Chapter 3: Rocky Mountain Oysters

James and Lily permitted Annabelle to ride with them in the Head Carriage back to the school after the train arrived, which proved to be equally awkward as the train ride. During the carriage ride James did make a few attempts to strike up conversation and once again failed miserably to convince her that there was nothing wrong with her.

"This is useless!" James exclaimed to Lily when they left the carriage.

"We seriously need to help that girl," Lily truly felt sorry that she never noticed how Annabelle truly felt about herself after six years of sharing a dorm with her.

"How?" James was exhausted after his attempts of boosting the poor girl's confidence. "It's not like she will listen to a thing we say."

"I don't know," Lily shook her head and frowned. Then suddenly Lily realized she was getting along with James something that very rarely happened.

It seemed James had noticed the change also, "Now Lily, I'm not so bad, am I?"

"Not all the time," Lily admitted. "But most of the time you are that bad, you cocky prat."

James smiled, "You know you love it."

"Once again, cocky prat," Lily smiled and rolled her eyes and walked into the castle.

James followed Lily and could not help but feel ecstatic about sharing a private common room with Lily. Not to mention the amount of authority he now had. This year was going to be the best yet.

James sat down with the rest of the Marauders at the Gryffindor table. They were sitting not far from Lily and her two best friends, Sidney and Ida, and sitting right next to Sirius was Annabelle, looking sadly down at the empty dish sitting before her on the table.

"Sorry about the train," Sirius said simply to Annabelle and quickly ignored her again.

"Yeah, sorry," Peter added and also ignored her.

Annabelle looked at the boys, very confused, but said nothing. No one had ever apologized about something they said to or about her. Annabelle questioned whether their apologies were sincere, but she did not really care. She was just happy that someone spoke to her, although that happiness quickly faded when she realized that was all that was going to be said to her.

Everyone in the Great Hall moved their attention to the line of first years that were following Professor McGonagall into the room. McGonagall was carrying a stool and an old ratty hat and set the stool down in front of the students, and placed the hat on the stool.

All of the first years looked at a complete loss as to what an old hat sitting on a stool had to do with them being sorted into their houses. And when the hat began to sing, many of the young eleven year olds were taken aback. The tension on many of the young students' faces eased when they listened to the song and figured out how they were to be sorted.

After the sorting hat finished its abnormally long song, Professor McGonagall stepped up to the stool and pulled out a long piece of parchment.

Professor McGonagall began calling out names and one after one an anxious eleven year old would sit down, put on the sorting hat and then jump up when the hat called out their house.

After the sorting had finished Dumbledore stood up and addressed the school about a very serious matter, "Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. EAT!"

Food magically filled all of the plates in the hall and Sirius began stuffing his face with whatever food was nearest. Many people thought that Sirius had strange eating habits; he would always eat as much as he could at once. This was a habit he had picked up after the sixteen years he had spent living with his mother. She often denied him food so he learned to eat whatever he could before she deemed him unworthy of her food. Even though Sirius had moved out of his mother's house, it was a habit he could not kick.

Annabelle was shocked when she saw Sirius eat. She had never seen someone put down that much food in that little time before. Annabelle found Sirius almost as disgusting as her sister. At least he isn't getting breast implants, she thought.

Sirius finally noticed that he was being stared at, "Oy! Annabelle, what the hell do you think you are looking at?"

"Oh," Annabelle didn't realize that she was staring, "um…sorry."

Sirius turned back and rolled his eyes, "Honestly, the girls just can't keep their eyes off me."

"They just pretend they want you to get to me," James smirked.

"What the hell kind of strategy is that?" Sirius laughed.

"You know, when a girl starts hanging out with some guy all the time, and then tries to get the guy to hook her up with his friend," James said.

"Wow, the girls must really like me if that is the case," said Peter.

"Nah, I think it's Moony they're after," Sirius said.

"And what makes you say that?" Peter asked.

"Because they say he's an animal in bed," Sirius laughed.

"So am I then!" protested Peter

"Who wants a rat in their bed?" James asked.

"A wolf is much cooler," Sirius agreed.

"You guys need to be more careful," Remus finally spoke up. "People really can't find out…"

"Oh calm down, no one is paying attention," Sirius said calmly.

However one person was paying attention to their conversation. Annabelle was not quite sure what they meant by a rat in bed, but she had put two and two together about Remus being a wolf. She had never thought about it before, but Remus did seem to become "ill" about once a month. Annabelle was shocked that she had never realized it before. Remus Lupin was a werewolf.

After all the food had disappeared off the plates, Dumbledore stood up and called for silence.

"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. Mr. Filch requests I read you a list of the banned items at our school, I however decided to post the list in all of the common rooms. And now, onto a more serious subject. As we all know, a dark wizard who calls himself Voldemort is at large. As the sorting hat so politely stated, or more sang, unity among the houses is vital. I understand that it can be less than easy for rival houses to get along," Dumbledore paused and looked at the Slytherin table, and then the Gryffindor table. "And because of all the dangers, I request you follow all of the school's rules. Going outside past curfew you are in serious trouble with the school, and possibly your life is in serious trouble. Please realize how serious we need to take the issue of Voldemort and these Death Eaters. I want you all to know that these Death Eaters are all very dangerous and if you have any knowledge of any Death Eaters in the castle, I want you to contact me immediately. Thank you for your eyes and ears. Prefects you may now lead your houses to the common rooms."

James and Lily stood up and headed in the direction of Dumbledore's office for a short meeting with the Headmaster. It felt strange to the duo to not be heading towards the Gryffindor common room after the feast.

Dumbledore arrived at his office shortly after James and Lily had, "Marshmallow Peeps." The gargoyles in front of his office sprang to life and a spiral staircase appeared behind them. Lily and James followed Dumbledore up to his office and sat down in the two chairs opposite of Dumbledore's seat.

James and Lily listened as Dumbledore explained the roles the two would have to fill and lectured them on making sure everyone follows the rules. After half an hour of explaining and lecturing, Dumbledore finally finished up his spiel with, "Your common room is hidden behind the wall across from my office and now I will let you two compromise on a password."

"I know!" James said happily. "James is the most handsome person alive, and Lily can't keep her eyes off him."

"Nice try," Lily rolled her eyes. "How about James is an egotistical arse?"

"Or Lily is amazingly gorgeous…and loves James."

"Or James has no chance," suggested Lily.

"I will choose one if you two don't hurry up," Dumbledore chimed in.

"Rocky Mountain oysters!" exclaimed James.

Lily couldn't help but laugh, "No."

"Then what do you suggest?" asked James.

"Maybe we should just have Dumbledore pick one," said Lily.

"Fine," agreed James.

"Then Rocky Mountain oysters it is!" laughed Dumbledore.

"Are you kidding me?" asked Lily.

"No," said Dumbledore, "I think that it is a great idea."

"Fine," said Lily dully.

Dumbledore left the office with James and Lily and when they were facing the wall that concealed the Head common room, he pulled out his wand and pointed it at the wall. There was a flash of orange light and he put the wand back in his pocket. "Well you two are good to go," Dumbledore smiled and reentered his own office.

"Rocky Mountain oysters," James said to the wall.

A gap began to quickly grow in the wall. James could see a hallway emerging and looked at Lily, "Ladies first."

Lily smiled and entered the hallway, followed by James. The gap in the wall closed behind them as the continued down the hallway. There was one door at the end of the hall that Lily opened.

The common room was magnificent. Straight across from the door they had just entered from was a massive fireplace. In front of the fireplace were a large maroon couch and two gold armchairs with a large chandelier dangling above. On either side of the fireplace was a large stone staircase, spiraling off away from the fireplace. On the wall, next to the fire place on the left was a large gold name plate reading JAMES and next to the staircase on the right was a name plate reading LILY. There was also a large, unlabeled door on the right side of the room. James raised an eyebrow and opened the door. The room was a bathroom. He saw a large, Jacuzzi bathtub, a huge shower, and of course a toilet and a sink.

James noticed Lily standing behind him and he put his arm around her, "Looks like that bathtub could easily fit both of us…want to test it out?"

Lily slapped James across the face, "I do not want to share a bathroom with you!"

"Come on, it was only a joke," smiled James.

Lily glared back and reentered the common room, "Well I think I will go off to bed."

"It will be awfully lonely up in that room by yourself," said James. "Maybe you should join me in my room tonight."

That statement earned James another slap in the face, "Shut the hell up James!"

"Hey!" exclaimed James. "I was only joking again."

"I don't care," at that Lily stormed up the stairs to her room and flopped onto the king sized bed. She never thought about it before, but it was a little lonely with out the other girls to share a room with. But she still preferred to be lonely than to have James's company.


Oh and just in case you didn't notice, this story is going to be almost as much about James and Lily as Sirius.