A/N: If lots of words in all caps bother you...I`m sorry. This is the official warning. You might want to have someone read this out loud to you or something, because there is quite a bit of that...yeah. Sorry.

Day Four, And A Duel

Thursday morning, when the sun shone upon Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, all was not the same as it had been the night before.

Sure, there were more rows and plots afoot than there had been when the sun had departed, but there was something that almost blew everything else away.

Someone, actually.

"What did you do?" Lily Evans shrieked, making every slumbering student within fifty feet of her jump from their beds.

"Lily? What`s wrong?" Melody said, suddenly wide awake, clutching her wand.

Marlene and some other Gryffindor girls burst in, their wands also at the ready to fend off the offender. "Did somebody break in?"

"What`s going on?"

"Where`s my sock?"

"Are you alright?"

Lily snapped out of her stoic, horrified trance. "Alice….What did you do to your hair?!"

Mattie rolled her eyes. "Really? That`s what you woke us up for? Alice`s hair? Ug, I should file for a new roommate."

"Sorry girls, show`s over. Lily`s sorry she shouted." Mel waved off the mass of Gryffindor girls, who left in disappointment.

"Aw, I was hoping for a good fight."

"You wanna duel me right her, right now?"

"Sure!"

"Please no, it`s too early for this."

"Come on!"

"We never get any action around here."

"It`s all overreactions."

Lily shut the door. "What did you do?" She said, much quieter this time.

Alice rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"I believe it is called 'cutting your hair'." Mel whispered.

"It is amazing Alice, but I`m going back to sleep if you don't mind." Mattie mumbled, rolling over and jamming a pillow over her head.

"I needed a change." Alice said finally.

Lily`s eyes widened (as far as they could possibly go). "Are you alright? Is something wrong with your family? Did Ryan break up with you?"

"I broke up with him, thank you very much. You don`t have to be such a drama queen about it."

"Oh, Al, why didn`t you tell me?"

"You were busy."

"So you cut off all your hair?"

"I like it." Alice ran her fingers through her hair, which had only last night been past her shoulders but was now barley past her chin. "I didn`t do it because of Ryan or anything. I was just tired of being weighted down. I`ve been meaning to do it for a while, and last night seemed like the perfect time to do it."

Mary looked up from the homework she was checking over. "Well, it looks great."

"Thanks."

There was a knock at the door, and Sirius Black popped his head in. "Everything alright in here? Lily, have you got all that shouting out of your system?"

"You heard that? Sorry…" Lily`s face flushed.

Mattie lifted her head out of the pillow. "How did you get in here? Isn`t there a jinx on the stairs or something?"

"Have you forgotten?" He announced, using his extra-obnoxious king-of-the-universe voice that made the girls groan and roll their eyes. "I`m Sirius Black!"

With that, he dramatically strutted out, calling over his shoulder, "Like the hair, Prewitt."

"Like the PJ`s, Black." Alice called after him.

"Bet you do"

"Have fun falling down the stairs."

"Who said I was going down the stairs?"

The wind was trying it`s absolute hardest to blow away the few stragglers out by the lake after lunch, and Alice, Mary, and Lily were unfortunately among the few victims.

Mary, the smallest and lightest of the trio, dug her nails into her friend`s arms to keep herself on Earth. "WHO`S BLOODY IDEA WAS IT TO HAVE A PICNIC OUT HERE ON A DAY LIKE THIS ANYWWAY?!"

"WELL SORRY, I DIDN`T THINK THE BREEZE WOULD PICK UP THIS MUCH. I JUST WANTED TO GET AWAY FROM THE JUDGING EYES AT OUR TABLE!" Lilly yelled over the wind.

"BREEZE? IT`S A HURRICANE, LILS! WINDSTORM, GALE, TORNADO, WHIRLWIND, TWISTER! "

"YOU KNOW, OUR SITUATION IS NOT BEING HELPED BY THE FACT THAT ALL OF US ARE WEARING LARGE CLOAKS THAT ARE ACTING AS WIND SAILS. ACK, CAN ANYONE SEE IN THIS? I`M SHUTTING MY EYES, I KEEP GETTING DIRT BLOWN IN MY FACE."

"YOU WANNA TAKE `EM OFF AND FREEZE TO DEATH? OI, LOOK, SOMEONE`S AT THE DOOR TO THE SCHOOL! HEY! HELP! WE`RE GOING TO DIE OUT HERE!" Alice screamed, hoping the wind would carry her words to the shadow at the door.

The shadow disappeared.

"TWAT! WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

Two boys caught up to the girls from behind, linking on to the chain they`d formed.

"OUT FOR A STROLL?" Mary asked.

"WE WENT DOWN TO THE LAKE TO GET SOME PLANT SAMPLES FOR HERBOLOGY HOMEWORK." The shorter boy, wearing a Gryffindor uniform, said.

"YOU SECOND YEAR?" Lily asked, trying to remember what year she had to do that.

"THIRD," the other boy, Hufflepuff, said. "NEXT TIME I`LL BE SMART AND JUST EXCEPT A T. AIDEN MACMILLIAN, BY THE WAY."

"LILY EVANS."

"OH, I KNOW THAT. I`M BRADLEY ROBINS."

"ALICE PREWITT, NOW PLEASE STOP STEPPING ON MY FOOT."

"I`M MARY MCDONALD. WHAT DID YOU MEAN BY 'YOU KNOW THAT'?" Mary opened her eyes to try and look at the newcomers, but was immediately assaulted by her blonde hair.

"I`M ON THE GRYFFINDOR QUIDICH TEAM…."

"HUH? WHAT`S THAT GOT TO DO WITH ANYTHING?" Lily asked.

"IT`S GOT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH IT, OUR CAPTAIN IS J-"

"LOOK! SOMEONE`S AT THE DOOR AGAIN!"

They were quite a bit closer to the school than they had been before, so they could make out the shape of five people standing at the doors. They were also relatively close to a group of stranded, huddled students by a tree.

"SHOULD WE TRY AND MAKE A MAD DASH FOR THE DOORS AND HOPE FOR THE BEST?"

"THERE`S NO WAY WE`D ALL MAKE IT. AIDEN, CAN YOU REACH THOSE PEOPLE?"

Aiden, the closest to the students, helped them link onto the chain. The new additions were four girls, all small, easily picked up by the wind, and wide-eyed.

"I`M COLD." One of the girls yelled.

"THANK YOU!"

"NO PROBLEM. DON`T LET GO."

The shadows in the school were now yelling at them, but it the wind was too loud for them to hear.

Bradley yelled out, "TOO BAD MATTIE`S NOT HERE."

"HOW DO YOU…OH, SHE`S ON THE QUIDICH TEAM. YEAH, BACK TO THAT, WHAT ABOUT YOUR CAPTAIN?" Lily screamed back.

He started to respond, but suddenly Lily felt herself being jerked forward rapidly against the wind. Since everyone had linked arms, this caused a chain reaction and in turn pulled Mary, Alice, Bradley, Aiden, and the little girls along with her. The group zoomed towards the school in a train of sorts, with Lily in front.

"Whooo!" One of the girls in the back screamed.

Unfortunately, the magic of all of this was ruined for Lily, who noticed that she was going very fast towards the school and had no way to slow herself down to a stop. It was like she was a dropped vase, pulled by gravity, and the only way to stop was to smash on the ground.

And oh, did she smash.

Lily whizzed in through the doors of the school and flew into something hard, plowing them both to the floor. Since her arm was still linked with Mary`s, the entire train of people toppled down with and on top of her.

"That was incredibly amazing!" Bradley called from somewhere above Lily.

"Let`s do that again!"

"Ow, you`re on my elbow."

"Somebody shut the door, it`s cold out there."

"I think I broke something."

"Don`t be a wimp."

"Has anyone got a hairbrush?"

Lily was too busy trying to look away from the hazel eyes of the boy underneath her.

He was shocked, and was trying not to look at her or smile. It was hard to keep a straight face in a situation like this, but somehow James managed to keep his composure and make his expression as unreadable as possible with Lily pressed on top of him.

"I`m sorry." She whispered.

He didn`t say a word, instead choosing to look at Sirius, Peter, Remus, and Frank, who were standing by the door, laughing at the heap of students their friend was trapped under.

"Are you gonna just stand there, or actually help?" Aiden asked

Frank and Remus recovered first and started to help people up.

"Thanks for saving us." Alice said as Frank pulled her to her feet.

Frank blushed. "It was mostly James. He was the one who recognized Lily by her hair and was able to accio her and pull you guys to safety."

"Yeah, but you were the one that got us to help you save them when you saw the people trapped out there." Peter added, making Frank redden ever so slightly more.

Lily`s hair was tickling James` face, she was so close. "Thank you for saving me."

"Get off me, Evans."

"I can`t, I have two Gryffindors and a Hufflepuff sitting on my back."

James glared. "Sirius, help get her off me."

"You could at least be a bit nicer about it." Lily mumbled.

"You want nicer? I just saved your pathetic life despite your complete lack of 'niceness' or consideration to everyone recently, and you want me to be nicer about it?"

"That`s such an overreaction, and if it pained you so much to help somebody for once-"

"FOR ONCE?"

"-then you shoulda just left me out there to just save myself! At least then I wouldn`t have to have you in my face!"

"Fine, I`ll put you back out there!" Sirius pulled Lily off James, and James drew his wand.

"Do it, I dare you!" Lily shouted, drawing her own wand.

"FLIPENDO!" James roared.

At the same time, Lily thundered "FURNUNCULUS!" before being blasted back against the hard wall.

James almost dropped his wand in surprise of the boils that had started to pop out onto his skin.

"AVIS!" Lily shouted, regaining enough energy to pick up her wand but not to stand.

"WINGARDIUM LEVI-ACH!" James put his arms up to protect himself from the birds Lily`d shot at him.

"ENOUGH!" a voice boomed from down the hall. Everyone turned to see Professor McGonagall, wand drawn, looking very put off. With one flick of her wand, the birds and boils were gone.

"Everyone in my office now."

The fourteen students were in the stiff office of Minerva McGonagall, all staring at their shoes. Lily had her arms around Alice and Sirius and was using them to help her stand since her right leg was throbbing with sharp pain.

"Mr. Robins, would you care to tell me what was going on back there?"

"We were trapped outside and Frank and the Marauders helped us in, Ma'am."

"Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Then why did Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans have their wands out?"

"James summoned us to bring us to the school, Professor."

"So there wasn`t any fighting going on that you saw?"

"No Professor."

"And you wouldn`t know who started said fighting?"

"No Professor."

"You have one detention, Robins. What about you, Ms. McDonald?"

"I couldn`t see anything, Professor. I had dirt in my eyes from the wind outside."

"Mr. Longbottom, do you know who started the fighting?"

"Yes. I did."

McGonagall sighed. "You didn`t have your wand out. One detention for you then, too. Ms. Evans, what happened to your leg?"

"I fell on the way in."

"Really. I suppose nobody is going to come clean?"

The four little girls on the end quavered a bit.

"Ms. Powell? Do you have something to add?" McGonagall asked of one of the girls, evidently a first year.

"No, Professor." The little girl smiled slightly at Lily, who winked. McGonagall was too busy writing out detention slips to notice.

The Professor handed out the detention slips. "You may go, I suppose, unless anyone else has something to tell me."

Nobody needed to be told twice.

Can Mattie and Alice complete the bet? Will Lily do something that isn`t studying or causing drama? Will you ever find out how Sirius manages to get into the girls dorms? Can this ending get any cheesier [Spoiler alert: probably not!]?

ALL THAT AND MORE…in the next chapter.