A/N: Hi! I won't bother with the pathetic excuses I make every time I'm late updating. How about, Umbridge broke into my house and made it explode whilst she was looking for the D.A., thus destroying my laptop in the process? Sorry, I suppose.
Anyway, the support I am receiving makes me so incredibly happy! 47 reviews, 40 favourites and 63 followers is ineffable. Not to mention the views. Siriusly (did you see what I did there?), I couldn't ask for anymore.
I do not own the Harry Potter franchise and no copyright infringement is intended, all rights reserved to the one and only J K Rowling.
I apologise for the swearing.
Please enjoy and have a wonderfully interesting day!
1ST AUGUST 1978
ABOUT NOON
JAMES' P.O.V
POTTER'S COTTAGE
"PRONGS!" Moony yells, at the top of his lungs.
Padfoot and I snigger from our hiding spot, under the table. Wormtail has to stuff his hand in his mouth to stop himself from giving us away.
"PADFOOT! WORMTAIL! This is not funny! When I say you need to clean up once in a while and not leave it to me to do all the cleaning, I don't mean flooding the house with bright pink bubbles!"
I can hear Moony's footsteps outside the dining room, he's almost in position. I look at Padfoot and he nods. I cast a quick non-verbal spell and we hear a screech. I'd just set a bucket of pink bubbles and green liquid down on Moony's head. Moony bursts into the room and snatches up the table cloth, looking at us with a face of pure rage. It's quite hard to take him seriously with the pink bubbles turning his hair practically florescent.
"You are so dead," he breathes as we all scramble out from the dining room and dash up the stairs, Wormtail clambering after, tripping on the bucket on the stairs and unleashing charmed sponges into the air. Padfoot, Wormtail and I had spent hours meticulously planning our attack.
The sponges ooze this weird kind of yellow, lemon-scented liquid as they fly about our heads, knocking things off the wall.
"Now you've done it, Wormtail," Padfoot says, grinning.
"Why's it my fault?" Wormtail protests before getting a bucket full of dirty water in his face. He looks around; Moony's standing there with a half empty bucket of water, a roguish grin on his face.
Wormtail unleashes the mops, making them chase Moony up the stairs. Then we have a duel with cleaning products on the landing.
"Take that Padfoot!" Moony yells as a sponge smacks Padfoot in the face.
"Oh yeah?" Padfoot retorts, shoving a sponge in Moony's face, "suck on that!"
"Prongs!" Wormtail yells, and throws me an enchanted mop. I catch it and then do a quick charm and Moony stumbles, not before sending a bucket of soapy water my way, though. I duck and it hits the wall behind me.
"Nice one Prongs!" Padfoot says, and then gets a mop in his face.
Then Moony freezes, his ears pricking up, his werewolf super senses kicking in.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"Lily," he says, panicked, "she's coming up the road."
"Shit!" Padfoot exclaims, "Prongs she'll murder us. She'll cut off our toenails and burn us in Fiendfyre. She'll slice off our limbs and use our blood to feed flobberworms who will then attack us and eat us! She'll roast us on a spike and give our entrails to a Hyppogriff. She'll –"
"Okay, okay, shut up, will you?" I say, running my hand through my hair. This is bad; this is very, very bad.
"We'll just tidy the place up!" Wormtail says, grabbing a few mutinous mops by the handles and wrestling to keep them in place.
"Are you mad, Wormtail?" Padfoot says, disbelievingly looking at the mess we've created.
The lights and pots are smashed, green and yellow gunge coats the stairs and walls, the new stair carpet stained and Lily's favourite crockery set that once belonged to her mother, reduced to shards.
"I'm not trying to make this any more stressful than it already is, but Lily's about to take down the wards and come in –" Moony begins.
I dash down the stairs at top speed, "CLEAN - FAST! I'll delay her as much as I can!"
I open the door, quickly muttering spells in hopes to conceal the chaos behind me. Lily looks up as I come out of the cottage and shut the door behind me. The midday sun frames her beautifully. She's dressed in her favourite jeans and her Beatles T-Shirt, which is a Muggle band, I think. She looks at me with confusion but then with the sort of soft, endearing smile she reserves only for me. I smile back.
"Hey, what's going on –?" she starts but I interrupt her with a kiss.
She looks surprised at first but then puts her arms around me. We must have been kissing for quite a long time because when she pulls away, she's slightly breathless.
"Wow, right I started on the landing and on the stairs but the kitchen and living room still need brushing up, did you manage to get any cleaning done?"
"Yes, I suppose you could say we did," there's a large crash inside the cottage followed by someone yelling 'WORMTAIL!'
"What was that?" Lily asks, frantic as she reaches past me and unlocks the door with her wand.
Moony jumps in her way, "Hi Lily, are you alright? How's Alice?"
Lily looks first at his red face and then at his hair, still tinged with bright colours. He looks like he's been at a Muggle club.
"Never mind Alice, what's up with you?" Lily asks, reaching her hand up to Moony's hair, her hand coming away coated in pink, yellow and green. She sniffs her hand.
"Is that," she sniffs again, "lemon?"
"Yeah…"
"Why have you got washing-up liquid, detergent, hand wash and floor scrub in your hair?" Lily crosses her arms, looking half incredulous, half amused.
"Well, that's an interesting story actually, Lily. Why don't we get a coffee and I'll tell you about it?" Moony suggests, pulling Lily's arm away from the door. Lily looks confused.
"Sorry, Remus, I just got a message from Aberforth. We're to meet just outside London in," she peers at my watch, "about twenty minutes. We've been tipped off about a Muggle attack, Dumbledore wants a few of us to be just outside as back-up in case the others get swamped."
"Fuck, we'd better get Padfoot and Wormtail ready –" I say but then Lily opens the door. Shit, shit, shit.
"Oh my word… how did you get it so tidy?" she asks, in wonder.
"Wow," I say, stunned as I look at the immaculate cottage before me. Lily's crockery set is fixed and the carpets are clean.
"Alright, Lily-flower?" Padfoot asks, entering the hall way holding a bucket full of cleaning stuff in his arms.
"Are you alright?" she asks, astounded, "you never tidy or clean. What in Merlin's name happened?"
"Oh you know, when you have the right amount of motivation and stress, you get things done," he grins and winks at me.
As Lily walks into the kitchen, chatting away to Remus, I spot Wormtail coming out from the cupboard under the stairs. Inside the cupboard are all the cleaning products that were animated, still moving around. I cast a quick spell to stagnate them. Phew, that was close.
LILY'S P.O.V
ALICE'S HOUSE
EARLIER THAT DAY
"She'd better open the bloody door," Mar mutters as I ring the bell for the fifth time in twenty minutes.
"She will," I say, not very convinced.
"ALICE!" Mar yells, walking to the side of the house until she's directly underneath Alice's bedroom window, "ALICE! I'm not bloody leaving until you open the bloody door!"
Alice opens the window, "fuck off."
"Alice!" she shouts again, "if you don't open this door, I will raise the dead with my screaming and your neighbours will go deaf, and you'll go mad with my shrieks. ALICE! Stop being so moody and shallow and open that damn door! You're normally so bellicose and you haven't fought any Death Eaters in ages. Come on, fucking pull yourself together and actually consider what the hell you're doing. Remus is worried sick, Lily and I have been driven to the point of insanity with anxiety, Wormtail's got insomnia over you and we all fucking miss you!"
"Could you swear anymore?" I ask her.
"Yes, Alice you're being a bitchy pessimist and I hate it. I don't know what's up with you and it's probably my fault, because it always fucking is, isn't it? I've had people tell me I'm a self-pitying, selfish bitch and all that bullshit and guess what? I probably fucking am. But I don't give a shit. I love you and you're near and dear to my heart but if you've got a problem with me, you need to bloody tell me because I'm not a fucking mind reader."
"Okay, here it is," Alice says, "you're a bad friend. You don't support me when I need it –"
"Bullshit!" Mar protests, "Absolute bullshit. You're the one being so secretive and keeping everything to yourself! You can't wallow in misery and never tell me what's wrong and blame me for being a bad friend. I'm not the most amazing friend, sure, but if I'm a bad friend, then you're a bad fucking person which is a hell of a lot worse."
"So now it's my fault! Always had to be the perfect one, didn't you Mar?"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"That maybe I'm sick of being cast aside when you meet a boy, maybe I feel like I'm being replaced once too often. Maybe I'm tired of being the less attractive one and that when a guy comes along and sees the two of us together, standing side by side, he always picks you, every time. Maybe I'm sick of that. I hate feeling so inadequate, you make me look like less of a human being and you're a reminder that I will never be good enough. My parents always thought you were wonderful, our teachers thought you were amazing, guys worship the ground you walk on, Dumbledore thinks you're incredible and Sirius is head-over-heels in love with you. What have I got? A failed relationship, some shitty grades and a scholarship to work at the Ministry. What good is that? The Ministry can't support me anymore than they can support this country. We're fucking doomed. And if we succeed? It's people like you they'll remember as heroes. The ones pushy enough to be on the front lines, not the strategic ones like me. Not the dull ones who are afraid."
"Bullshit," I say, as Mar remains silent, her face set, "that's guilt and shame talking. Don't let anybody, ever, whoever they might be, not even yourself tell you that you are anything less than a person. Don't let anybody make you feel inferior and never think for one moment that you're not incredibly special and beautiful and talented because you are, Alice Smith. More than you know. Marlene and I, we'd be lost without you. You hold us together, you're the one with all the plans, the realistic one, the funny one, and you're everything a person could be. We love you for what you are, who cares if guys don't worship you? Who cares if you're not the next Merlin? Who cares if you're not reckless? I don't, Marlene doesn't and you shouldn't care either. You're phenomenal and anybody who's more is not a person – they're fictional."
"Shit Lily, I hate you. Now I have no reason to be annoyed, do I?"
"No," Mar says, finally speaking, "and don't idolise me like that. I'm an idiot really. Why do you think Sirius and I are so compatible? We're both ignorant in some ways and I'm sorry, Alice. I didn't know how you felt. Can you forgive me?"
"Only if you forgive me first."
"No, only if you forgive me first."
"No, you first."
"No, you first."
"You first."
"You first."
"SHUT UP!" I yell, "You're both forgiven, now let's go."
"Go where?" Alice asks, jumping down from her window, using magic to soften the fall.
Suddenly, a Patronus I recognise as a goat - Aberforth's- appears.
"We have been warned of an attack on Muggles in the London area. You are required to wait outside designated parts of London in case our Aurors are in need of assistance. Please rally as many Order members as possible. Be in your positions shown to you at the past meeting in thirty minutes. I hope you live long enough to report back to us."
"We better grab the Marauders and leave right away," Mar says.
"Finally," Alice breathes, "a proper fight. I've been waiting for one for weeks practically."
"I'm pretty sure it hasn't been that long," I frown.
"To me it has, it feels like an age since I fought beside my friends."