Chapter Three: The Date
Lily Evans stood impatiently outside the Great Hall waiting for Adrianne to appear. Knowing that it could be another ten minutes, as her Ravenclaw friends was infamous for taking an eternity to get ready, she decided to try and figure out who was going to be her date. It couldn’t be a Slytherin because Adrianne hated them. But it couldn’t be a Ravenclaw either, because they needed messengers, which wouldn’t be required if they were in the same house. Gryffindor was out too, because surely any Gryffindor guy could just ask Lily out himself and not deal with all the secrecy.
It had to be a Hufflepuff…but who did Lily actually know from Hufflepuff? There weren’t many people coming to mind. Amos Diggory, but he was sort of pompous and loved to brag. Lily gave up, criticizing herself for not giving more effort to meeting people from other houses.
“Lily! Over here!”
Lily looked up with a start to see her friend waving at her. Adrianne looked good wearing her blue robes with a silver necklace. Her hair was casual, but looked great. Lily stood up and walked over to the entrance.
“Wow. You look great.” Lily tried to smile.
“Thanks. You do too. Are you ready to go?” Adrianne was obviously much happier than Lily. “I just know you are going to love this, even though you don’t think so.”
“Let’s just get this over with, all right?” Lily started walking toward the doors, with Adrianne tagging along behind her.
***************************************************
James looked around The Three Broomsticks, nervously running his fingers through his hair.
“Sirius, are you sure this was a good idea? I mean, what if Lily hears that I’m going out with someone else?”
Sirius smiled broadly and leaned back in his chair.
“Look, mate, you’re not her boyfriend or something. You have absolutely no commitment to her. If she hears about this, more power to you. Now stop worrying about Lily and just relax and enjoy the evening.”
James sighed and tried to copy Sirius’ relaxed pose. It was going to be a long night.
********************************
The cloaked figure approached the bar of The Three Broomsticks and started discussing something in hushed tones with the lady behind it. She nodded after he showed her a piece of parchment and ushered him into the back rooms.
****************************************************************
“Well, there it is. The Three Broomsticks.”
Adrianne and Lily stood staring at the large sign in front. Lily’s voice took on a tour guide quality.
“Yes indeed. The Three Broomsticks. The Three Broomsticks is a wonderful place to get butterbeer. It is only allowed to those third years and older and many find that it is the most popular place in Hogsmeade on weekends. Except for perhaps Zonko’s Joke Shop, or-“
Adrianne playfully grabbed Lily’s arm and pulled her toward the door.
“Thank you for the wonderful narration, but I think that I know where we are. Now let’s go meet our dates.”
“Oh boy. I can hardly contain my excitement.”
***********************************************************
A bell tinkled at the front of the shop. Sirius turned in his seat and grinned.
“James, my boy, our dates are here. Let’s get cracking!” He rose with a flourish and strode up to a pair of girls who were standing in the door and looking around the shop. As Sirius escorted them back to the table, James recognized one. And immediately stopped breathing.
“James, this is my date, Adrianne.” Sirius gestured to a black haired Ravenclaw, who smiled. He smoothly pulled out her chair for her and sat down next to her. “And I believe you know Miss Evans?” He smirked at James as Lily faced showed that she had just realized that she was going to have to sit next to him.
As the red haired witch gingerly sat as far on the edge of her chair as she possibly could without falling off, she was having trouble forming coherent thoughts. She was too busy being furious.
“I can’t believe that Adrianne would do this to me!!! I’ll bet that she knew all along. This is just another of her plots to get me a boyfriend. She hatched it all up with Sirius Black- who must love seeing me with Potter. Potter……this is probably the happiest moment of his life….stupid arrogant Quidditch playing jerk!”
************************************************************
James Potter was also having trouble thinking clearly.
“What is Lily doing here? Did she know that it was going to be me when she agreed to come? Does that mean that she likes me now? But she sure isn’t acting like she does….”
That was certainly true. Lily was doing an excellent job of ignoring him, sitting erectly on her chair while sending death glares to Adrianne, who was sitting across from her.
“What do I say to her? I can’t sound happy, or she’ll probably curse me! I can’t sound disappointed, because she might think I don’t want to go out with her! But I’ve got to say something!”
James blurted out the first thing that he thought of.
“So, Evans, how far do you think the Chudley Cannons will go this year?” James immediately knew that he had made a big mistake. Lily’s death glares had switched targets from Adrianne to him. Her mouth was working angrily, and James had the feeling that what she was about to say didn’t have anything to do with the Cannons.
“James Potter, you-“
Luckily for James, someone interrupted Lily before James could find out exactly what Lily thought he was.
“What can I get you?” The blonde waitress was obviously bored and had no interest whatsoever in finding out what she could get them.
“Let’s see, I think we’ll have four glasses of butterbeer,” said Sirius.
As the waitress went back for their drinks Sirius and Adrianne tried to make cheerful conversation while ignoring the death glares Lily was sending them. James wasn’t adding much to the conversation either after his first disastrous attempt, obviously afraid that it would just make Lily angrier, if that was even possible.
The red headed witch was obviously furious. Lily suddenly got to her feet and stormed off to the bathrooms. As soon as she was out of sight James turned to Sirius with happiness on his face.
“Sirius, I can’t believe it! Lily Evans is on a date with me! Me! But now she’ll think that I was in on this and I wasn’t! What if she gets even more determined not to go out with me now because she thinks I tricked her into going on this one?” James started to look nervous.
“Relax, Prongs. This is your dearest wish, isn’t it? So sit back and enjoy it!” Sirius counseled him.
The waitress returned with four glasses of butterbeer. She looked around the table to see who was sitting where, then carefully placed the first glass at Lily’s vacated seat. After that she quickly handed out the others and left the table.
Sirius smiled widely at the glass sitting in front of the empty chair. James noticed it and curiously asked, “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” Sirius grinned.
Lily soon returned from the bathroom to see the others sipping their butterbeers. She angrily sat down, ignoring all others at the table, and took a drink of her own. A few seconds passed, and then Lily slumped down at the table, completely out.
“What did you do to her, Sirius?” James frantically asked, trying to shake Lily awake.
Sirius ignored him. “Where are you, Moony? Come on, come on, this potion won’t last forever.” As if on cue a cloaked figure hurried toward them, taking off the hood of his cloak as he came. It was Remus Lupin.
“How long have we got, Remus?” Adrianne asked.
“Not too long, as I didn’t put much of the potion into her drink,” Remus answered.
“Well, we’d better get going then.” Sirius pulled out a diamond ring from his pocket. Remus took it from him.
“I just hope that this actually works. I practiced for a while on different things, but this is a pretty tricky spell.” Remus took a deep breath and pointed his wand and the ring. “ Planto memoria..” A jet of silver light shot toward the ring.
“Well, did it work?” Sirius asked impatiently.
“Um, I can’t tell yet. What should happen when Lily wakes up is that the first thing we tell her will become a memory in her mind when she looks at the ring. So we’ll have to make sure we’re the first people talking to her.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?” James shouted at them.
“Nothing harmful, James,” Remus reassured him. “Now get back, she should be waking up anytime.” He pushed James away from the table.
James looked absolutely bewildered. He turned to Sirius. “Explain this to me, Padfoot. Why is this happening?”
“Lily gave you the idea to make him wear a pink flamingo suit,” Sirius said as if that explained everything. “Now be quiet and let Moony have his revenge.”
The Ultimate Prank by Midnight_Unicorn
Chapter Notes: Reading the comments for this story makes me happy! Thanks a bunch guys. Here's chapter three, in which James and Lily meet their blind dates.
Chapter Endnotes: I had fun writing it so I hope that you had fun reading it. Let me hear your thoughts in a review!