The following week was horrendously busy for all the Marauderesses. And Remus. The other Marauders got through by copying Remus’ work and occasionally writing an essay for themselves. Together.
Lily and James had hardly any time to talk until the weekend, which found Lily still working on homework. James walked over to the table where Lily was working. He sat down next to her and took the quill from her hand, placing his hand on top of hers.
“Lils, come on. It’s a Saturday afternoon, and it’s a beautiful day outside. You need to take a break. Let’s go take a walk,” he suggested.
“James, I can’t. I have to do this essay,” Lily sighed.
“Come on, Lily. You have all weekend to do it. We’ll take a walk down by the lake. Remember Lils, don’t put it off until tomorrow. Procrastinate today!”
Lily snorted in laughter.
James grabbed Lily’s other hand and looked into her eyes. “Please?”
Lily sighed. “Ok, ok. But after this you’re going to let me do the rest of my homework in peace, until I’m done, for the rest of the weekend.”
James didn’t answer as he pulled her up out of her chair and headed down towards the Entrance Hall.
They made their way down to the lake, watching as Sirius tried to sever himself from a flock of girls while looking for Jess.
They sat down underneath a tree, and James leaned back against the trunk.
“So, I was thinking,” James began.
Lily leaned against James’ chest and he put his arm around her. “Were you now?” Lily teased.
James smiled. “Remember how you said little kids, like first or second years, showed they liked each other by being mean?”
“Yes,” Lily answered, wondering where he was going with that.
“Well, I sort of proved it, in second year.”
“And how is that?” Lily asked.
“When the Marauders and I pranked you that one time,” he reminded her.
“So are you implying that you liked me in second year, not third?”
“According to your theory, yes,” James said.
“Way to avoid answering that,” Lily said. She rested her head on James’ shoulder and thought back to second year.
Lily sat down heavily and began to unpack her school bag to finish up her homework. It was a Sunday night, and she had just returned from dinner in the Great Hall. She was planning to finish up a long Charms essay and then head up to her dormitory early.
Lily looked at the parchment where she had written her essay, but found it blank. She reached into her bag to look at the other parchment. Each one she opened was blank. All her homework had disappeared.
Lily looked around the room and saw her friend Kylie playing Exploding Snap with Emma.
“Kylie,” Lily called. “Could you come here for a minute?”
Kylie looked up from her game and the cards promptly exploded. She stood up, dusted herself off and walked over to Lily. “What’s up?”
Lily thrust a pile of parchment into her hands. “Look at these. I can’t find my homework,” she said in a panicky voice.
Lily and Kylie looked all through Lily’s things three times over, but found only blank parchment.
“Kylie! That was all of my homework! I can’t redo it, there’s no time!” Lily said frantically.
“Sh, Lily, it’s ok. We’ll find it,” Kylie reassured her, looking around the room. And sure enough, Kylie spotted the Marauders across the room, holding their sides in laughter.
“Hey, Kylie, look through this book will you?” Lily asked, holding out a large library book. “Kylie?” Lily looked around but Kylie had disappeared.
“What a friend,” Lily muttered as she began to flip through the book herself.
A minute later Lily heard a voice behind her. “Hey, do you want some help there?”
“No, go away,” Lily snapped without looking up.
Suddenly someone snatched the book from Lily’s hands. “You won’t find it in there. Actually, you won’t find it for about a week unless you let me help.”
Lily spun around, her eyes blazing with anger, and found herself face to face with James Potter. Lily’s breath caught in her throat. “Come on. Get a hold of yourself, Lily. He’s not that gorgeous,” she thought.
James ran a hand through his hair just then. “Come on. Let me help you.”
“Ok, so maybe he is, but no one can know that!” Lily reprimanded herself silently. “All right, but do it fast. I have to get this done!”
James looked a bit hurt, but he pulled out his wand and stacked all the parchment together. “Monstraverba!” he muttered, tapping the stack. All of Lily’s neat handwriting showed up immediately.
“Gorgeous and smart,” Lily thought. “He couldn’t be any more perfect.”
“Thanks,” she muttered, picking up her quill and getting to work.
Coming out of her reverie, Lily slapped James’ arm. “That was really mean! You knew how hard I worked on my homework back then.”
James chuckled. “As if you don’t work that hard anymore.”
“That’s not the point!” Lily said.
“Hey, it’s not as bad as it seems,” James told her.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I mean, I did think it was funny at first, but I realized it wasn’t. And besides, I fixed it for you, right?” James said. His face took on a dazed look as he thought back to his side of the story.
James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter sat in the Common Room watching people return from dinner.
As a short, red haired girl climbed through the portrait hole, they all fell silent and watched her every move.
They stared, waiting, as she sat down at a table and pulled out her homework.
“Did it work?” Remus asked.
“Of course it worked,” Sirius whispered confidently.
“Just watch guys,” James nodded towards the girl.
She was frantically throwing her books aside, looking for her homework.
The Marauders broke out into laughter, but to James, it was hollow. This girl had never done anything to them. All she wanted was to do her homework.
James watched as the girl called one of her friends over to help look. After looking through the parchment a few times, her friend spun around, eyes scanning the room.
Her eyes locked on the Marauders.
“Shit,” James mumbled as his laughter died off.
The girl marched over to them, fists clenched and eyes narrowed dangerously. “What did you do?” she hissed angrily.
James looked down at his feet. Remus and Peter stopped laughing, but Sirius hadn’t noticed her. Remus punched Sirius’ arm and he looked up and fell silent immediately.
“Fix it. Now!” the girl ordered.
Remus pointed to James and Peter began to suck his thumb.
“All right, all right,” James said to calm the girl, and Peter, as he made his way over to her red haired friend, who was frantically flipping through a book.
James watched her for a moment, with her soft red hair hanging down to her shoulders. James briefly thought how nice it would be to feel. He shook himself and cleared his throat.
“Hey, do you want some help there?” he asked.
The girl didn’t bother looking up as she snapped at him. “No. Go away.” She kept flipping through her book.
James reached over her shoulder and tugged the book out of her hands. “You won’t find it in there. Actually, you won’t find it at all for about a week unless you let me help.”
The girl spun around angrily to look at him. She paused for a moment, debating whether to let him help.
James blinked in surprise. He had noticed her hair before, but he had never really looked at her. She was gorgeous. He ran his hand through his hair. “Come on, let me help you.”
“All right,” the girl relented, “but do it fast. I have to get this done.”
“Geez, what a way to show your gratitude,” James thought, but drew his wand and stacked the parchment together. “Monstraverba!” he muttered and tapped the parchment.
The girl immediately picked up her quill and began scribbling.
“You’re welcome,” James muttered, and he made his way back to the Marauders.
Lily turned sideways so she could look at James. “You know, as mean as that was, I have to admit, that was some pretty nifty spell work. Where did you guys learn that spell?”
James shrugged and grinned smugly. “You should know by now. Sirius and I, we’re top notch pranksters. We do research. We do background checks. We learn new spells. Hell, we even go undercover, behind enemy lines.”
Lily laughed. “Undercover, huh? What do you do, throw on a dress and a wig and talk like this?” Lily asked, making her voice go very high.
“Like, no way! We like, totally prefer to talk like Valley girls! Like, it’s so much fun. You would not believe how much, like, fun it is!” James squealed.
Lily laughed again and leaned her head back against his shoulder. She breathed in deeply and thought to herself just how amazing he smelled.
“I really should go finish my homework,” she mumbled.
“Lils, have you ever considered not doing your homework?”
Lily picked up her head. “No!”
James laughed lightly. “Well, we’re going to try it. I’m going to hold you captive all weekend and not let you near your books. I’ll make a proper Marauderess out of you yet, Lily.” James grinned at her.
“Oh? And just how do you plan to do that?” Lily asked looking into James’ eyes where there was a mischievous twinkle.
Too late, Lily realized her mistake as James leaned closer and, placing a hand on the back of her neck, brought her lips up to meet his own.
Lily sat in the back of the Charms classroom between James and Kylie. The rest of the Marauders and Marauderesses were sitting in the seats around them.
It was nearing the end of class, and everyone had turned in their homework. Everyone who did it, anyway. It had been nearly a month since James “held Lily captive” away from her homework, and she was almost used to not doing it all the time.
Professor Swittle cleared his throat. “I don’t suppose there’s any need to ask you, Mr. Black, or you, Mr. Potter, but Miss Evans, do you have your homework?”
Lily’s cheeks flushed red. She glanced over at James, who shook a fist at her encouragingly and whispered, “Be strong Lils. You can do it.”
Lily took a shaky breath. “No, sir.”
Professor Swittle blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well, erm, class dismissed,” he said absently.
James grasped Lily’s hand. “Good job.”
She smiled at him. “It is nice to have some time to relax once in a while.”
James and Lily walked side by side up to the Gryffindor tower before dinner.
“And you’re not going to do any homework this weekend, right?” James said.
“I’m going to do some of it. Maybe all of it. It depends on how much we have,” Lily told him.
“But we’re still going to Hogsmeade, right?” James asked worriedly.
Lily smiled over at him as they climbed through the portrait hole. “Of course.”
James dropped his books next to a chair and flopped into it, as Lily ran up the stairs to drop her things in the dormitory.
James sprawled across his chair and waited nearly ten minutes for Lily to finally come back down.
“How long does it take to drop your books off?” he asked. "Everyone else is already down at dinner."
“I’m sorry. I got up there and was ready to come back down, when I heard this tapping noise. I nearly tore the dormitory apart looking for it. Finally, I realized there was an owl at the window.” Lily grinned sheepishly at him. “So I let it in, and then I had to read the letter, of course.”
“And what did it say?” James asked her.
“I have to go to see Professor Dumbledore after dinner.”
“What’d you do Lils?”
“I don’t know! That’s the thing,” Lily wrung her hands anxiously.
James took her hands and pulled her towards the portrait. “Don’t worry so much. It’ll be fine. Let’s just go down to dinner, and then I’ll walk you up to his office. I’ll wait outside the entrance for you.”
“Oh, you don’t have to do that. Really. But thanks,” Lily smiled at him and they walked down to the Great Hall for dinner.
“Pumpkin pasties,” Lily said to a gargoyle in the wall and stepped onto the staircase that appeared before her. Once she reached the top, the door swung open of its own volition, accompanied by a voice coming from inside the room.
“Come in, Miss Evans.”
Lily stepped in to find Professor Dumbledore seated at his desk. He gestured towards the chair across the desk from him. “Please, have a seat.”
Lily folded her hands in her lap nervously.
“I daresay you could guess why you are here,” Dumbledore stated.
Lily blinked in surprise.
“No? Or perhaps you have learned the famous ‘I’m innocent’ look from one Mr. Potter,” Dumbledore smiled at her. “I have had some fair number of complaints lately. It seems that many of our teachers have found that one of their best students has stopped turning in their homework. Now, said student may be in seventh year, but said student needs to realize, in times such as these, the wizarding world needs hard working, brave people. And it is most disappointing when students with a great deal of potential lose sight of their goals.”
Lily shifted uncomfortably. It was bad enough having Professor Dumbledore reprimand her for not doing her homework, but bringing up current events was a low blow. Lily knew exactly what Dumbledore was talking about when he had said, "in times such as these." He was referring to the attacks that had become more and more common over the last two years. Attacks on muggles and muggleborn wizards. Mentioning these occurrences was a sure lock for getting Lily to be more studious.
“Could you imagine a reason why said student might not be doing their assignments?” Dumbledore asked her, raising his eyebrows.
“Perhaps said student does not have enough time to do all their work, what with Head duties and all,” Lily answered. She felt her face grow red.
“Perhaps. Or maybe said student has found some other thing to occupy their time.” Dumbledore suggested.
“Perhaps,” Lily nodded her head in consent.
“That is all. You may return to your common room now, and please remember to pass the message along to said student,” Professor Dumbledore told her.
Lily stood up, her face burning. She was almost to the door when Professor Dumbledore called her.
“Oh, one more thing, Miss Evans. Even the brightest of students do need some time to rest. Do try and have a good time in Hogsmeade this weekend with Mr. Potter.”
Lily smiled and hurried back to the common room to get a head start on her homework.