Okay, so here’s the thing: yes, I’m a Quidditch star; yes, I’m a Marauder; yes, I’m fantastically good looking and could get nearly any girl in the school; yes, everyone loves me. But I get totally and completely tongue-tied around Evans. It’s embarrassing.
Whenever I’m around her my mind goes blank and my mouth spurts out some incredibly cheesy pick up line that hasn’t been used since Romans were alive and she ends up yelling at me. All the time. Nearly every conversation with her leaves me banging my head against the wall, if she hasn’t done it for me. And not even in a good way.
It also leaves me with a horrible mix of emotions. I’ll be sad, because she’s probably brushed me off or yelled at me; disappointed, because she’s said no after I asked her out and because I acted like such a prat; dizzy, because I talked to her, and happy because I actually had an excuse to stare at her for once. Oh and I can also be in pain because she’s hexed or punched me. All that can be quite confusing, to tell you the truth.
“Oi, Prongs, wake up, we’re here,” Sirius warned me, waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked, shook my head and headed up the steps after my friends. It was Saturday night and we were bored so Remus suggested a visit to Honeydukes. Yes, I know, Remus.
Everyone thinks he’s such a goody-goody (Merlin, I hate that word) Prefect but that’s only because he gets good grades and sucks up to the teachers. Somehow, even if he’s goofing off with Sirius and me in class like we normally do, no one notices. I don’t know how he does it.
Maybe it’s because he’s a Prefect? But then again I was made Head Boy this year. Although we Marauders have a sneaking suspicion that Dumbledore was drunk on Phoenix Flame when he made that particular decision. Twice as deadly as Firewhisky, a few shots of it will knock you out. It’s amazing.
“Ooooh,” said Peter as we climbed into the store and we all automatically shushed him. Peter could get a bit annoying sometimes…
“’K guys, let’s stock up,” I whispered excitedly. We wouldn’t get an official Hogsmeade weekend for about a month so we’d have to ration carefully.
Ah who am I kidding, we’ll be back within the week. We really are addicted to sugar.
Remus, of course, headed for the chocolate. He gets all these weird flavors like Strawberry and Mint or Hot Sauce. Sirius went to the Sherbet and Choco Balls and Peter went to the Cockroach Cluster. He likes those things for some reason.
We just prefer to turn a blind eye and not comment.
Or think about it.
Ever.
I strode over “ trying to make my robes billow “ to the Little Wrapped Sweets section. Or at least that’s what I’ve dubbed it. It’s where you find Pepper Imps, Chocolate Frogs, and Droobles Best Blowing Gum, among other weird and wonderful wonders.
All four of us started stuffing our pockets. The others had child-like looks of glee on their faces and were squealing happily but I’m sure I refrained from doing the same.
Ahem.
Remus dropped some money in the register “ maybe he is responsible… “ and we all grabbed a handful of Sugar Quills and scampered back down the trap door.
“Sirius you’re gonna have to give up your Sherbet Ball for now,” I smirked as he tried to walk while levitating three feet up in the air.
“No way,” he pouted. “Wait…” He tried to swim through the air, over to the wall. Legs thrashing, arms flailing, it was not a pretty sight.
“Will someone give me a push?” he asked hopefully and I sighed and reached up to his back. There was no way I would be pushing anything lower than that. Sirius went flying into the wall and bounced back a little, rubbing his nose.
“Whatchya doing?” Remus asked, somewhat disinterestedly.
“I’m going to use the wall to pull me along!” came the slightly muffled, but no less enthusiastic reply.
So there we were. Walking, and floating, back to the castle. The silence was getting a bit oppressive in the dark passageway so I decided to liven things up a little.
“Hey guys d’you think Dumbledore made me Head Boy to try and get Lily and me together?” Their groans echoed off the walls and bounced around until it sounded like ten people were in there with us. Not deterred I continued with, “And it might work too! Me and her, sitting in the Heads common room, drawing up a patrol schedule, lights dimmed…”
It sounded very romantic and I was just getting into Daydream Mode when Remus slapped the back of my head with surprising strength.
Damn werewolf.
“Shut up,” he said simply and went back to his chocolate.
“Thanks Moony,” Sirius said, rather traitorously I thought. “I thought he’d go on about her for the rest of the walk. Erm…float. Whatever.”
“Oh why don’t you go back to sucking on your ball Padfoot,” I said irritably. Hey, my head hurt!
We exchanged a few slightly-less-than-good-natured insults (yes, we’ve labeled them) until Peter walked into the wall at the end of the tunnel.
“Owww,” he whined. “Why can’t we light our wands!?”
“You know why, Peter,” Remus sighed. “You were there when the bats swarmed.” We all shuddered.
That had been a Very Bad Night.
At the top of the stairs Sirius finally finished his sherbet and pulled out the Map.
“All clear,” he whispered and tumbled out face-first.
We followed with a bit more dignity. If you can call falling on your arse dignified that is. I was just closing the witch’s hump when Lily hurtled around the corner.
“I thought you said the coast was clear!” I hissed fearfully (ahem, urgently) to Padfoot and we all started backing away.
“She was two levels up!” he replied, a definite note of panic in his voice.
I don’t know what he was so worried about. It was obviously me who would get screamed at. Again.
I know I shouldn’t be smug… She’s screaming at me. But she’s screaming at me!
Potter where the hell were you!?” she asked furiously, coming to a stop right in front of me. Sirius, Remus and Peter beat a hasty retreat and I started inching back.
“Erm…Kitchens?” I tried hopefully, ruffling my hair nervously.
“What day is it Potter?” she spat out and I winced. I had such a lovely first name, why couldn’t she use it? I called her Lily…most of the time.
“Saturday?” Why was it that she always made me make my sentences into questions?
“And what do the Heads do on Saturdays?” she asked, sparks flashing in her eyes.
“Uhh…” I stalled, looking at my friends. It was only the first Saturday of the school week. They all shrugged helplessly and moved back further. Hmph. Some friends.
“Relax?” I tried, my throat closing over the end of the word as she twirled her wand around her fingers.
“No, Potter, we patrol!” she exploded furiously. “I had to patrol for an hour while you stuffed yourself! Lucius Malfoy tried to hex me!” she ranted and my eyes hardened.
Malfoy.
He would die.
I glanced at my friends and they nodded slightly, knowing exactly what I meant. How dare he try to hurt Lily?
Oh bollocks, Lily! It was never a good idea to forget about her…
“-Swear, I have no qualms about throwing you in detention until you’ve got grey hair, just because you’re the Head Boy-!”
“Lily I’m really, really sorry and I’ll make it up to you,” I interjected in a calming (I hope) voice. “Do we patrol tomorrow too?”
“YES!” she shrieked and pointed her wand at me.
Then things got quite confusing. There was a weird sound, sprung from five different spells said at exactly the same time and a whisper as they all left their respective wands.
And then everything went dark.
---
“-Look so cute when they’re sleeping!”
“I doubt they’re sleeping, look Lily’s here too.”
“Yeah, she’d never sleep with them.”
“Dunno why…”
“Well should we go and fetch Madam Pomfrey then?”
“Would Lily kill us for helping them?”
“Well we are helping her too…”
“Lets just get out of here, they’ll wake up eventually.”
“Yeah, don’t want people to think we’re behind this.”
“Exactly.”
A pitter-patter of high-heeled shoes and then silence.
“Agghhh,” I groaned.
Okay so overall, not one of my best sentences but I was in pain! I felt awful. My head was pounding like a horrible, twisted version of a drum solo. I was really shaky and limp and there was cold sweat on my face. Actually I might just throw up…
A head swam into my hazy vision and I tried to focus on it. It was a few seconds before I realized it was Padfoot. His mouth seemed to be moving but I couldn’t really concentrate on it. The drums were too distracting.
I started shivering.
Huh.
Didn’t know I had enough energy for that.
Another face swam into view but I couldn’t concentrate on it. I did, however, see the red hair as it fell all over my face. I knew that should mean something to me but couldn’t think what.
I tried experimentally raising my hand but it just flopped there, trembling, much like a fish. Someone grabbed it, I do know that much, because they felt really, really warm. Or maybe I was just cold…
The hand didn’t let go but I gradually became aware that the ceiling was moving.
How odd.
I’d never heard of that before.
Stairways, yes, but not the ceilings.
But then I didn’t usually look at the ceilings.
That would change now!
From this moment forward, I will always look up to the ceilings. They would be sacred.
My trembling got worse as the ceiling turned white. It was now full-blown shaking and the hand was squeezing tighter. I really wanted to throw up but the room was spinning too much. I felt horribly clammy and I briefly wondered if I killed myself, whether this would stop.
I could hear something but my ears weren’t quite up to the job of listening yet. The sound grew a bit more insistent and I tried to focus on it.
I felt like someone had wrapped me in gauze, I couldn’t do anything completely, yet I caught glimpses of what I was missing. I really wanted to feel normal again. I just wanted to be looking back on this as a memory.
It was the last thing I thought before I sunk gladly into the darkness in the back of my head.