"Dumbledore's having a ball? You mean the dancing kind?" asked a very shocked Sirius Black. "Well, what the bloody hell for?"
"How should I know, Padfoot? I just found out about it," mildly stated his partner-in-crime, James Potter. He turned to their light-brown haired friend. "Moony, what do you have to say about this?" James asked because he knew Moony would say something very intelligent.
The young man they called Moony was actually named Remus Lupin, but was nicknamed Moony because of his once-a-month horrific transformation into a werewolf.. Remus appeared to give this matter some serious thought before finally looking up at his friends.
"I think we'll have a very good time," he grinned devilishly. "Now all we need are girls to go with." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
"Moony, you wolf!" laughed Sirius. Then when he realized his pun on words, he howled (no pun intended) with laughter.
"Is Padfoot making fun of himself again?" asked their other friend, Peter Pettigrew, as he came down from their dormitory.
"Not enough so that they can admit him to St. Mungo's, Wormtail," answered Remus with mock sadness. All four boys were now sitting in the Gryffindor common room in their usual spots: the two armchairs and sofa in front of the fire.
After a few moments of silence (which was quite rare), Sirius spoke up. "I know who 'Lovemaster' is going to ask," he taunted, adding a shake of his head to the word "Lovemaster".
"Who?" asked the other three.
"Who is 'Lovemaster' or who's he going to ask?" asked Sirius, slightly confused.
"Who is 'Lovemaster'?" asked an impatient James, already knowing the answer.
"'Why dear Prongs here," answered Sirius slyly, bowing somewhat clumsily from his seat.
James scoffed. "Me? A 'Lovemaster'? Honestly."
"Well, yes, you've had you're eye on a certain...flower. Need I say more?" Sirius snickered.
"Padfoot, you just can't drop that can you?" asked Remus, shaking his head in an amused sort of way.
"I'm confused," confessed Peter, looking from one man to another.
"Buddy Pads here is speaking of Lily," explained James. His gaze shifted over to the desk where said pretty redhead and her best friend, Aleydis Figg, were doing their homework, or so he thought...
"A dance! Lily can you believe it? A real, co-ed dance!" whispered Aleydis excitedly. Her long blonde hair covered her now very flushed cheeks. Her deep, brown eyes twinkled with the latest news about Hogwarts.
"Leda, aren't dances usually co-ed? If it wasn't it would just be an intermediate ballet performance, since none of us are Russian," remarked Lily. Her long fire-red hair was pulled back and her bright green eyes had reluctantly pulled themselves away from her homework to look at Leda. Leda laughed, then peeked over at the four boys sitting in the common room joking about only God knows what.
"I wonder," Aleydis began slyly, "who James is going to ask..."
"What?" Lily snapped out of another homework daze. She had to learn the difference between "ehwaz" and "eihwaz" for her Ancient Runes test.
"I said that I wondered who James was going to ask. Maybe...you?"
"Why would James ask me?" asked Lily dubiously, fixing a slight frown on her pretty face.
"Hmm...Probably because he fancies you!" Leda nearly shouted. After a furious "Shh!" from Lily, she lowered her voice. "You're his best friend, why wouldn't he?"
"I am not his best friend. Sirius is; I don't see James asking Sirius."
"Lily, you know what I mean! You are the only girlfriend that he has."
"Don't you mean girl that's a friend?"
"Lily Evans!" Aleydis burst. This caused her to get a few weird looks from the Marauders (a.k.a. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter; though why they had chosen such an odd name was beyond any of the other students).
Lily quickly waved at them and called, "yep, that's me! Lily Evans!" She turned back to Leda and smiled a winner. "Calm down Leda, I was only joking."
"Lily, it would be bloody magnificent if you two got together."
"I doubt it. He's got an entire fan club to choose from. One of which I noticed you're not in." At this, Leda blushed furiously while Lily giggled madly. "Ah ha! I've caught you in your own web! The club you subscribed to was the 'Sirius Black Club' was it not?" Lily pushed herself as far away from the reaching arms of Leda while laughing her head off.
"Evans, you're dead!"
"Hahaha! I was right!" Leda sat back down and leaned her head in to talk with Lily how she felt about Sirius.
Meanwhile, on the couch and armchairs, the boys that called themselves the Marauders were puzzling over what the two girls could possibly be amused at. Remus turned back to James.
"Prongs, you have to admit, she is quite easy on the eyes," he said.
"You've a way with words, Moony."
"I'm forced to agree with Moony. You should go for it. Besides, since when has James Potter not gone after what he wants?" Sirius challenged.
“If I ask her to the dance, emphasis on the word 'if', I'll do it because I want to, not for my reputation. It would be rude to ask Lily if I'm only doing it for a name."
"Why didn't you just say 'conceited'?" asked Peter. Sirius gave him a lethal look.
"Who do you plan on asking, Wormtail?" In most cases, Sirius would've sneered, but Peter was a Marauder, so he couldn't. Or wouldn’t.
"I'm not sure. I was thinking of just going solo and asking multiple girls to dance."
"Peter the Pimp," mumbled Sirius under his breath.
"What about you, Moony?" asked James.
"I was thinking of asking Gwen Welliston," Remus smiled somewhat sheepishly. Then Remus gave a sideways glance to Sirius. "Who're you asking?"
"Well, I don't mean to brag..." he said, giving everyone a very pitiful excuse for a modest look. Then immediately looked like he was deep in thought. "I'm hungry for some Figg Newtons."
"Ooh, where?" asked Peter, his small, beady eyes growing wide.
"Wormtail, he's talking in riddles again," answered Remus, rolling his eyes. "I'd bet he's talking about Aleydis Figg."
"Moony, dear Moony, you are the most observant of the Marauders! I nominate you for the MOM of the Year award!" Sirius suggested happily.
"If you haven't noticed by now, I am lacking in the ovarian and estrogen departments. Not that I'm complaining," replied Remus, with a slight shudder.
James shook his head at his friends' very odd sense of conversation. "So," he began, "what's our adventure tonight?" he asked, carefully changing the subject. Immediately, a mad glint jumped to Sirius' eyes.
"I say tonight's a prowler night. I say we go on the grounds, hell, maybe even the forest!" He had lowered his voice so much that all the other Marauders had to crowd around him to listen and converse equally.
"That's a good idea. We haven't been on the grounds at night for a while. We could just get attacked by giant spiders or anything else that crawls in the night..." worried Peter. "Besides, remember what happened last time?" He dropped his voice to the bare minimum of a whisper. "Moony almost got loose!"
"He could've gotten a free dinner for us with that owl, though," Sirius pointed out.
"Ugh," James groaned as he tuned out his friends. His gaze slowly but surely made its way back to Lily. You know, she is kind of pretty when you think about it...Then James caught himself. What am I saying? This is one of my best friends here! I've known her for six years, why am I thinking this now? Hmmm, six years...I remember that day...
(Six years and some months earlier)
The Leaky Cauldron stood black and unnoticed by Muggles as per usual. Eleven-year-old Lily Evans took her mother's hand without any encouragement and walked inside with her father and mother.
"Good day!"
"Top o' the mornin' to yeh!"
"Hello, hi, nice to meet you," nervously responded Daisy and Robert Evans. Mr. Evans bravely walked up to Tom, the old barkeeper, and in a low voice asked how they would go about getting into Diagon Alley.
"Oh, just follow me, I'll show you," he responded jovially. He led the Evanses to the back of the Leaky Cauldron and spoke before opening the passageway. "Seeing as you're Muggles, I'll give ye a bit of advice. Get this girl a proper wand so she can open the passage." He smiled as he opened the passageway and added, "go to Gringotts first so you can exchange you're money!" The Evans family smiled at him before walking into the melee of Diagon Alley.
"James, can you believe it, we're a step closer to going to Hogwarts!" shouted Sirius Black.
"I know Sirius! You've said that about a hundred times already!" yelled an equally excited James Potter. The boys had been best friends for as long as they could remember and were going to finally be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry together.
"I know, I know! I'm just so excited!" Sirius began to run around insanely in circles, a very difficult feat to master, considering that Diagon Alley was crowded shoulder to shoulder, elbow to elbow, and foot to foot. In his fit of insanity, he crashed into a redheaded girl, promptly knocking her to the ground. "Oops..."
"Sirius, you clod!" laughed James. He ran over to help her off the ground. The girl took his hand and with her free one, brushed the long red hair from her eyes and revealed them to be a deep green color. At just eleven years old, James' heart skipped a beat and he had to blink before saying, "Sorry about that, my friend was just let out of St. Mungo's and was celebrating his freedom."
"Um, what's St.-St Mungo's?" asked the girl, her lips slightly quivering into a smile.
"The wizard's hospital, of course! I'm James Potter." He stuck out his hand to shake, still breathless.
"I'm Lily Evans. Nice to meet you," she said, returning his handshake. James vowed never to wash that hand again...well, for that day at least (he had a feeling his mum would yell if he didn't). Lily leaned forward and whispered, "I hope you were joking about your friend."
"Of course he was!" butted in Sirius. When I say "butted in" I literally mean he butted in. He shoved James out of the way by hitting him with a full-force side blow. "Hello, I'm Sirius Black, and I am two days older than James. If anyone here is criminally insane, it's him. You best stand back." Lily laughed at the pair of boys.
"Well, I'd better get back to my parents," she said, somewhat worried. As she scanned the crowd, though, her smile turned into a worried frown. They were not to be found! Lily felt raw, cold panic sneak up from her navel and work its way through every vein in her tiny body. "They-They're not here..." Her eyes grew huge.
"That's fine. You can come with us. We've got to go to Gringotts and get our money first anyway," said James, trying to comfort her.
"What's Gringotts? I think I've heard of it."
"Oy James! She's a Muggle! Ok, well," started Sirius, but was interrupted by Lily.
"What's a Muggle? That's the second time I've been called that today."
"A Muggle is someone with no magical blood in their veins. There's plenty Muggles that become witches and wizards, though," James assured her.
"As I was saying, Gringotts is the wizarding bank. It's run by goblins, butt-ugly they are," Sirius commented as he passed one while walking into Gringotts. The goblin gave a sort of growl, and Sirius scampered inside, away from Lily's side. Though amused, James and Lily followed him at a quick pace, wanting to avoid other goblins. Each looked for their parents. Relief warmed Lily when she spotted hers and ran over to them, wrapping her arms around her mother's waist and giving her a big smile.
"Lily, we were so worried about you!" cried Daisy, hugging her back.
"I was okay, though! Meet my new friends who brought me here! That's Sirius Black, the chap dancing around; and here comes James Potter." Lily smiled brightly at James when he sidled up next to her. "James, this is my Mum. Mum, this is James."
"Nice to meet you Mrs. Evans. Sirius here knocked Lily over. He's a real klutz." He paused to take a deep breath. "Could she come with us around Diagon Alley?" He smiled sheepishly.
"Well, I must confer with Mr. Evans, but I'm sure it will be fine." Daisy smiled and walked over to her husband. At once, James, Lily, and Sirius all crossed their fingers and closed their eyes, wishing for the answer to be yes. Daisy soon returned with Robert and a couple who were obviously James' parents. The man had unruly hair and silver eyes, and the woman had jet-black hair and brown eyes.
"We will allow Lily to walk with you, but we will stand just outside of the shops," announced Robert. Beside him, Daisy smiled widely and gave a thumbs-up to Lily.
"Wicked!" exclaimed Sirius. The Evanses exchanged their money while the Potters and Sirius got their money from their vaults. Everyone met about thirty minutes later and walked out of Gringotts. James, Lily, and Sirius stood out front of Gringotts with huge grins on their faces.
"Where should we go first?" asked Lily, dreaming of the new books she could get.
"Books, or else we'll be waiting all day," said Sirius. Lily perked up at the idea of hundreds of books on completely new and fascinating subjects.
"Wait, shouldn't we get our cauldrons first to put our books in?" James reasoned. The three friends smiled at eachother and set off for the cauldron shop.
Three hours later, Lily's, James', and Sirius' cauldrons were full. They had each gotten their books, robes, and potion ingredients, and James' and Lily's parents were getting them owls. Lily knew there was something they still needed...
"WANDS! We forgot to get our wands!" exclaimed James, completely shocked with himself.
"No, we just saved the best for last," Sirius asserted.
The three of them warily made their way to Ollivander's and ended up meeting their parents there.
"Mum, could you perhaps hold my things? I need to find a wand," Lily asked.
"Of course, dear."
The boys and Lily then left their things with their parents and went inside. One boy was already trying a wand. His black hair was slicked back in a manner that left the seer with the distinct feeling that grease had been rubbed in his hair. Waiting was another boy. His hair was light brown, but his eyes could not be seen, for they never made contact with anything but the floor. He also looked very sickly. Since there was only one seat left, James and Sirius let Lily have it, causing her to sit next to the anti-social boy.
On a normal spurt of kindness, Lily turned to him. "Hello there," she said. The boy's expression clearly showed his astonishment at being spoken to.
"Sirius, mate, look at this bloke." James stepped up and helped Lily through the introduction process. "I'm James Potter, this fellow is Sirius Black, and the lady we are accompanying is Lily Evans." James gave a very gallant bow.
"Um...uh...hi...My name is Remus. Remus Lupin," he said rather quietly. Over the next five minutes, James, Lily, and Sirius brought Remus out of his shell and all became quick friends. By the time all their wands were picked out, it was agreed that the four of them would meet at the train station at ten-thirty on September first. Sirius, James, his parents, Lily, and her parents walked back to the Leaky Cauldron after saying good-bye to Remus. The Evanses and the Potters and Sirius parted ways at the fireplace.
"Bye James, Bye Sirius!" Lily called to them as she walked out the door. The boys waved at her together, and stepped into the fireplace.
"James, what do you think? James. James!" James felt a very hard knock on his head.
"It's vacant, Padfoot," answered James, who just realized he was back in sixth year, already at Hogwarts. He was back in the present... "Sorry, what were you saying?"
"Prongs, buddy, if you're going to stare at her, don't make it so obvious," Sirius said lowly.
"I wasn't staring," James shot back indignantly.
Remus gave him a look of bored amusement. "Well, I've got to go. See you later," he said, winking all the while. The remaining three Marauders quietly bid him good-bye and watched him disappear through the portrait hole.
Later that night, around two o'clock in the morning, Lily woke up with a start. She'd had another severely confusing dream. She sat up, shook her head, then climbed out of her four-poster bed. She glanced around to make sure no one was awake, then walked over to the window and threw it open. She heaved a great sigh, more out of mild frustration than anything else. It had been another dream about that white stag. He (she assumed the stag was a he since his body language was full of arrogance) was beginning to get on her nerves since she had never seen a white stag in her life. Why the hell would she dream about one? She'd read up on it of course, but the books said the stag represented a repressed sexual drive, which she knew was definitely not true.
Lily sighed again and finally focused her gaze on the school grounds below. When her eyes reached the edge of the forest, she couldn't believe them. The white stag was walking (well, prancing) on the grounds with an absolutely enormous black dog. On the stag's back was a mouse and in between the stag and dog was a...werewolf?
Well, I think I'm still dreaming, she thought. She pinched herself and it hurt very much, so chances were that she was definitely not dreaming. Lily leaned out the window as far as she could without falling to get a closer look. Right at that moment, the stag looked up and straight at her. Lily's jaw dropped as she gazed into the pure silver eyes and nearly lost her balance on the windowsill. Slowly, she backed away and climbed into her four-poster bed, depending on sleep to claim her. It didn't.
The alternative choice was to take a book and read in the common room. So, she grabbed the nearest book, Hogwarts, A Revised History, and crept down to the common room. She settled into the big scarlet sofa in front of the fire and began to read. A few minutes later, however, someone came through the portrait hole and collapsed next to her on the couch. That someone was James Potter.