Chapter Eleven: Payback and Parties
The door to the boys' dormitory swung open with a bang, causing Peter to jump. The rest of the boys turned around in time to see Marlene entering the dormitory, carrying her bag and a scroll of parchment.
"Wha—this is the boys' dormitory, McKinnon!" exclaimed James.
"Although I do see how you could have mistaken Sirius for Mary," said Remus thoughtfully. "He does need a haircut." Peter laughed and Marlene rolled her eyes.
"Here." Marlene threw her bag at Sirius, who was lounging on his bed. There was a muffled "oomph" as the bag hit its mark.
"What's all this?" he demanded, pushing the bag off the bed.
"Prepare to be enslaved, Black," smirked Marlene, balancing herself on the end of Sirius' four-poster and holding one of the posts for support.
"Kinky," said Remus, who was watching this exchange with interest.
"First on my list of demands," said Marlene loudly, "is to write my Potions essay. And don't just copy yours out twice. After your done with that, you can do my laundry, give my owl a bath, paint my toenails—"
"Paint your toenails?" Sirius yelped.
"—read and summarize that chapter Flitwick assigned us, chew a piece of Droobles Best Blowing Gum and stick it to Peeves, offer to scrub the bedpans in the hospital wing for Madame Burton—"
"What?!"
Marlene spared him a glance and flipped the parchment over. "Tell Professor Merrythought that it was you who glued Avery's hand to his face—"
"That was you."
"—organize my Chocolate Frog card collection, find my earrings, go to the library and write, 'Property of Sirius Black, the Worlds' Biggest Prat' in everlasting ink on all of the books on the return shelf—"
"That's suicide!"
"—bring my dinner up to me in the common room—my list of favorite foods is right here—and give me everything that's in your pockets right now."
Marlene tossed the parchment to him and held out her hand while Sirius stared dumbly at her. Quite suddenly, James burst out laughing. Sirius threw Marlene's backpack at him.
"Why the bloody hell do you want me to offer to scrub the bedpans?" Sirius demanded hoarsely. Marlene shrugged.
"Just for fun. C'mon, empty your pockets."
Sirius looked at his friends for help, but they offered none. On the contrary, all looked rather amused. Grudgingly he pulled some Sickles, candy wrappers, and a Filibuster firework. Marlene accepted these and checked her watch. "Well, enough chitchat. You'd better get started if your going to finish all of this." She flashed the boys a grin, waved, and left the room.
"She's funny," Remus observed pensively.
"I've had it up to here with your passive-aggressive commentary, Lupin," Sirius snapped. "Can you believe all this?"
"Well, like McKinnon said, you'd better get started," said James lightly. "I'm going down to the Quidditch pitch. See you later."
"Oh, no your not!" said Sirius. "You're gonna help me with this!" James snorted.
"Relax, Sirius," said Peter. "James can't go down to the pitch, anyways. McGonagall confiscated his broom, remember?"
James' grin faded and his face fell, looking as though all his relatives had died.
"Way to go, Peter. You're gonna make him cry."
James mumbled a few incoherent sentences before he climbed back into bed and drew the hangings around himself.
"Remus?" said Sirius hopefully.
"I thought you 'have had it up to here with my passive-aggressive commentary.'" Remus replied swiftly.
"Pete?"
"No, sorry, I'm too busy enjoying not being any of you right now," said Peter, popping a Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean into his mouth and then gagging.
Grumbling to himself, Sirius pulled parchment out of Marlene's backpack and fished a quill and ink out of Remus' trunk. He stared at the blank page for a few minutes as though hoping the essay would write itself.
"I don't want to do this," he announced, throwing down his quill.
"You made that stupid bet. You suggested 'personal slave' instead of 'two galleons.' It's your own fault," Remus told him frankly.
"Where is the empathy in this room?" grumbled Sirius.
"James is hogging it," said Remus sarcastically, "but I'll let him know you need it back as soon as he brings himself out of his deep depression."
Sirius glared at him and picked his quill up again. He scratched a few words on the parchment, then crossed them out, and then wrote a few more before scratching them out, too. He put his hand on his forehead and closed his eyes, and then slowly opening them, a grin materializing on his face.
"Finally found some inspiration?" asked Peter.
"You could say that," said Sirius, and his hand raced across the parchment, ink splattering his sheets.
"Since when do you know so much about the properties of Asphodel?" Remus wanted to know. "You can't even spell it." He got up and read over Sirius' shoulder. "'Asphodel is most commonly found in the navels of self-righteous eleven-year-old girls, and it tends to glow in the dark. However, it should not be mixed with water and there have been many reports of aforementioned self-righteous eleven-year-old girls exploding during bubble baths—' Sirius, don't you think Marlene will notice that your essay makes no sense?"
"Please, Marlene doesn't read," said Sirius as though this was obvious, and he laughed at the very thought of it. "Besides, she never said it had to be any good."
"What happens when she gets it back with a big T on the top?" asked Peter.
"She'll probably yell at me or something," shrugged Sirius, never lifting the quill from the parchment as he continued to write furiously. "She has a P average, this won't change anything. What is she, like seventy pounds? I'm not scared of her."
"You know, this time I'm not going to point out how stupid of an idea this is," said Remus, laying back on his bed. "I'm just going to sit back and watch it all blow up in your face."
"Just the way I like it," said Sirius, rolling up the parchment in a self-satisfied manner.
It was breakfast time and the Gryffindor boys were sitting down at the table in the Great Hall, none of them saying much at all.
"Your sweater is on backwards," Marlene pointed out.
"Well, it's not exactly easy to put your clothes on straight when you've been up all night cleaning bedpans and sticking gum to poltergeists," snapped Sirius, pulling an entire plate of bacon towards him. "Here's your stupid essay." He threw a scroll at her, and she stuffed it in her bag without a second look.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you," she said cheerfully, downing a goblet of pumpkin juice. Lily rolled her eyes, as if to convey that anything involving James and Sirius could hardly be called a pleasure.
"Potter!"
James looked down the table in search of the voice, and a tall, dark-haired boy waved at him. Harry knew he had seen him somewhere, but couldn't quite remember.
"What?"
"Look who's back!"
The dark-haired boy gestured down the table at a girl with tired eyes and stringy hair, but looked happy nonetheless, eating eggs and chatting with Linnea Orwell and Natalia Moore.
"Jordana!" James jumped up and made his way to the end of the table where the three girls were sitting.
"Potter, hey," she said through a mouthful of eggs.
"How are you? I mean, are you alright?"
Jordana Lester shrugged.
"I've been better, but I've been worse. It's good to be back."
"We thought you were gone for the whole semester!" said the dark haired boy—Ethan Leagan, the other Chaser, Harry remembered finally.
"Nah, I have exams." She made a face. "Stupid O.W.L.s, plus I don't want to have to repeat a year…"
"So you'll come back for exams but not for Quidditch?" said James. "We got murdered!"
"Hey, don't put this all on me," she said. "You're the one with the Quidditch ban, and he went and got himself gutted by a bludger. We could have won, even with a substandard Seeker if we had three fit Chasers..." she trailed off, but after a moment continued, her voice stronger than ever. "But not next year. Next year we go all the way!"
"Wish it'd been this year, though," said Linnea Orwell sadly. "Gryffindor's never won the cup while I've been on the team…"
"What are you complaining about? Aren't you about to be signed to Pride of Portee?" demanded Fabian Prewett, the third Gryffindor Chaser.
"Well, yes, but even so…"
The bell rang, and the sound of scraping benches filled the room.
"See you around," James waved, jogging over to his friends and falling into step with them.
"—there's no way," Remus was saying. "I mean, Slughorn's great at Potions and all, but I'm pretty sure McGonagall would kick his can."
"Why would she do that?" asked James.
"James! Finally," said Sirius. "This idiot thinks McGonagall could beat Slughorn in a fight."
"Well, she would, wouldn't she?"
"Are you blind? Slughorn would just…I dunno…sit on her, and it would be over."
"Somehow I don't see it happening that way," said Remus, shaking his head.
They entered the dungeon and set up their cauldrons at neighboring tables—Sirius partnered with James, and Remus with Peter.
"Good morning!" boomed Slughorn. "Essays, essays…pass them to the front, please!"
The students dug in their bags for their essays and passed them in, after which Slughorn instructed them to brew a Cough Concoction. He sat down at his desk to grade the essays, accompanied by a box of crystallized pineapple, while the class paired off and got started.
"A Cough Concoction?" Sirius read over the instructions in his Potions book. "That's a stupid potion. I don't want to do it."
"Me neither," said James. "I wish we'd do something interesting for once." He slumped on his stool and poured out the correct amount of pomegranate juice into a cup. Sirius on the other hand dumped out his entire store of caterpillars into the potion.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Remus from the table beside them as the potion turned an ominous shade of purple and bubbled dangerously.
"Something interesting," said Sirius, adding a salamander tail to the mixture.
"Sirius, I don't really think this is such a good idea…" Peter trailed off.
"Probably not," Sirius shrugged as James added a few lacewing flies. The potion turned black.
"What, no lecture, Remus?" asked James, stirring the mixture. There was a sizzle and James removed his stirring rod. It had melted.
"Nope," he replied distantly, focused on his own properly-made potion. "I'm sitting back and watching things blow up in your face now, remember?"
"Ms. McKinnon!" called Slughorn suddenly.
"Yeah?"
"May I have a word with you about your essay?"
Marlene froze halfway through pouring her pomegranate juice. Her eyes snapped to Sirius, who winked at her. Confused, she made her way up to Slughorn's desk.
"What if Marlene tells Slughorn that you wrote the essay?" asked Peter.
"She can't," said Sirius. "If she did, then she'd be admitting that she's cheated."
Harry could tell that Sirius was playing it cooler than he really felt as he watched Slughorn and Marlene. Marlene was stammering, and Harry knew she was trying to explain exactly why she thought that asphodel came from navels. Slughorn did not look impressed. He dismissed her, and Marlene made a beeline for Sirius.
"Hey, McKinnon," he said casually, dumping a few ingredients plainly not on the list into his cauldron. James shifted slightly closer to Remus and Peter's table.
"Well played, Black," she said, smirking.
"I don't know what your talking about," he replied coolly.
"You know, of course, that this means war?"
"Naturally."
She nodded and made her way back to her table.
"Get back over here, you ninny," said Sirius to James. "That wasn't bad at all."
"I can't believe she didn't yell at you," James marveled.
"Well, I am a genius, aren't I?" replied Sirius, and he added a few drops of hellebore to the potion, which promptly exploded.
The memory changed. It was a warm day, the sky was cloudless, and Lily and Snape were sitting by the lake, robes cast aside, under a beech tree.
"It doesn't seem possible that there's only a week of term left," Lily marveled. "It's been such a long year, but at the same time, it's gone by so fast…"
"Yeah, well, we've still got six years left," said Snape. "And we'll see each other all summer, right?"
"Yeah," said Lily. "Every day we can."
"It's too bad we can't do magic outside of school," Snape complained, tossing a stick into the lake. "Then we could give that sister of yours what she deserves." Lily laughed, but immediately covered her mouth.
"Oh, no, that was really wicked," she said, horrified.
"Relax, Lil, nobody heard," said Snape. "Besides, Petunia's acting a little wicked towards you as well."
"She just doesn't know any better," said Lily. Snape suddenly reached over and grabbed her arm with such force that Lily looked slightly alarmed.
"Listen to me," said Snape, and his voice was different. Low and forceful. "She doesn't have any right to treat you like that. Nobody does. Ever. Do you understand me?"
"I—yes," said Lily, though she looked a little shaken. Snape let go and smiled at her, apparently unaware of the change in atmosphere that had just come over both children. Lily now looked very uncomfortable, and was staring at Snape as though he was a completely different person. Harry knew by her reaction that he had never touched her like that before.
"Lily, are you alright?" Snape asked her, his eyes full of concern. "You look odd."
"I'm fine," she said, giving him a false smile.
"Your not wearing your locket," Snape noticed.
"Oh." Lily's hand flew to her chest. "Yeah, I just…"
"Why not?"
"I dunno," she said, looking alarmed again. "I just…didn't wear it today, is all."
"Oh, okay," said Snape, but he looked bothered by this. Lily was looking at Snape in that peculiar way again. Clouds had begun to drift across the sky and Lily reached for her robes.
"It's getting cold," she said. "I'm going inside. See you later."
She walked off as fast as she could without running, leaving Snape behind her at the lake.
"Do you think they'd notice if I took some Firewhisky?" Marlene was asking. Lily, Alice, Mary, and Marlene were standing in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, a party clearly in full swing.
"What?" asked Mary loudly.
"Do you think they'd notice if I took some Firewhisky?" Marlene shouted.
"Are you crazy?" Alice yelled back. "You're eleven!"
"Twelve, actually," said Marlene as if this made a difference. "Come on, Pritchard is like a fourth year and look at him!" The girls and Harry followed Marlene's gesture. A fourth-year boy was attempting to leave the portrait hole but kept walking straight into the wall.
"Sometimes you remind me so much of Black," said Lily, shaking her head.
"Let's at least dance or something," Marlene whined.
"I don't think so," Lily told her warily.
"Come on, guys!" said Marlene exasperatedly. "It's the last night of term! Let's do something fun for once!"
"Since when is 'fun' synonymous with 'stupid?'" asked Alice.
"Most of these people are so drunk they won't remember anything about this night anyways!" Marlene reasoned, and Lily snorted. "We deserve some fun tonight! We've spent all term studying—"
"We've spent all term studying," Lily corrected, gesturing to Alice, Mary, and herself. "You've spent all term…what the hell have you been doing all term?"
"Being awesome," Marlene smirked. Mary laughed.
"McKinnon!" Sirius said loudly, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "How goes my favorite left-back?"
"I am not a left-back!" Marlene exclaimed indignantly, throwing his arm off.
"But you failed everything!" Sirius laughed.
"I…may have worked something out," said Marlene, a wicked smirk pulling at the corners of her mouth. "And for the record, I got an A in Astronomy."
"What did you do, pay off all the professors?" joked James, who had just appeared behind Lily, causing her to jump.
"Nah, I've just got loads of summer homework." Marlene grimaced. "Beats being a first-year twice, though, right?"
"Hear, hear!" said Sirius heartily, downing his bottle of butterbeer.
"So, you girls doing anything crazy this summer?" asked James, flicking one of Lily's braids. She pushed him.
"My family's going to France," said Alice, "but I'll probably get sunburned the first day or something equally dreadful."
"Very cool," said James. "Evans? Let me guess…does it involve books?"
"What's wrong with reading?" Lily asked indignantly.
"Lily, how many times have I asked you not to say the 'r' word on weekends?" Marlene chastised, and Sirius and James laughed.
"Loosen up, Lil," James said, offering her some of his butterbeer. "Take a sip!"
"I'm not drinking anything with your germs on it," said Lily coolly, pushing the butterbeer away a little more forcefully than necessary, and James slopped half the bottle down himself. Everyone laughed as James took of his sweater and groaned when he saw it had soaked through his shirt.
"I really hate you sometimes, Evans," said James, shaking his head, though he looked amused all the same. Lily laughed.
"Potter, I wouldn't want it any other way," she replied, cracking open a butterbeer.
"Cheers," said James, raising his bottle, "to nine weeks without you!" Lily laughed appreciatively and clinked her bottle against his, and the memory dissolved on the Marauder's first year.
A/N: So ends first year! I really like James and Lily in this chapter...they can't have argued with each other ALL the time, right? Plus, it's the end of the year, and everyone's relatively euphoric, and not at all in the mood for a row! That's my explanation, anyways. Thanks to all my AWESOME reviewers, FallingForFootie, RainingRain, Skippy Agogo, lilyjames4ever15004, Dracoisalooker76, wishfulthinking123, -EHWIES, prongster, Twistyler, Jessluvsharry, the sudoku kid, I love ipods, Elegancexx, and Kira 2667! Your reviews make me really really really really happy and they inspire me to keep going even when I'm super busy! See you all for second year!
Love, Erin
Oh, and by the way, due to a unanimous vote, I'm going with one massive fic! Just fyi.