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Chapter 18: Things Start Going Wrong

I left my dorm and slumped on to the couch across the fire in the common room. I was grateful for some time to just relax and think. In the last two weeks since I came back to school, so much has changed. The biggest one being Marlene. Over the last two weeks, we started to hang out more and we were becoming pretty close friends. I even offered to let her move into my dorm room, since we had an extra bed. She gratefully accepted and we're now spending more time together and with the Marauders. She hasn't gotten close enough with them yet, so they're not as comfortable with her being there. They are trying, though, mostly for my sake. They're really happy that I have a close friend that's a girl.

Currently, she was talking to Professor McGonagall about some Transfiguration homework. When she comes back, we were supposed to go to Hogsmeade. We were going to spend three hours together before meeting up with the Marauders at the Three Broomsticks.

"Alright. I'm back." Marlene said, standing in front of my view of the fire. I smiled and jumped up.

"Okay, let's go!" Time for some well over-due girl time.

"How about we continue our question game from yesterday?" She asked. Yesterday, in History of Magic, we got bored, so we kept asking each other questions, to find out more about each other. So far I found out that she was a pure-blood, coming from an all Gryffindor and Ravenclaw family. She had two younger sisters, her favorite color is green and that her birthday was November 11th.

"Sure." I replied.

"I believe it was your turn?" She asked, leading us out of the portrait. I nodded.

"Okay…hm…" I wondered. I looked outside as we walked down the marble staircase. "What's your favorite time of day?" I asked. She, too, looked outside. She tilted her head in thought as we started going down the last staircase to the first floor.

"I'd have to say sunrise." She decided. I smiled. The sunrise was beautiful and it was my favorite time of day, too. As we passed the huge, brass door of the Great Hall, I heard someone calling my name.

"Lily, LILY" I turned around. It was James followed by Remus, Sirius, and Peter, who were arguing about something.

"Hi James!" I replied, hugging him. He gave me a peck on the lips.

"Can we meet a little earlier? Like in two hours, instead of three? We didn't finish some homework and that Charms test on Tuesday…" His voice trailed off.

"Sure, no problem." I nodded. I turned to Marlene. "That's alright with you?" I asked. She shrugged.

"Yeah, it's cool with me."

"Okay, we'll see you in two hours." I confirmed. James smiled.

"Thanks. Love you." He said, giving me another peck on the lips. I smiled.

"Love you too." I replied. He pulled away and the four left, with Sirius and Peter still bickering about something.

"Was James your first kiss?" Marlene asked. I smiled and nodded.

"Why don't we continue walking?" I suggested. As we reached the gates of Hogsmeade, I remembered, it was still my turn. "Do you prefer the summer or winter, weather wise?"

"Uh, I'd have to say winter. I don't do well in the heat." She shrugged. I nodded. Honeydukes was approaching.

"Should we go in?" I asked.

"Sure, why not?" I opened the door and I was hit by the sweet aroma of chocolate. I took a big breath and smiled wide.

"What's your favorite candy?" Marlene asked as I led her through the shelves of seemingly endless chocolate.

"Chocolate." I answered without thinking. She laughed.

"That's apparent now." She said, watching me as I picked up a few chocolate frogs and a few chocolate cauldrons.

"I'm ready to pay, you?" I asked. She nodded. She had six boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans. I raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, you're the one with all the chocolate!" She said defensively. "And besides, I've been eating these so long, I know which flavor's which." I rolled my eyes and went to go stand in line.

"Have you ever been out of the country?" I asked her, stepping forward in the ridiculously long line. She thought for a minute.

"Yeah, I think it was just France a long time ago, when I was eleven. We have family that moved there when I was eight." She explained. "Speaking of family, I believe it is time for you to answer that question I asked about your sister." She said with a smirk. I sighed and put my chocolate on the counter and brought out my wallet. I paid the cashier, who wrapped the chocolate in a bag and handed it to me. As Marlene went to pay, she smiled and blinked at me expectantly. I sighed once more and waited until we were out of the store to start talking.

"Well my sister and I used to be best friends, best sisters. I think it lasted until I was ten and I started showing more apparent signs of magic, like flying when I jumped off the swings or controlling flowers with my hands."

"You could fly and control flowers?" Marlene blurted out in surprise. I nodded. "You must be pretty powerful, then." I blushed and nodded.

"So one day, when I was controlling the flowers, Snape came around, yes, he lives near me," I added, because she opened her mouth to interrupt. I gestured the passing quill shop. She nodded and we both entered. "So when Snape came around and told me I was a witch, Petunia got jealous and started calling both of us freaks and really started ignoring me." I paused to examine a quill on one of the shelves. "While Petunia drifted away, I became closer to Snape. He was like her replacement. Like Petunia was supposed to lead me into the muggle world, Snape led me into the magical world. He told me most of what I know about it." I told her as I stood in line to pay for the quill. "This made Petunia even more jealous because not only did I have powers she didn't, she was being replaced by Snape. Obviously, it took a large blow to her ego, being the person she was, so she's pretty much hated me since then." I finished, pulling out money to pay for the quill. I handed it to the cashier, who put my quill in the bag and we left the store. I turned to Marlene as we walked.

"Oh." Was her only response. She was probably in shock. She came from a loving family that would probably never turn her back on her. No one really knew how this felt for me, except for Sirius. Of course his situation was much worse, this was only my sister, his whole family hated him.

"So I believe it's my turn?" I said, trying to get off the subject. She nodded. "Okay, so where was your dorm room before you moved in with me? Like you weren't with Mary's new crew and you weren't with me, so where were you?" I asked. She smiled sadly.

"You know why there was an empty bed in their room? They kicked me out two years ago. I've been with the year younger than us for two years now." She explained, blushing a little. I smiled and patted her back sympathetically. "So, my question: Why do you think we didn't become closer friends earlier? We've known each other as acquaintances for about, what, six years? Since we're both Gryffindors in the same year and don't you think it's weird, especially now that we're getting along?" She asked, turning a little red.

"Hmm…" I said thoughtfully. Why hadn't I thought of that before? This was good; Marlene had her fair share of Ravenclaw in her, like me. Well, what had changed? Something did, whether it was me, or her, or the situation. I voiced these thoughts. "Well, it could be a lot of things, pretty much revolving around me, or you, or the situation changing." I stated. I've become a different person over the last year; I've lost two of my best friends, got the best boyfriend I could ask for, plenty of Junior Death Eaters, and I'm drifting farther away from Petunia than ever. And I guess both of us didn't have any close girl friends before this…" I said. She nodded.

"That's really true. And I guess since we were acquaintances before then, but we were too absorbed in other things to go anywhere." She added. "You know, I was pretty annoyed at you for the longest time in fifth year, I was jealous that you got prefect." She admitted. My eyes widened.

"Weird, I was under the impression I'd gotten it because no one else would want it. Like even Mary, being a natural leader and all, didn't want it." I replied.

"I suppose that was part of the reason, that you and I were the only two who would want it, but you won out because you're much smarter and more responsible than I am." She complimented. I blushed.

"Thanks." I mumbled.

"Look, we're passing Madame Pudifoot's. Do you want to go inside and make fun of people?" She asked me excitedly. I smiled wide.

"Of course, let's go!" I replied. I pulled open the pink laced door and gagged. The table had pink lace all over them, the chairs were pink, there were mini-cupids hanging from the ceiling and every boy in the place looked repulsed to be there. This place was disgusting. You'd have to Imperius me even think about getting James to come here.

"Oh, look at the waiters!" Marlene laughed. I looked around. They were all wearing pink suits. I stifled a laugh as one came over to seat us.

"Hello, how may I serve you?" A male one said, plastering a fake smile on his face. It came out as more of a grimace.

"Dude, where's your dignity?" Mary asked cheekily. The waiter scowled.

"Table for two." I quickly said, trying not to laugh.

"Careful Red, this place clashes with your hair." The waiter sneered.

"I'm not the one working at the place where there's cupids hanging from the ceiling." I scoffed, pointing at the ceiling. The waiter scowled again.

"Here's your table." He said through gritted teeth. When he was out of sight, we burst out laughing.

"Did you see his face?" She asked, clutching the table.

"I know, I'm surprised he didn't kick us out!" I laughed.

"They-probably-needed-the-money!" Marlene said in between fits of laughter. We laughed some more, causing our stomachs a bit of pain and earning us stares from the rest of the restaurant. Once we calmed down enough to sit and order, we couldn't decide what to get.

"What is this stuff?" I asked, peering at the menu.

"I thought they were muggle dishes!" Marlene said in disbelief. I shook my head.

"I would've recognized them." I told her.

"Have you decided what to get?" The water asked. He was still glaring at us. I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

"Erm…What's all this stuff?" Marlene asked, still trying to decipher the menu. The water rolled his eyes in a way that rivaled my eye-rolls.

"I'll put it in your terms: There's egg, bacon, soup-"

"I'll have eggs." Marlene cut him off.

"Me too." I added quickly. He looked at us in disgust and walked away with his nose high in the air.

"How does he have any dignity left in him? He must be desperate to meet girls, desperate for a job, or both." Marlene said in disgust, cringing at the lace on our table. I laughed and nodded in agreement.

"And he gets annoyed easily." I added. She nodded and looked around. After a few minutes, she finally spoke up.

"The food here looks horrid. How about we annoy him more and run for it?" She asked with a wide grin. I snickered.

"Let's do it!" I agreed.

"First, let's write our little friend a nice letter." She took a pink napkin from the napkin holder and took out a quill and ink bottle from her bag. "Our dearest friend, the waiter in pink," She read out loud as she wrote. "We are very sorry w e hat to leave on such short notice, but we did have great fun while we were here. We hope that one day we will see you again in the near future. Love, your friends, the two obnoxious teenage girls." She finished. She proceeded to draw hearts around the napkin. She handed it to me and I saw it was written in a loopy script, similar to Dumbledore's handwriting. She had her i's hearted and the handwriting itself was very girly. I laughed.

"Nice." I said, handing it back to her.

"Now, we need to give him a nice tip," Marlene said, pulling out some galleons. I set a few of my own on the table. "Okay, and now we leave, but Marauder style with our own twist." She smiled evilly. She whispered the plan into my ear. I smiled wide. Things were going to get interesting.

"Ready, set, NOW!" I screamed. The people in the restaurant turned to look at us, but I did my best in ignoring them all. Marlene and I pulled out our wands. We muttered the same spell and black stuff sputtered out of our wands. It fell all over the lace on the tables and when our waiter friend came out, his suit became stained with black. We muttered another spell and out came silver stuff and it covered everything that wasn't already black, so the entire place was covered in silver and black instead of pink.

"YOU!" The waiter screamed at us. We burst out laughing.

"RUN!" Marlene screamed. She ran ahead of me, pulled the door opened and ran out, and I followed. "WAIT! We forgot one thing!" She said, running back. She pulled out her wand once more and made the door silver and black and the sign silver and black." She ran further away from the place, and I followed laughing. We halted to a stop after a few minutes of running away.

"I can't believe we just trashed Madame Pudifoot's!" I laughed.

"McGonagall would have a fit if she found out!" Marlene agreed.

"The Marauders would complain about how we took their job!" I added, still laughing.

"Oh no, Lily, it's ten minutes passed the time we're supposed to meet them! We should go!" Marlene said, looking at her wristwatch. Oh no, James was going to murder me. He's probably roaming around Hogsmeade calling my name right now.

"Yeah, we need to get going!" I said. I started walking, but then I realized Marlene wasn't following. I spun around. We were the only ones here, so it was easy to find her. Marlene was standing at the foot of a tree. "Marlene, what are you doing?" I called to her. She didn't turn around so I kept walking. "Marlene?" I called out. I walked faster, and then walked right into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry," I said to the person, still looking at Marlene. I turned to Marlene, but before I could say anything, I felt a tingling sensation and I stopped walking. What was this…?

A/N: Right, so I said I wasn't going to update? Hehe. I lied. I didn't think I would, but I did get to it :)

So, Happy Diwali to you Indians out there, I celebrated it with my Indian friends :)

Now back to the story,

This part of the story is my favorite. The entire story was based on the next few chapters. Weird, right?

I'm probably going to update next Friday again, so please REVIEW :)

Love,

SAM :)