Plot: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.
Disclaimer: Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)
WARNING (please read): This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.
Chapter 8 – Bombs Away (Part 2)
The moment that Jamie bolted for the door, the other Rogues – who had been watching the events from a dirty window at the back – ran around to greet her. They knew exactly what had gone on inside, and without speaking to one another, they were certain of what they had to do. However, it took a few circles of the building to find Jamie, who quickly explained that she, too, had been circling the pub in hopes of catching up.
In a split second, Jamie had her hands firmly on Lily's shoulders. She was panting, and her eyes were wide. "The Marauders," she managed to spit out. "They-"
"We know," Hannah cut her off, an edge of anger on her voice. "We need to find them."
"But where do we start?" Lily inquired, puzzled and looking around for traces of the mischief-making boys. Jamie removed her hands from Lily's shoulders and at once began to look around too. But there was no sign of any of them – all that surrounded the girls was trees, wooden buildings and so many people that it was difficult to see through the crowds.
"I think I have a fair idea," Regan said apprehensively, pointing to her right. Lily swiveled in that direction, and immediately she knew what had triggered her friend's sudden knowledge. In the dirt a few yards away, suddenly very palpable because of a clearing in the crowd, she could see a trail of footprints multiplying rapidly. Although there seemed to be nobody there to make these tracks, they were moving very swiftly in the direction of-
"The Shrieking Shack!" Jamie almost shrieked as she said it. The others gasped.
The Shrieking Shack was located at the highest point in Hogsmeade; an area very rarely visited by students. The most likely – in fact, quite definite – cause of this unpopularity had to be its appearance. It was incredibly unattractive with panels of rotting wood, rickety ladders and windows covered in a thick layer of sheer cobwebs. It looked as though it might collapse at any moment, so feeble it appeared. But this was the least of the students' precautions towards the building; a number of extremely chilling stories of the shack had cycled the school over the years, and even the fearless Rogues shivered at the sight of its sinister shabbiness.
"They're trying to lead us in there, obviously," Lily concluded. "Do you think it's a trap?"
"Who knows?" Hannah answered thoughtfully.
"Who cares?" said Regan loudly as she pushed through the others and started on her way towards the tracks. The footprints were indeed going in exactly the direction of the Shrieking Shack, and their pace was picking up too.
"C'mon," Lily muttered, and followed.
Hannah and Jamie, trudging along behind, quickly caught up; the footprints, however, were moving so quickly that the girls had to break into a run to keep up with them. The prints barely slowed even when they reached a steep hill that was rather difficult to climb. Determined not to fall behind, the Rogues traipsed on and finally reached the hilltop. At this point, the speed of the footprints gradually decreased until they – whoever they belonged to – came to a standstill about ten metres away from Lily and her friends.
Lily, who had been concentrating solely on the ground for the last few minutes, had forgotten to look up, and when she finally raised her head, the sight was repulsive, to say the least. Never before had she come this close to the shack, and although she had once told herself it mustn't look so terrifying close up, she shuddered at the sight of it. It loomed above them, ghostly reflections in its dark windows chilling Lily to the bone.
Very eagerly, she pulled her gaze away from the Shrieking Shack and instead looked ahead of her. She frowned. This sight wasn't very pleasant either. They stood at the end of a moderately sized clearing with level ground that was covered in a ruffled film of autumn leaves. At the other end of the area stood all four of the Marauders; all wearing haughty grins and all standing with utter confidence. Peter looked by far the most smug, and because of this, Lily decided that the Rogues were probably in for a severe blow of revenge. She gulped as she looked at the Marauders, and for the first time she could remember, Lily felt a surge of fear wash over her. They were quite daunting with their self-satisfied expressions, their hair blowing lightly in the wind – aside from Peter, who, of course could look nothing but pathetic. It was almost like a scene out of a movie; only the boys looked like the Heroes, ready with a plan to save the day. But Lily was completely sure of one thing; save the day, the Marauders would not.
"Well well well," Sirius said, his booming voice carrying easily across the distance between them. "They came."
"Yeah, we're not cowards," Hannah said firmly, the usual, smug, 'that-was-pretty-obvious' tone completely absent from her voice. Even Sirius frowned at the solemnity of her words. "Now what's the deal?"
"Deal?" Sirius's smirk picked up at the corner of his handsome lips again. His eyes danced with anticipation. "Who said we were making any sort of deal with you?"
Hannah didn't reply, but merely squinted her eyes suspiciously.
"Yeah," James continued on from his friend's words. "If I remember correctly, the last time we made a deal, you four blew it within twenty-four hours. I don't think that was very fair of you."
Lily gulped. Her worries were confirmed – James really had been annoyed by their quick breaking of the truce. That was for sure, unless this was simply a tactic to make them guilty for what they had done. Yes, surely that was the case.
Luckily, Regan took over from Hannah and fought back. "Since when do we play fair?"
"She's right," Hannah agreed. "Don't get us started on all the dirty tricks you've played on us."
"Like the time you meddled with Regan's quill just before the OWLs, even though we made it perfectly clear that exam-related pranks were completely forbidden," Jamie offered.
"And what about that incident when you ganged up on Jamie while the rest of us were in the hospital wing, all thanks to one of your horrible pranks?" Lily tossed in another suggestion, placing her hands on her hips.
"Hey," Remus said defensively. "It's not like you haven't done the same thing to us."
"Yeah! You put my potions book in the toil-"
"Not now, Peter!" Sirius put out a hand to silence his friend, and then moved on. "Alright," he started. "So we've never really played by the rules. What's the big deal? Isn't that the whole point of this... war, or whatever we've got going on?"
"I'm with that," Hannah said, much to their surprise. "But only because I'll do anything in my power to wipe that filthy smirk off of Black's stupid face."
"Shut up, pig fa-"
"Stop it!" James cut in before the two could begin yet another of their legendary quarrels. "Let's get to the point, okay?" Everyone nodded, but Jamie suddenly interrupted.
"Wait!" she said, with surprising boldness for somebody who was normally very timid. Lily could see rage burning in her blue eyes. "Do you think I'm just going to forget what you did to Frank?"
"Frank?" Sirius laughed. "Sorry, honey, but that prank was aimed at you."
"Oh, it may have been," Jamie's confidence was building with every word. She stepped forward and eyed each of the Marauders with distaste. "But who got left all alone looking like he just got dumped by a girl on their first date?"
Sirius didn't answer, and none of the Marauders came to his rescue. Remus, however, did speak, but not in his friend's favour.
"She's right, guys," he said to the rest of the Marauders. "We should apologize to Frank when we see him again."
Jamie stepped back, smiling slightly, and evidently satisfied with the result. Lily could have sworn she saw Remus return the same shy smile, but after a quick moment of thought she decided that her eyes were playing tricks on her.
"Whatever," Sirius gave in. "But that doesn't mean I regret what we did to her," he gestured at Jamie with narrowed eyes. "They deserve it. All four of them."
"Back to the point," James cut in, impatience showing in his voice now.
"We're listening," said Regan with her arms folded across her chest.
"Look," James stepped into the open space between them. "We figured that it was about time to have a little four on four battle."
"Ooh, I like the sound of this!" Hannah piped up, exchanging a high five with Regan before resuming her stubborn stance and listening to James once again.
"So we've decided..."
"To have a snowball fight!"
"Don't you know anything about dramatic tension, Padfoot?" James sounded annoyed, and slapped his friend on the back of the head.
Lily scoffed. "You do realize it's the middle of autumn, don't you?" she raised an eyebrow, not sure what the Marauders were getting at.
"So?" James said back, a sly smile tugging at the corners of his lips.
"So," said Lily slowly. "That means there can't possibly be any-" SMACK! Her words were cut off when a huge lump of a frozen substance hit the side of the face. She experienced a subtle tingling, burning sensation as he cold water drizzled down her cheek and into her mouth.
"Snow?" Sirius laughed loudly. "Guess again!"
"How did you...?" Lily was utterly puzzled.
"Don't tell me none of you pay attention in Transfig-" but James, too, had to stop mid-sentence, when a larger snowball hit him square in the face.
Lily, quite shocked at this, turned to see Jamie standing proudly as she brandished her wand in front of her. "Come on," Jamie said lightly. "It's Emineo Viburnum! Use it on the rocks! Honestly, that loony substitute teacher taught us in third year! Don't you remember?" Jamie smiled, preparing to send another wad of snow in the boys' direction. In truth, Lily had a vague recollection of learning the spell to transfigure solid objects into snowballs and direct them at an opponent, but not in a million years would she have remembered how to use it. It was at times like this that the Rogues were extremely proud to have Jamie in their group.
Jamie's next blow struck Remus in the shoulder, and he retaliated with one that hit her in the back (she had turned around in search of more rocks to transfigure). Lily joined in, aiming particularly for James, who seemed to have picked her as his prime target as well. Soon there was chaos; not one person was not involved, and snowballs were flying every which way. It was pure pandemonium – there was a mess of flying white objects in the air, and frequent outbursts of 'OUCH!' and 'I'M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THAT!' (used many times in Hannah's case). At one point, a snowball struck Sirius in the stomach so hard that he doubled over.
"Damn," Hannah said at this. "Wasn't quite where I was aiming for, but that'll do."
The mayhem lasted for quite a lot longer than they expected – despite their predicted shortage of rocks, they always seemed to find new things to transfigure; plants, bits of wood fallen from the Shrieking Shack... the list went on and on. And by the time they were beginning to run out of ammo, all sorts of crazy things were flying through the air (mostly due to the inaccurate spellwork brought on by their building exhaustion), from wads of moss and dirt to piles of sloppy mud - which made for a very messy result. All of them laughed out loud when Hannah's incantation went wrong and she ended up tossing a harmless cotton ball in Sirius's direction.
"We're not giving up, you know," Lily said stubbornly, when all eight of them were covered from head to toe in various substances. Not one of them was showing signs of defeat, although they were drenched in everything from chocolate pudding to bird feathers and their wand arms were beginning to tire from the continuous effort.
"Neither are we," Remus said back to her, sending with his words a rather large snowball (he, Jamie and Lily seemed to be the only ones left who were still using the spell correctly). It hit Lily hard in the leg, and she quickly shot one back at his chest.
Suddenly, a sharp and abrupt scream came from Lily's left. She looked over, alarmed, so see Regan lying flat on the ground. She appeared to be unconscious, and there was blood seeping out of her forehead, running into her dark hair and the leaves around her. Lily gave a gasp of horror at the sight of her friend, and, along with Hannah and Jamie, rushed to Regan's side. Her blood was quickly soaking through the leaves around her head, and running down to her robes, staining the collar. It wasn't until the three of them were crouched at her side, with the Marauders close behind, that Lily noticed a rock, not so far from her friend's head, with a small patch of blood on it.
"Wormtail!" James said from behind them, speaking in a quiet tone that was full of annoyance. "What spell, exactly, did you use on that rock?"
"Wingardium Leviosa," Peter muttered, hanging his head.
"You idiot!" Sirius exclaimed. "Did you expect it to transfigure itself?"
"No," said Peter even more quietly.
Lily was furious and wanted nothing more than to yell at the Marauders for what they had done, but Hannah beat her to it.
"Are you that dumb?" her pointed words were aimed at Peter, who was trying very hard to hide his face. "Or did your stupidity not have any part in your decision to knock her out?"
"Hey!" Remus said, interrupting what would have been an endless scolding. "Let's not pin this on Peter, okay? We were all fighting."
"Yeah, sure. But I didn't see anybody else throwing ro-"
"Hannah," Jamie started in a calm voice. She was holding Regan's limp hand while Lily tried to lift the unconscious girl's blood-soaked head. "Just forget it, we don't have time for this. You can have a go at them later."
"We have to get her to the Hospital Wing," Lily said in a concerned voice.
"Yeah," agreed Hannah, taking a step back. "But how are we going to get her-"
"Leave it to me," said James, striding forward and slipping his arms under Regan's relaxed body. In one swift motion, he had her in his arms. Regan was quite a small girl for her age, but all the same, Lily was somewhat impressed by his strength. And for some strange reason that she could not begin to explain, Lily felt a stab of jealousy hit her in the chest. She tried to ignore it by looking away from James. What on earth was wrong with her?
The rest of them followed soundlessly behind James, who was still supporting Regan, seemingly without effort. When they were no longer in sight of the Shrieking Shack, Lily felt herself physically become more relaxed, glad to be out of its chilling midst. The group ambled down into the main area of Hogsmeade, attracting many shocked glances from onlookers.
"Heavens! What happened to her?" it was McGonagall who spoke, having made her way through the crowds. Her eyes were wide with alarm as she approached them.
"She um... got hit by a rock," Hannah explained plainly. McGonagall's expression turned to one of scorn.
"I'm sure I don't want to know what happened between the eight of you," she glanced around at all of them, and a few lowered their heads shamefully – the rest simply looked accusingly at their rivals. "You had better get Miss Tain to the Hospital Wing quickly." she advised, and walked off.
The group walked on in silence, and soon enough, they had arrived at the entrance of the castle. They made their way up to the Hospital Wing. Lily was beginning to wonder if James's arms were getting tired, but he looked as steady as ever.
"I should have known I would be seeing you soon," said Madam Pomfrey upon their arrival, frowning. She had been the one to deal with every one of the wounds and other mishaps inflicted by the practical joke war, and by the sound of her voice, she was getting very tired of it. "What is it this time?" she said in a monotone.
"Got hit in the head by a rock," James explained, laying Regan gently down on an empty bed. She was still out cold, by the looks of it. Madam Pomfrey muttered something unintelligible before getting straight to work.
Lily watched her dab at Regan's wound with a cloth. The white fabric became drenched in blood very quickly. Lily's eyes widened at the amount of blood that seemed to be pouring from her friend's head. There was so much of it that Lily almost felt... uh oh. Even before it happened, Lily could sense the nausea coming on. Then she started to feel faint, and suddenly, the room started swim before her eyes. She could vaguely hear Hannah and Sirius starting into an argument, but it was all a blur. The last things she saw before it all went black were James's hazel eyes turning towards her...
And then she was suddenly aware again, though her vision was still blurred and the faint feeling remained. It took a moment for her to notice that she was leaning her head firmly into James's strong chest. His gentle hand was supporting her by the elbow while the other arm was wrapped around her waist to stop her from collapsing to the ground. Surprised and thoroughly embarrassed, Lily jolted out of James's grip, but regretted it instantly, for her head spun wildly to the point where she was unstable on her feet. In a flash, James was next to her and had grabbed her arms again, steadying her.
"Geroff," she heard herself say.
James gave a laugh. "Just sit down over here..."
And before she knew it, he had guided her over to the next free bed and she was seated, the nausea still well in play. She let her head fall against the pillow and stayed there for a moment, trying to gather herself and waiting for the sickness to pass. At last, it was bearable, and she lifted her head. She could see a little more clearly now, when she sat up, but just to be safe, she rested her forehead in her palm.
"Are you alright?" James asked in a tone of genuine concern that shocked Lily, even in the state she was in.
"Yeah," she replied feebly. She felt the awkwardness set in when she noticed that he was seated next to her on the bed; not exceedingly close, but close enough to make Lily feel a tad uncomfortable. "Why are you here?"
James hesitated, and for a moment Lily felt a little guilty for snapping at him. But when he spoke, his voice didn't show any signs of being offended. "Well, somebody had to stop you from falling, didn't they? And the others didn't seem to be paying much attention to you."
"Well, thanks, I guess," Lily said without looking at him.
"What happened to her?" Madam Pomfrey asked when she walked by.
"She fainted when she saw the blood," James explained. "She can't stand it."
"How do you know?" Lily asked him, puzzled.
"How would I not? Nobody's going to forget the time in fourth year you bolted out of Potions when we were working with Thestral blood."
"That bad, was it?" Lily replied with a weak laugh, embarrassed by the memory. It came back to her with surprising clarity; the moment she had picked up the vial, she had had to put it down again and run from the classroom before it could really get to her. The trouble was, most of the class didn't have a clue what she was running from – to them, the blood was completely invisible. But to Lily, who had seen her grandmother fade away in a Muggle hospital bed, it was there, dark and red and oozing and... ugh. She stopped right there to spare herself the return of the nausea.
"I meant to tell you," said James all of a sudden, reminding Lily that he was there. "Dumbledore wanted to see us about something after the Hogsmeade trip."
"Really? What?"
"I don't have clue."
"What time?"
"One thirty."
"That's in five minutes!"
"Then we'd better get going. Are you sure you can walk?"
"I'm fine."
Without another word, the two of them got up and left the Hospital Wing. Lily was grateful for the silence, but it gave her time – too much time – to think about what had just happened. She was thankful for his help, of course, but in a way, it scared her. Not his presence, exactly, but the fact that she was becoming almost comfortable in it. Admittedly, she did feel awkward sitting near him, but not in the way she used to.
And now, for the first time ever, she let her thoughts drift down that path for a moment. Was there a slight possibility that she might like James Potter? A year ago, the idea would have been unfathomable. But now, things were different. He was different. Lily was different.
And so, it seemed, were her feelings towards him.
The ending's a bit (okay, more than a bit) cheesy, but I thought it worked. Please leave a review if you have time. The next chapter should be out shortly – I'm a bit obsessed with this fanfiction right now, which should hopefully work to your advantage. :)