Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, not me...*sobs*
Chapter 2- Finite Incantatem
It was a week into term, and James and Sirius were in detention. They were talking whilst writing lines. “I must not turn Professor McGonagall’s desk into Professor McGonagall.” It had been another successful prank, but James was worried. Lily hadn’t seemed very impressed with him, and he desperately wanted to make her like him. Patrol duty hadn’t been that fun. She had just walked, as far away as she could from him, as they walked around the castle. He had tried talking to her, but she would just turn her back on him, making no other motion as to whether she had heard him or not. James couldn’t stop thinking about her, this was usual for him, seeing as he’d liked her since he set eyes on her, sadly, she had hated him the moment she saw him, after all, he had turned her hair green.
“Sirius, I don’t know what to do, I love her,” James said.
“Listen, you’re 17, you don’t love at 17, it’s just one long infatuation,” he replied. “We’ve been through this before Prongs…”
“I know, I know, but believe me. Sirius, I love her, seriously. I’ve had loads of girlfriends, and never felt like this about them.”
“Yeah ok, but she doesn’t li- hi Professor,” Sirius said, as he saw Professor McGonagall walking over to them.
“This is detention boys, not a time for a chat, and you should be finished by now,” she said, smiling. No matter how she tried to hide it, she couldn’t help but like James and Sirius. They were the smartest students she’d seen for a long time, and she was lucky to have them in Gryffindor.
“I’m done,” James said, looking up and flicking his quill in Sirius’ face.
“So am I,” Sirius added, chucking both his and James’ quills at James.
“Oi, what was that for?” James said indignantly.
Sirius put on a hurt face and started to pretend-cry. James waved his wand and a hanky appeared. Straight-faced, he handed it to Sirius and began to comfort him.
“There there, Padfoot, there there,” James said in a mock concerned voice.
“I think I’ll survive the attack of the quills Prongs,” Sirius said, “but will you…?”
The next minute every quill in the classroom was flying through the air, aimed for James. He yelped and started running. He ran out the classroom and hid in a nearby cupboard, before getting out his wand and bewitching the quills to fly after the next person who walked by.
That person was Severus Snape, James’ long-term Slytherin enemy, well, all Slytherins were enemies, but Snape especially, or Snivellus, as The Marauders called him. James laughed as all the quills flew straight towards Snape, and Sirius, coming out of the Transfiguration classroom at that minute saw it.
“You,” Snape snarled, at the sight of Sirius.
“Nope, not me I’m afraid Snivelly,” Sirius replied, laughing, “but I take my hat off to whoever did this.”
James laughed louder, and opened the door of the cupboard he was hiding in. “Hello, Snivellus,” he said, icily.
“Potter,” Snape said, glaring at James, whilst fighting off the quills which were now attempting to fly up his nose. “Sort this out, or you’re dead.”
“Ooo, I’m shaking with fear. But ok, I’ll sort this out for you,” James replied. He waved his wand and there was a sudden cloud of smoke. Snape was standing there, with the quills stuck to him, although they were no longer trying to fly up his nose.
Snape stood there silently for a split second, as though he was debating his next move. He pulled out his wand and began to use a very complicated and dark curse on James, but James and Sirius, being Marauders, were far too quick for him. They disarmed him before he was even half way through the spell, and within the next minute had him hanging upside down, tied to a chandelier, wandless, and with no way of getting himself down, as Sirius had stuck Severus’ arms to the ceiling. James and Sirius walked off, sniggering.
The rest of the night passed without any further mishaps, but the next morning at breakfast Snape was not in a good mood, but then again, neither were James and Sirius. They had double Defence Against the Dark Arts first, and apparently Professor Rickard wasn’t at all nice, in fact rumour had it that she had taught at another Wizarding School, and had forced a student to clean her feet! Another bad thing about Defence Against the Dark Arts was that Snivellus was in their class, and he wasn’t happy after what had happened yesterday. James, however, had one thing to look forward to. Lily was in that class, so he could, at least, spend the double period staring dreamily at her.
They were lining up quietly- well as quietly as three of four Marauders could (Peter had not passed his OWL and had not been allowed to continue to NEWT level). Lily and her friends Fliss and Cassie were also there. They seemed to be deep in conversation, Lily was blushing furiously. James thought she looked quite cute, and proceeded to tell her…
“Hey, Lily…”
She blushed again and turned to face James.
“What?” she replied crossly, the smile on her face quickly turning to a frown.
“I just felt you should know how cute you look right now,” he said cheekily, but she could feel the meaning and the truth he put in his words.
“Erm…thanks James, you look…nice today too.” Her reply hit James like a full body bind. He fell to the floor in amazement at what she had said. Lily flushed yet again and turned away, whispering again furiously with her friends. Unfortunately, Snape took James’ moment of weakness as a chance for revenge.
Now James really was in a full body bind, and soon enough a full-scale fight had begun in the hallway. Lily, being Head Girl knew she had to stop the riot before Professor Rickard arrived. Instead, she rushed to where James was laying, unable to do anything.
“Finite Incantatem,” she muttered softly.
James looked up at her in surprise. “Thank you,” he replied. This was exactly what his years of pursuing Lily had been for. He knew his attempts had not been wasted. For her to free him over stopping the fight- which was now a full scale riot- meant a lot to him. “Come on,” he said, “let’s stop this before everyone gets in trouble.”
“Too late,” she whispered, pointing her head in the direction of the stairs. James followed her gaze, only to see Filch standing there, Mrs Norris at his heels, and Dumbledore not far behind.
A/N: so chapter 2...what did you think? let me know!!
Let It Be by sirius_star
Chapter Notes: So, a new chapter. a little romance and confusion ahead, with a few laughs in true Marauder style!