Potty-goo?"

"First of all, my name is 'Pettigrew' not 'Potty-goo'." Malfoy shot him a threatening glare causing Peter to stutter, "Or, you know, uh, whatever you want to call me. Anyway, we don't offer an," here his voice dropped to a scandalized whisper, "escort service."

Malfoy immediately jumped back as if he had been scalded. "No! No, that's not what I, no! Ugh," he shielded his eyes, almost as if he was trying to erase the rapidly forming mental images from his now-scarred-beyond-repair mind. When he could bear to go on, he muttered, "Seems like I'll have to break it down for the buffoon. Ok," he said, looking up once more, "Will. You. Go. Out. With. Me?"

"Where?" asked Peter joyously, glad to finally have the show on the road.

"What do you mean 'where'?"

"Well, you have to tell me where you want to go out so I can decide if I want to or not. Duh!"

Malfoy sighed in exasperation. "Do. You. Want. To. Go. To. Hogsmeade. With. Me?"

"Hogsmeade?"

"Yes, what is wrong with Hogsmeade?"

"Nothing, nothing, but, if I go out with you, I want it to be good! Hogsmeade is so … common. Do you have no desire for a special date with the one who's, to quote you, 'luscious form' you crave?"

"Fine, fine!" Malfoy yelled. "Let's go out for a romantic moonlit walk around the great lake, instead."

"Just a walk?"

"Fine! You know what? We'll have a walk to," here he batted his eyelashes, "'get to know each other' and then we'll have a candlelit dinner on a boat gliding gently on the Great Lake. Happy?"

"Will the lake be strewn with rose petals? I love roses!"

"Sure, roses and friggin' pansies too!"

Peter brought up his hands to his ears. "I will not tolerate vulgarity on my date. Besides, I don't like pansies, they make me sniffle."

"Daisies?"

"Ooh, I like those!" Peter cried, clapping his hands gaily.

"Does that mean you'll come?" Lucius couldn't have cared less what the answer was; he just needed an answer for the robe to fall off.

"Just one last question...when?"

Malfoy sighed; why, oh why did it have to be Potty-goo? "Will. You. Go. Out. With. Me. For. A. Romantic. Candlelit. Dinner. On. The. Lake. -"

"-strewn with rose and daisy petals, without any stems or leaves. And no pansies either. God they clash with my complexion!"

"-Tomorrow. Night?"

"I would love to," said Peter sincerely, "it's just I'm very busy tomorrow night. Maybe you'll have better luck next time."

The robes fell off of Malfoy immediately and he rushed off to dunk his head under a cold, gushing faucet; it would take years of therapy to get over this.

"He didn't even say good-bye!" wailed Peter. "Oh well," he shrugged, "who's next?"

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

When the Hall finally settled down, McGonagall could be seen, walking amongst the tables, handing out people's schedules. "Mr. Potter, I have come to-"

"Assign us detention-" James piped up.

"-two weeks, separately-" Sirius added.

"-25 points from Gryffindor-" Peter cried.

"-your detention slips will reach you tomorrow morning-" Remus said smartly.

"-and your schedules, as well. Make sure you're not late." McGonagall said this herself, fighting a smile as she handed them their schedules.

James smiled at her before accepting his new schedule. Sirius and James had finally given in to study - after Lily had reduced several girls to tears for whispering too loudly in her 'study-time', which was all the time come exam time. Unable to bear her frantic mutterings, and Remus's reproachful looks, they had finally managed to find, dust off, and crack open a book. But since they'd worked out a foolproof system, they didn't mind too much. Sirius asked James a question; if James got it right, Sirius tossed a Bertie Botts Bean into his mouth. If Sirius missed, he had to forfeit his right for a Bertie Botts Bean on his next turn. If, however, James got the question wrong, he had to accept a dare from Sirius, and vice versa.

If James got a question right, Lily got mad; if James got a question wrong, Lily would, inevitably get mad, when Sirius dared him to do something that would disturb the deathly silence of the common room before exams. Due to strategic positioning, if James or Sirius ever got a question wrong, or missed a Bean, Lily got mad. If, however, they did not study, and ran around laughing and having fun, Remus and Lily both got mad. Really, it had been a win/win situation; James and Sirius studied, and they got Lily mad at the same time. Especially after they had persuaded Remus and Peter to join them.

Due to his rigorous…studying…he had received very good marks. As a result, he was now in all OWL classes, except for divination, which he had dropped. Sirius, similarly, had dropped Divination and gotten excellent marks, so when their schedules were compared, they found themselves in all the same classes.

There had actually been a great deal of debate amongst the staff that year, as to where James and Sirius were to be put. Many felt they should be put in separate classrooms, however, the problem had arose that if a poor teacher ended up with both Sirius and James on the same day at different times, that teacher would have a marauder twice in one day. This was like double jail time. So, it had been decided that Sirius and James would have exactly the same classes; Lily and her friends would just be put in the same classroom to keep them in line.

Lily looked up from her schedule, having not heard of this yet, and saw that Carina and Sierra had the same classes. Relieved, she got up and the three girls began to make their way out of the Great Hall.

The marauders finished their breakfast as well and made a move to catch up with the trio, James notably dragging his feet. When they had come within hearing distance of the girls, Sirius decided to speak up.

"So Carr," Sirius quipped, as the marauders fell in line with the girls, "what's your first class, babe?"

"I don't know. Why don't you ask that tart standing over there what her class is? I'm sure she'd love to give you a free kiss as well."

"Why?" asked Sirius smirking. "Jealous?"

Carina swiveled sharply. "The day I get jealous of you, and the thousands of girls you go out with, will be the day pigs fly."

Sirius grinned again before pulling out a finely polished wand. 'Wingardium Leviosia' he whispered, flicking his wand. Peter flew up in the air, waving his arms in a windmill motion. Then, Sirius lowered him back down, gently (he had to spare his friends SOME pride). Then he turned back to Carina. "Not quite a pig but as close as I could get it. Now, mind telling me what your first class is?"

"Sirius, he's NOT a pig, he's not even close!"

"Ah, but Caaaarr," Sirius stressed the word, the simple one syllable turning into five. "I never said he was a pig! I just said he's the closest I could get on short notice!"

Peter looked up. "Yea, Sirius knows I'm not a pig, right Sirius?"

Sirius nodded. "Yea, Pete, whatever, sorry. Anyways, Peter and I always kid around like that, don't we Pete? I call him a pig and he calls me the most handsome person alive.

Carina grinned, her eyes twinkling. "Is that what all that noise is that I hear every night from your dorm?" She looked from Peter to Sirius and back again before brushing past them to catch up with Lily, Sierra, James and Remus who were up ahead.

Sirius stood for a moment before following her, Peter closely behind, "Why? Listening at my door, Carina? Don't worry, I'm sure someday...wait...never mind. So, what is your first class?"

Carina rolled her eyes, before replying somewhat reluctantly, "Herbology." She set off once more, catching up with Lily and Sierra, who had drawn ahead of James and Remus, fairly quickly.

"Hey, me too," Sirius refused to leave, and ignored Carina's attempts to shake him off, "and James, Remus, and Petey have the same class…hold on!" Sirius snatched her schedule, "We have all the same classes together!"

Carina groaned, and Lily turned around quickly "Hold on, what did you just say?"

James looked up. "Well, I'm fairly sure that he said we have the same classes as you three, but, what would the Fiend of Second Years know, right?"

Lily stiffened, before determinedly ignoring him. "Well?" she asked, addressing Sirius.

"Why Lils, I just said that we all have the same class first hour! And the rest of the day too! Except for Peter, who has to go away for a bit since he didn't get as many OWLS as the rest of us."

Lily, barely suppressing her dismay whispered in a strangled voice. "Are you telling me that the six of us have the exact same classes at the same time for the rest of the year?"

Sirius, apparently missing the problem grinned and cried, "Isn't it great?" He threw his arms around Carina who shrugged him off with a glare. He threw his arms around her again, "Aww, you know you love me, babe." Carina glared again.

"Uh huh, no, I do not 'love' someone with an IQ barely above three."

"You ain't foolin' no one," Sirius said gleefully, "I'm the same homey who got the same O.W.L.S. as you, baby doll!"

"You're not foolin' 'no one'?" Remus asked, laughter in his eyes.

"Yea!" Sirius cried, "it's muggle slang, my man, muggle slang."

"American muggle slang," Lily quipped, smirking.

"And here my point is proven, Black. You have no common sense."

"I do too!"

"Right... so, the summer before fifth year when we were all at James's house, you put a plastic spoon in the microwave with the leftover lasagna because you were exercising your common sense?"

"I meant to do that! It was an experiment! I wanted to know whether or not it would melt."

"Well, then, why did you try to 'boil' an egg in the microwave the very next morning?"

"I was hungry, ok? And I was saving time too!"

James laughed and his face lit up. Lily tried not to notice that he looked extremely attractive when he laughed and suppressed the twinge of guilt she felt for whole 'Second Year Episode'. But then, he was being especially cold to her for the entire morning...and although Lily couldn't blame him, that was just plain mean!

"It's ok Sirius. I mean, it wasn't like, when the microwave BLEW UP mum didn't come running to put out the fire... It wasn't like the whole thing where you left the tap on, in more than one bathroom I might add, and managed to flood the entire third floor."

"Nope, nothing like that at all," replied Sirius cheerfully, flicking his black hair out of his eyes. "Duh, that was water and this was a fire," he rolled his eyes.

Carina snorted heavily, "Oh yes, which was completely different from the time you were playing Quidditch in the backyard and managed to down muggle fellytone lines for the next week?"

"Telephone," corrected Lily automatically, highly amused by this conversation.

"Exactly!" Sirius beamed in a Slughorn-esque manner, "That was in the air!"

Remus rolled his eyes, before opening the glass doors to the greenhouse, "I can see your common sense is much in evidence, Padfoot."

"Thanks Moony," said Sirius slightly tearfully. "You're a real friend."

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Lily looked up from the stupor into which she had sunk at the mention of NEWTS. The moment they had come in, all the students had been introduced to Professor Germine, the new Herbology teacher, after which she had launched immediately into 'you know how important NEWTS are' lecture. She looked up just in time to see Sirius tip back in his chair and plunk his feet up on the table.

Professor Jemima Germine, the new teacher, looked up as the thump resounded through the glass house, "Are you bored, Mr. Black?"

"Why no, of course not, Jemmy...I can call you Jemmy, right?"

Germine's black eyes deepened, "No."

"How about…Jemima?"

"No."

"How about…J.G.?!"

Peter decided to join in, "J.G., J.G., J.G.!" Peter cried in high-pitched tones.

Remus looked up, before slowly inching his chair away from the laughing trio. Unfortunately, in his haste to move away from the maraudering idiots, he hadn't counted upon the friction caused when a shiny, clean floor rubbed against old wood. The chair let out a long screech as he moved, and Remus winced as Germine's eyes zeroed in on him. "Who, exactly, are you?"

"I am an innocent soul with no relation or knowledge of these people next to me."

"What?" Peter cried, in abject agony at this declaration, "five long years of friendship, Remy, five long years! Thrown out the window! Kicked out the door! Tossed in the towel! Lost the bottle cap! In Davy Jones's locker!" Peter had forgotten his point somewhere in the middle of his ramblings, but had been having too much fun to stop.

"Er…Petti-grew…is it?"

Peter nodded vigorously, his previous objections forgotten, "You got my name right!" Peter proceeded to stand up and do a victory dance, complete with pelvic thrusts and wild disco moves, "Uh huh! Uh huh! Uh huh, uh huh, uh huh!"

"Er…sit down, Mister Pettigrew." She scanned her seating chart; she was the new teacher this year. As such, everyone knew everything there was to know about her via the rumor mill, "Mr. Lupin claims he does not know you…now why might this be?"

"Moony likes his little joke, dontcha, Moony?" Peter jumped out of his chair again and ran to pull Remus back to the table at which they had been sitting, "Tell 'em Moony!"

"I really, really do not know these people! Why, I didn't even know this bloke's name until you said it…Potti-grow, I believe?"

James smirked from the side, "It doesn't matter if Lupin knows, to quote him, 'Potti-grow', Germy. I think that in light of this discussion, we have all forgotten the true point."

"Exactly," Sirius cried, "the whole point was your new teacher/student affectionate term, Germy."

"Don't call me that, Mr. Black."

"Aww, come on, Minnie let's us call her Minnie!"

"She lets you?" Germine asked sardonically.

"Yes, she likes it, really, she does! She feels it's an affectionate term between a teacher and student. Quite like Germy!" Sirius ended on a high note, his voice cracking.

Carina sniggered, effectively bringing the attention to herself. "And you, Miss," another glance down at the seating chart, "Favreaux, why are you laughing?"

Carina abruptly stopped laughing and straightened up; her twitching lips gave away her lingering amusement. "Because…" Carina floundered for words, "I find this exchange between teacher and students quite amusing…Germy."

At this, Carina swiveled and winked at Sirius who grinned back.

"For the last time, my students may call me Professor Germine, and nothing else," she finished ominously shooting Carina, Sirius, and James threatening looks.

Sirius, in true Sirius fashion, replied with an articulate, "Whatever, Germy." Carina immediately looked at the floor trying not to laugh. Sirius was a lot funnier when he was annoying somebody other that her.

"Detention, Mr. Black. You can meet me here tomorrow at five."

Sirius looked genuinely sorry. "I can't."

"And why not?" asked Germine, nostrils flaring at this blatant disregard for her orders.

"Because I have detention with Minnie for two weeks, starting tomorrow," explained Sirius calmly, quite enjoying the interesting shade that the Herbology teacher's face was turning. He turned to James and said, "By the way Prongs, I have one more detention than you, counting this one!" Sirius and James were competing to see who could get more detentions before graduation.

James rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'll catch up before the end of this day."

Professor Germine didn't take to being ignored – she was quite like Lily in some respects – and quickly called Sirius's attention back to her. "Fine, I will notify you at a later date when your detention will take place."

"Ok," replied Sirius cheerfully, "it's a date!"

Germine's eyes narrowed before she resumed her lecture on the importance of NEWTS. This time she didn't bother to admonish Sirius when he tipped his chair back, his legs resting on the table, resuming his comfortable position.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

Through this entire conversation Lily had been alternating from being amused to being annoyed. She still wasn't over the spectacle of this morning starting with her whole apology gone wrong. Lily sighed. Sometimes, it just wasn't worth getting up in the morning.

As Professor Germine continued her lecture, Lily carefully ripped off a piece of parchment and wrote 'What were you thinking?' before folding it up and passing it to Carina.

'About what?' Carina scrawled back.

'"I find this exchange between teacher and students quite amusing, Germy!" Honestly.'

Carina grinned when she opened the note and quickly scribbled, 'It was fun! Try it sometime Lil, you'll find it endlessly amusing'.

This time, Carina passed the note to Sierra so that she could write something as well. Sierra smiled as she read the exchange and added, 'She obviously wasn't thinking, Lil. But you have to admit, they were funny!'

'Whatever.' Lily replied, rolling her eyes. 'Potter is an immature loser and his posse is quite like him.'

When Carina and Sierra read this, they exchanged a glance. Lily was obviously still annoyed about this morning's incident.

'I'm sure he'll snap out of this phase of his,' Carina wrote back, in an effort to reassure her friend.

'Who said I cared about his little 'phase' or about anything else for that matter?'

Carina and Sierra rolled their eyes. Lily was obviously firmly in denial. 'Well, Lils, the fact that you acknowledged that he was in a phase…'

Lily grimaced, before replying 'I may not like him, but I, at least, notice the obvious.'

Carina raised her eyebrows, before deliberately throwing the parchment behind her, where she knew Sirius would catch it and read it. She smirked as Lily lunged for the parchment, unable to catch it in time

O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O

James looked up, entirely unamused at having been startled from his thoughts by his sniggering best friend. Sirius shook, the table vibrating under his feet.

"Well?" James looked at his friend expectantly, wondering what exactly he was laughing about now. Admittedly, the whole 'Germy Episode' had been fairly funny, if not for the fact that Lily Evans had persisted in biting her nails the whole time. How had he failed to notice this disgusting habit prior to this date? It was horrible! Did she eat nothing else? And, besides that, what was with her hair? I mean, really carrot-y color aside; her incessant twirling was enough to drive anyone bonkers! Wasn't chewing her nails enough? Was she going to resort to chewing strands of her hair next? Really; first her nails, now her hair, what next? James found himself fearing for her unborn children.

And if that hadn't been annoying enough, what was with her attitude? Primness and propriety could carry one only so far! It was as though someone had stuck dung under her nose, all the time. What was with the superiority complex? Would it kill her to make it less obvious and consort with those beings 'beneath her'?

James was shaken from his thoughts by Sirius, who, disgruntled at being ignored, had taken to waving a crumpled bit of parchment furiously in James's face. "What?" Granted, it wasn't the best response James could have given, but Sirius was satisfied.

"James," he said in an annoying singsong, 'I know something you don't know' voice, "look at what Carina just chucked at me!"

James looked at him, and then down at the parchment expressionlessly, "Is it a life threatening device?"

"No…"

"She's obviously losing her touch."

Sirius scowled, his point having been thwarted by meaningless squabble. "Read it."

James looked up once more, "And why, exactly, would I do that?"

"Because, Lily wrote in it too…" Sirius had somehow maintained his singsong voice, and James snatched the paper in exasperation.

"I don't care about Lily, but fine."

Sirius looked on eagerly as James looked over the note, and was disappointed at his reaction. Sirius, who had been anticipating lit up eyes, and inspiration for a prank, had, instead, received nothing. James looked over the note once more, before giving it back to Sirius, "So?"

It was at this moment that Sirius realized the full magnitude of James's late night decision. He had not thought, in any of his wildest imaginings, that James would so abruptly change, and as the class erupted into activity, retrieving dragon hide gloves from their bags, Sirius sat, dumbstruck. James had, in less than 24 hours, gotten over Lily, forgotten about her, and had progressed to despising her. Lily had often told James that he was in a severe need of a reality check but such an abrupt change was probably not what she had been referring to.

The fact that Sirius didn't bother to crack another Germy joke for the rest of the hour betrayed the magnitude of his thoughts. A war between Gryffindor's most talented people had begun.

O.o.O.o.O.o.O

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please do REVIEW to tell us what you liked. It will only help the future chapters and also help us update much, much sooner. Thanks!

Ciao, darlings!

Caeruleus Libellus