Yowza! It's been a while, huh? Sorry about that. I had a good chunk of time this weekend to write, so I've got one chapter each for this story and for Two Birds With One Stone. I'm sorry that I don't have more to offer for such a long sabbatical... I do have some good ideas for the next bit, though, so I'll try to update soon!

That said, I hope you enjoy this chunk of TMBTM... the plot is thickening.

- Lorraine

Oh, and I own nothing, as usual.

P.S. About the update on July 1, 2011: I made a quick edit to the ending section of this chapter, because one anonymous reviewer of this story had a really good point: Tom Riddle definitely wasn't at school with Lily and James. I think it's reasonable to guess that he could have been there with James' parents, though, so that's the change I made. Thanks for the fact-checking! Love you guys! And I'm working on a new chapter right now... so I'll try to get it up this weekend.


CHAPTER 6

The first few weeks of term went by with little to note. Classes were the same as usual, though Lily thought that Transfiguration was a bit easier and Potions was a bit harder—probably because she was now paired with James in both classes. Much to Lily's chagrin, the teachers seemed to think that their Head Students needed to spend even more time in one another's company.

Lily and James were both adjusting to another facet of their newfound partnership: the Head Dorms.

Though James would immediately say that he loved living with Lily, that it just gave him more opportunities to get to know her—which was his favorite pastime (in a completely non-stalkerish way, of course)—he couldn't help but miss the Gryffindor boys' dormitory. For the past six years he had been living in the same room with his three best friends, (their other year-mate, Mitchell Blake, had transferred to Beauxbatons in their third year. This change may or may not have had something to do with the fact that he could never wake up without finding something disgustingly gooey in his slippers, or being politely informed by their charmed mirror that his eyebrows were missing) and he wasn't quite used to the quiet and the comparative neatness that came of his solitary lifestyle. Sure, he still got up to plenty of pranks with the lads, and they saw each other at meals and in classes, but living separately definitely cut into their time spent together. If James just wanted to hang out with the other Marauders, he had to trek all the way to the noisy Gryffindor common room, as Lily had expressly forbidden him to give out the password to the Head Dorms, threatening to "pluck out every last one of those unruly black hairs if I so much as catch a whiff of any of those dumb mates' over-applied cologne." Knowing that she was fully capable of living up to this warning, James had kept the password to himself.

For her part, Lily was holding up remarkably well in the new living situation. Of course she missed Lucy, but, after all, the girls had ever been the gossipy, lip-glossed, attached-at-the-hip type of best friends. They still saw each other every day, and Lily had given Lucy the password to the Head Dorms—James was far more tolerant of Lily's friends than she was of his, perhaps because he knew that Lucy wanted Lily to give him a chance—so they still had regular opportunities to catch up. Also, Lily had to hand it to him, James was being far less of a nuisance than she had expected. He performed his Head duties with minimal grumbling, and they had curtailed their daily quarrels to about two mini-spats, as opposed to previous years when they'd yelled and hexed each other till they were blue in the face during every passing period. He was even good about picking up his things in their shared common room. As far as Lily could tell, James didn't even have any annoying habits to speak of (other than the hair-ruffling, which she'd known about for years, and was really starting to grow on her). She noticed that he sometimes hummed to himself while he worked, when he was concentrating especially hard; when she was convinced that he was entirely distracted, she would try to harmonize with him (he noticed, of course, and started doing it more often).

All in all, life was pretty good for the two Head Students. Unfortunately, the morale elsewhere in the castle, and outside of the Hogwarts grounds, morale was lower than ever. There was constant fear and angst about the war-like atmosphere being churned up by Lord Voldemort and his followers. The situation was hard to believe.

This man (now more of a monster, with his made-up name), this Tom Riddle, had been a seventh year when James' parents had been at Hogwarts, and now he was killing scores of people every week? How could it be? Where were the officials to rein him in? Now, more than ever before, there were calls for Dumbledore to become Minister of Magic; after all, people said that he was the only one whom Riddle ever feared. The Headmaster remained steadfast, however, insisting that the best course of action would be to protect and educate a new generation of witches and wizards who would eventually take down the evil Dark Lord and his loyal Death Eaters. And most Hogwarts students were proud to take up the charge, proud to count themselves among the ranks of what some had taken to calling "Dumbledore's Army," but this didn't mean they were any less scared of what awaited them outside the castle walls.

James in particular had noticed this fear among his fellow students because two of the people he loved most stood to lose quite a bit in this upcoming war. Remus, of course, was a werewolf, and though he was very good at hiding things—including his lycanthropy—he couldn't fool his best friends. James knew that Remus was a brave soul, and that he'd do anything to help fight this Voldemort person (if he was really a person), but he also knew that the boy lived in constant fear that he would be scouted out by Dark forces to be a weapon—after all, there were werewolves known to be Death Eaters, and a young, impressionable, and magically talented werewolf would be all the more valuable.

And then, there was Lily. Lily Evans, the brilliant witch who outranked everyone—excepting the Marauders, Severus Snape, and Roger Davies—in all of her classes, the outspoken advocate for the rights of all creatures, was also Lily Evans, the muggleborn, who was scared out of her wits that her family would be Voldemort's next target. Of course, to Tom Riddle, she was merely Lily Evans the mudblood. James saw red every time he even thought about that phrase, especially in association with his favorite Head Girl.

Since he spent so much time with these two afflicted persons, James Potter was acutely aware that he needed to do something to raise the morale of his fellow students. He and the Marauders had done their best to entertain the Hogwarts population, but even when they had teamed up with Peeves to thwart the Slytherins—by means of Permanent Sticking Charms to keep them at their seats in the Great Hall while Peeves pelted them with Unremoveable Dye Tablets (in flashing red and gold, of course)—only about half of the students had so much as chuckled. He knew that the usual pranks wouldn't do the trick this time, but, luckily, he was Head Boy. And he'd be damned if he just sat around and waited for somebody else to provide cheer—after all, he wasn't permanently stuck to his seat, or anything.

And so, James Potter, the former slacker extraordinaire and current Marauding Prince of Hogwarts, decided to hold a ball.


Not to beg, but... please, please, PLEASE review! I'll love you forever! (Not a lie.)