AN- wow, that was so cool. That was like supply and demand, or demand and supply! I got seven reviews in one day. Not that this makes it easier, because it means I don't have as much time as I thought it did. But for seven reviews, it's so worth it.
I have my eighth grade graduation dance tonight, so it probably wont be finished until tomorrow. However, I always post reviews first. Therefore, it you review me one Saturday you may not be thanked in this chapter. I swear you will be in the next one, but right now I'm a smudge stressed. Anyways, I apologize ahead for anyone left out. Also, I will be incorporating at some pint in the next few chapters good old Voldie, through that bloody rat, Pettigrew's, point of view, and will also be throwing Lily's abilities into the mix. Now, for the special seven;
Anonymous- thanks; I really appreciate the support you gave through your review. I'm sorry about how long the updates can take, but I really am working on it now that I have more time. (For reasons still classified) and the point of views started out rough, but I think it evened out pretty nicely, thank you.
WilliamEP- only h/hr shipments? Now, where's the fun in that? But yeah, that's how I started out, with only one ship, (l/j) and now I read, (and for the most part, write) most of everything. Thanks so much for the support, I'm glad you started, and hopefully you won't stop soon.
JayaMioneDurron- Oh, god, I could die of embarrassment! I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo (well, you understand) sooo sorry for that grammatical error. I'm usually really careful about that, but I had to update fast. Oh, I'm really really sorry. And yeah, lurking can be annoying, when you see how many people read but don't review! Thanks so much, and where do you have your stories posted, I'd like to read some, even if they are on a different site. (I follow stories on all sorts of hp sites) And don't worry, the ending will be promised to be good. I always end it good, or at least satisfying, because my own depression ended so happily, so no need to worry about that… it'll just be rocky getting there. Really rocky.
Fire Gazer- yeah, always trust your first instinct, it's often the right one. Really, James may even think of checking into it, especially when things start getting out of control, but I guess he never follows through. (Sort of like this one boyfriend and friend I had that went behind my back and played the ever-fun game of date-and-ditch. He was my first and last too!) And yeah, I know the lake scene gives one a deja voo, but I have it all planned out, and that may be incorporated later in the story. Thanks again, I got two reviews from you in a row!
Sk8erWitch- Awesome name, this is the first I've seen of you. Were you lurking? (I picked the word up from JayaMioneDurron, and really wanted to use it.) Anyways, I have a whole bunch of thoughts on Lily and James, and this makes one think how little we know of them. Thank you so much for not bashing, reviewing, and complimenting all at once! Thank you thank you thank you.
jane- yeah, I knew a few people who were in depressions, or have depression, and I was once one of them I'm on medication for it right now, and was never suicidal or dangerous, jut never really happy. And you think this is bad, if you read my poems… you get the general idea. But thank you SO MUCH for the compliments and the review, and the comment on my, (ProngsGurl helped write it, is insisting we call it our) book. I loved all the smileys, they make me feel special, and if you want, or have any ideas, let me know and I'll gladly help you get accepted, no problem. E-mail me sometime if you'd like, I'll see what I can do with your ideas, just so you can give them enough form to get in, I'd like to read some of your stuff. If they really don't accept you here, try other sites to, I love the darkness, and you sound like you would write it well. I'll notify everyone when it's published, but it wont be until we can find a publisher, so I can't give an exact date. Thanks again, and I hope the friend you spoke of is all right.
sweetkiwi- you know, I've really gotten to get excited at your reviews, thanks for continuing to notify me of your story and your opinions of my own. I'm sorry that I haven't e-mailed you yet, I've been busy, my eighth grade dance is tonight, and I've stuff to do with my art, but I will sometime, promise. (Hey my last few promises have been kept, haven't they?) And yeah, I know I'm evil, but hey, we can be born that way. And now that you mention it, 50 reviews sounds good… never mind, I can hear you all groaning, I'll just make it ten. And that bit with Sirius was supposed to add some depth, as I realized I was going a little off course, so thank you for the comment on the locket, I was wondering what people thought o it, but you were the only one to mention it. So thank you, and hopefully I'll see you review this chapter too? I so love your reviews. And good luck with your exams, I know how that can be! Best of wishes!
Disclaimer- "Not again!"
"Don't worry, it wont be so long this time. I just wanted to say-"
"They get it, they get it, and you don't own any of us, even if our voices are in your head! There, now can you get on with the story? I don't want to hold this locket and see James depressed much longer."
"Padfoot, none of us do. Learn some patience, please!"
"Fine."
Also, my muse is STILL missing. If you find it, as described in earlier chapters, please return via e-mail or review.
Peter-
"You are most certain?"
"Yes, lord, positive. James Potter was the one you described to us, the one in your dreams. Lord, will you tell us what-"
"Enough, rat. What does this Potter look like?" I answered the best I could, which was actually really good, because I'd always envied James and his Quidditch-built body and delicate features. But still, his red eyes pierced into me. Honestly, who has red eyes? It only proved what everyone believed. You-know-who wasn't human, which meant I was taking the winning side. Dumbledore didn't have red eyes. Not that his stare wasn't as piercing, but really… blabbing again Wormtail. This is what James meant when he said I carried on and on when I'm nervous.
"Tan skin, messy black hair, thin but not too much so, hazel eyes?"
"No, it's not him. This child had dangerous green eyes and fair skin. Honestly, I don't see how you can even deem this worthless friend of your worthy of my time. There are no similarities."
"But, Lord, there was the messy brown black hair." I muttered, half wanting to be heard, half afraid to be. It was just, it really didn't seem very fair, calling James worthless. Then again, I'm supposed to be against him, maybe that's how they look at him. I know that's how I look at mudbloods. Are mudblood lovers just the same?
I said we're through rat, and you'd do well not to contradict me. We don't need more people, so I can do away with any extras." For a moment I thought he meant to kill me, and was glad when he didn't. But that didn't mean Crucio didn't hurt. Because it did. A lot.
When we were finally through, I rushed back to the dorm. It was James's birthday tomorrow, and Padfoot had a surprise planned. If the dark lord didn't need James, surely he wouldn't kill him, and so I could attend the party without a trace of guilt. But the party was planned for that night, and I still had to get him a present.
Sirius-
"Do you think he'll mind that I kept it this long?" I asked, watching Moony as he ran his fingers over the silver locket I had kept for today. Moony paused in his examination, looking up at me with serious amber eyes.
"No, I think he'll be grateful he has it back. That took a lot of guts, going back there just for this. Where did you find it?"
Somehow, knowing Mr. Potter, it felt too personal telling moony that he'd been drinking, and I didn't feel very proud about how I'd had to trick him into giving me the locket. Instead, I replied "I took it off the streets."
Moony was, and had always been, the only one to see though my lies, and even he believed. This time, I think that while he nodded in acceptance, and went back to the silver chain, he knew there was more than I was saying, and decided not to read between the lines.
"You can get a box for it in Hogsmade. You sure you don't mind going back?"
I wasn't sure, but nodded anyway, and scrambled up the stone steps to the boys dormitory, to find the invisibility cloak.
The party later would require food, drinks, pranks, decoration… the works. Stuff we could only get in Hogsmade, unless we went to Diagon Alley, but neither of us were stupid enough to create an un-authorized portkey, (at least, not again, we'd gotten caught last time) so Moony, Wormtail and myself had agreed to get Evans to keep Prongs out of the common room and away from any questions involving us long enough to buy and decorate everything we needed for later on tonight. She'd agreed easily, to my surprise, only after we promised that any trouble we'd gotten in wouldn't involve her. So now Moony and myself were waiting in the common room for Wormtail.
"Where is he?"
"Said he had something to do. But we can't wait much longer, really, or we won't get back soon enough to surprise him, he'll have to be back in the dorm for bed." I didn't really mind Peter being late. To be perfectly honest, the thought of going back to the village horrified me. They had, in the last week, probably cleaned the street of the lot, and in the Profit I'd seen the ministry cleaning up the mess. But part of me didn't want to see that things had been changed since my last `visit' there so soon. It felt like they'd forgotten about everyone lost too quickly. On the other hand, I don't think I would've had the nerve to go back there at all if I'd known that things had stayed that same. That trip to Hogsmade still haunted my dreams, and the ashes had been making me sneeze black at last three days afterwards. They had kept the shops open, half because they needed the money for repairs, half for those who were cleaning up the other side of the village, which was good, because some of the things we needed could only be bought in one place.
I guess I must've had a dazed look on my face, because moony was waving his hand I front of my eyes. "Ready, Padfoot?"
"No," I replied, knowing full well how weak my voice sounded, "But lets go anyway, we can't keep waiting for Wormtail." Under the cloak in he event that James saw us, Moony and I left the portrait and then the school through that old witch's hump. The crawl seemed to take forever, even though I'm sure we only took a half-hour tops. The ringing silence actually gave me time to think over hat had happened, and what e had planned for tonight. Somehow, my mind wandered to Evans, and he smile that had crossed her face when we had told her what we had planned. She had insisted that she was only feeling guilty about James, but if I hadn't known any better, I would've thought she'd taken a fancy to him.
Wonder what she's doing to keep him busy.
Lily-
It wasn't too hard to keep James out of the dormitory; all I had to do was tell him Black was sick. He'd been avoiding all of his friends like the plague since his mother's death, and I was pretty sure he'd rather avoid Black the most of them all. Black seemed to have a knack for getting James (or anyone else,) to admit whatever was wrong, it was common knowledge. People pretty much avoided him if they wanted whatever was bothering them to stay a secret. I would know. It was one of the reasons I'd never taken the time to talk with him. I would have eventually admitted to being an angelious.
Anyways, the reason to keep James out of the dorm and common room also gave a good reason for Black to have missed Quidditch practice. Everyone but James knew the real reason Lupin and Black were missing, and while no one knew where exactly they'd go to get these things, (including me) right away everyone had agreed to keep it a secret, and help out wherever they were needed. And somehow, I had gotten sucked into it receiving, in Black's words, `he most important job of all, the job any girl would want'. Babysitting Potter. But I really didn't, to my surprise, mind that much. He was no longer hexing everyone who annoyed him, he didn't seem to hold a grudge against me, and he no longer would beg me to go out with him, or pull me into another prank. In a way, that took the `baby' part right out, and left me doing what I was. Sitting.
I was just watching the Gryffindor team, including James, practice, something I had never done, or planned to do, in my life. But they were interesting to watch passing the ball back and forth to each other, the dodging beaters, (or hitting them) and finally, leaving James to catch the snitch. He had used to play chaser, but this year had become the seeker for the team. When the original had had too low of grades to play they had needed a replacement, and as they could play one game without a chaser, but not without a seeker, Jams had switched positions for that one game. They had found no good seeker, but the choice in terms of chasers had been plenty, so James had just kept the position.
His reflexes were amazing. I had never seen anyone so at home on a broom, flying like it was where he belonged. And when he dove after the snitch, the look of joy on his face indicated that he was, for a moment, normal again. Well, as normal as James Potter could get. (Though I suppose that isn't really saying much for him.)
But something had changed when he flew this time. Not the fact that he was a seeker. Or the fact that he looked at home in the air. It had nothing to do with him, really.
It had everything to do with me. For some reason whenever he got to close to the ground, I gasped with the other members of the team. When he was hit with a bludger that Black would have normally blocked, I ran on the field with everyone else, worried that he wouldn't be all right. And when he caught the snitch in a total of five minutes, I clapped with everyone else, instead of thinking what an arrogant idiot he was. I hadn't noticed it, but I think somehow Potter had begun to matter to me. And that kind of scared me. Especially when Michelle pointed it out.
"You've been watching him with eagle eyes all morning, and he smiled when he saw you were here."
"He knows I'm here?"
"You ran out onto the field to check on him, didn't you?" She said, raising an eyebrow. I felt the flush rise to my cheeks.
"I was just making sure he was alright. Black would've killed me if-"
"Don't bring Black into this, this is about you and James. I think you've taken a liking to him, now that you're giving him a chance, haven't you?"
I was somewhat afraid of how to answer. Michelle had always agreed with me about the marauders and what a pain they were, how they needed to deflated their heads. If I admitted that I looked at James as a friend, if I even admitted that I called him by his first name, she could go off on me. But I had never been one to hide the truth, especially not from my friends.
"So what if I like James as a friend. He's changed a lot since last year." All right, maybe that was too much to tell Michelle at once, as I had used his first name, defended him and myself, and called him my friend
It didn't help that, as it was a cold morning and she'd been out with me watching the team, she'd been drinking butterbeer when I'd said it. She ended up spitting butterbeer down her front, the look on her face an amusing cross between amazement and concern.
"You-" cough cough "feeling all right?"
I couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, never better. You?"
"You're head over heels for Potter." She said, a look of awe and wonder on her face, as she slowly started to smile.
"Am not! And quit calling him Potter, he said we should call him-"
"He said you should call him James." Michelle debated. He had, just this morning before practice. He hadn't said anything to Michelle, but only because she hadn't been the one talking to him.
"Yeah, but you're going out with Remus, and I'm sure Remus would've wanted you to call him by his first name." I watched in amusement as Michelle's face turned bright red, and wondered if I gave her the satisfaction
"I'm not-I mean- er- Remus and I aren't an- well, that was just one date!"
"So you aren't going again?" I'd won. We both knew she would, if he asked her. Before she could argue, (or admit defeat) James and the team came out of the locker rooms, James in the lead.
"Can I ask why, after seven years of avoiding myself and the team like the plague, you've decided to come watch us practice?"
Praying to god that I hadn't given myself away, I replied "well, you know, black told me to tell you about him being sick-"
"Which you did."
"-And I had nothing better to do." James just nodded, and to my surprise plopped down next to me. I saw the girls in the marauder's fan club, who attended every practice but had never gotten more than three words or a nod from James this year, sending me glares, and couldn't help but feel smug. " I thought you didn't want to talk to anybody." I said to keep up conversation.
"I didn't before, but now company would be nice, especially company that shows no pity, I've gotten enough of that." He looked tired, and I knew last night had been another restless one for him. I'd found him on the common room couch. He'd been there three times in the last week, and had been there to comfort him every time, though he had no idea I had been. And every time I watched him pick up the wet rag in the morning and ask everybody who had left it there. But even though I did comfort him, I saw the dark shadows under his eyes as a sign that he hadn't had a restful sleep in that week. He looked skinnier than he sold, and it looked as if he hadn't been eating properly either.
"Do you have anything on you to eat? I missed breakfast, ad lunch isn't for anther few hours." James smiled, and again he looked like he used to, a glint in his hazel eyes, the tired, mature look gone. Somehow I had the feeling I was about to be brought in on rule breaking.
"No. But I know where we can get some."
"James Potter, if this involves breaking the rules, I think I can wait." He tried to look hurt, (something he hadn't done all year, and I admit it made him cuter) but then smiled again mischievously.
"It doesn't, they never said we couldn't, we aren't past curfew, and they wont mind."
"They?" He had already grabbed my hand in an effort to drag me towards the castle. We passed the weary team, who gave Michelle, who was following us, and us a look. It must have been amusing, seeing someone they assumed dated James, being dragged around by the person I supposedly loathed. But I let him drag me around, and through the grass up the stone steps, into the empty Great Hall.
"Hey, Michelle, are you coming?" James called out behind us. I saw Michelle smile, and give me a wink he missed before saying
"I don't think I can. I said I'd help Kate with something, and kind of have to go. Don't forget the prefect meeting tonight, both of you." and with that, my friend walked adown the hall and away.
Yeah. My friend.
He pulled me through a door behind the head table that I hadn't seen until now. There was a long passageway, with many portraits and paintings.
He stopped in front of a painting of a fruit basket and tickled a giant pear, which giggled. The painting swung forward to reveal a door, where it appeared there was much hustling and bustling.
Small, strange creatures raced around, carrying trays of food and wearing rags for clothing. They had strange, bulb-like eyes and grey skin, only as tall as my knee.
"Mr. Prongs, sir. Hw can we helps you, sir and miss?" I looked at the creature, and then back at James, who was looking back at me.
"What are they?" I asked, caught by surprise. "Oh, I'm sorry, that sounded rude. But I've ever seen you, or anything like you." To my surprise, the thing smiled up at me, not looking upset in the least.
"It's all right, Miss.'tis the pride of the house elf, not to be seen." The creature smiled, and looked back up at James. "Mr. Prongs, where are other sirs, if you don't mind Knobby asking, sir."
"Not at all, Knobby. Padfoot's sick, I'd assume they're with him." James frowned. "Why?"
"Sick, sir?" the elf blinked innocently. "But they ordered food for tonight. Three other sirs did." James frown deepened.
"Oh. Maybe they need it for a prank of some sort." My mouth almost dropped open. Was it really that easy t pull the wool over James Potter's eyes? Apparently, at the time, it was. "So Lily, what did you want to eat?" I ordered something, then watched the elf scuffle about, saying something to another one. There had to be hundreds of `house elves' in there, all cooking or cleaning.
"What do they do?"
"Lily I thought you were smarter then that. Didn't you ever wonder who cleans and cooks for Hogwarts? I can assure you it's not the staff." He and I both laughed at the thought of McGonagall dusting Gryffindor common room, and making the beds. `
"Mr. Prongs?" I questioned sardonically, knowing I had heard the name before. It was what the marauders called him.
"Yeah. They'll call anyone Mr. or miss, and I introduced myself by my nickname all those years ago." He replied evenly, helping himself to a butterbeer offered by one of the elves on a tray. It appeared they had been here often.
"Where, pray tell, did you come up with the nickname Prongs?" I asked truly wondering.
James just smiled in reply and winked at me, hazel eyes glittering. "Sorry, as a Marauder I'm inclined to keep some of ours secrets, especially ones that aren't mine to tell." I wondered, whose secret it wasn't if it wasn't his, but James never brought the subject back up, and I never broached the topic again. We took the offered food, and James took me to the room of requirement.
As he walled around three times outside the door, I wondered what he was asking for. When he opened the door, my mouth must have dropped into a comical shape as I heard my mouth let out a soft "Oh."
Outside this morning the sky had been grey, looking like it would rain. As spring was coming, this wasn't surprising. But there was a dirt path, only a few feet away, until it stopped at a checkered blanket. He smiled, seeming to enjoy my surprise, and pulled me by the hand to the blanket.
Only somehow, this time when he grabbed my hand to pull m, I enjoyed it. Bloody Potter. I wasn't supposed to like him at all. And I certainly wasn't supposed to have my heart beat harder just because of a picnic blanket.
How much longer did Black expect me to hold out?
Sirius-
It didn't take long to collect the things we needed in Hogsmade, but the entire time I wanted out. Thankfully, we didn't have to buy anything from Honeydukes. I explained the situation to the shopkeeper, about how James had lost his mother and now it was his birthday. We told her about how James had been acting depressed, how he really needed this party. She agreed with us right away and gave us all of the necessary sweets, which we hid in the tunnel before continuing to the Three Broomsticks and Zonkos. Decorations were-er- `given' to us by the Zonko's advisor, who knew us well, considering that we provided the half of their business. When we were sure the decorations would provide no pranks on anyone, (they were apparently bought somewhere else) we left.
"He'll be happy." Remus said dryly, noticing that we had more prank products then anything else, except perhaps sweets, which the Honeydukes owner had given us plenty of.
"Yeah, suppose so." I replied dully, still slightly on edge as we walked under the invisibility cloak, through the crowd and back towards Honeydukes.
"You all right, mate?" He asked, sounding worried. I knew there was no color in my face but just nodded under the cloak. Remus patted my back sympathetically and kept moving.
In the common room, nearly everyone in Gryffindor was waiting for us to come back, and awaiting instructions. We watched them as they had hung up the decorations. We refrigerated the sweets and drinks, placing a charm on them, and watched the others place things were they needed to be. After a while we went and hid the things we wouldn't need yet. When Remus and I came back down, Michelle's smile brightened. Remus sped up down the last few steps. Pathetic.
"Aren't you and Evans supposed to be keeping prongs busy?" It took her a minute to think of who Prongs was before saying,
"No, Lily is, and I think she's doing a good enough job by herself." Her smile suggested that there was more to the words than what was heard.
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing." Michelle replied innocently, tearing her eyes from Moony long enough to give me that demon smile. "She just looked pretty happy to have James holding her hand."
"Holding her hand?" I asked, while Remus said "James?"
"Yeah, he's showing her where to get something to eat. And she told me to call him James."
"So are they there now?" I asked as casually as possible, knowing full well that I sounded over excited. " Eating out somewhere? Together?"
"I would assume so." She replied happily. "James was smiling fully for the first time in a while. And I mean actually smiling." Slowly, I felt a grin spread across my face.
"So he was happy?"
"Looked like it." She replied, mirroring my smile.
"Brilliant. God, sometimes I love Evans."
"Don't let James hear you say that." Remus said smirking. I laughed, along with just about everyone else. Only the fan club frowned, not liking the fact that James liked anyone other than them. "Alright. Now all we have to do is find Prongs and Evans." I pulled out the map and scanned it, noticing that Prongs and `Lily' were no longer in the kitchens and had moved on to the `room of requirement', as the house elves had called it. Now what were they doing in there?
Lily-
He hadn't done anything other than drink a little butterbeer, and listen to me talk. To my surprise, he was actually good at listening, and we had somehow gotten on the topic of my sister. "Yeah, if she were hurt for everytime she says the word `freak' in one day, she'd be dead by tomorrow." James laughed, taking another swig off butterbeer.
"So, er- who's the freak again?" I laughed, but noted that he hadn't eaten anything. "Sounds like Sirius and I will have to visit her at her wedding. I already have my apparating license."
I laughed at the image of James apperating on top of my sister's beautiful white wedding cake. Married or not, I didn't plan on attending, but if James would do that… Then, I noted that while we had plenty of extra food, he hadn't touched it, and asked as subtly as I could, "are you going to eat anything?"
"Oh, no, I had a big breakfast." Liar. Everyone knows James doesn't eat breakfast before Quidditch practice. Never has, never will, whether it was breakfast lunch or dinner. But I didn't say anything on the matter, knowing it wouldn't do any good.
"So, how'd you figure out you were an angelious?" surprised, I told him of my accidents with wandless magic. He laughed at all the right places, frowned with me, was sympathetic when needed, and never interrupted.
After we had eaten, we skipped dinner (much to my dismay, he still hadn't eaten.) and headed out towards the grounds, to walk around the lake and talk some more. When I ran out of things to say about me, I asked him about himself.
"Yeah, well, my mum just passed away, but before, she was wonderful. Dad and her were both aurors, so will I be when I get out of here." He looked sad, talking about his mother, and I changed the topic.
"So what about Sirius? I mean, the two of you were playing pranks on the express in first year, before you even met Remus. Can I guess you've known him a while?" I watched, as a wolfish smile crossed is face.
"Yeah, we met in a ledge for Quidditch, for kids who weren't old enough to go to school yet. At first we hated each other. Noh of us were purebloods, both of us were equally good at Quidditch, and we continuously made each other the butt of the prank or joke."
"So how'd you become friends?" I couldn't imagine them hating each other, but then, they were so alike it made sense.
"Well, we were eight by then. But the coach treated everyone one the team as if we should be professional. So Sirius and I agreed to team up once to pull off the Grande prank at the last game, instead of pulling the joke on each other. It worked, naturally, and so when we left we kept in touch half as friends and half to show the other that we were the dominant ones." There was hesitancy in his voice and I could tell there was more to the story.
"And." I prompted, already amused by the first half. His smile dropped slightly.
"Oh, well, Sirius's parents and my on didn't exactly get along."
"How so?"
"They were extremists on the whole pure-blood issue, and my parents weren't. It was like pairing a Slytherin with a Gryffindor. With Sirius, he was the same until he met my mum. She treated him like her own son, and he didn't know she was a muggleborn then. So I wasn't really a pureblood, I just had two magical parents. At the time, I didn't really see the difference. When Sirius's mom was criticizing mine, good `ol Padfoot stood up for her and me. I guess that's where the trouble started. But it wasn't so bad until last year. He was through with the whole pureblood thing, and guess things got out of control when Voldemort's asked Sirius and Regulus, his little brother to join. Sirius ended up leaving home completely, and he doesn't plan on going back."
"Oh. I guess a lot's changed then." I couldn't imagine the Potters having to put up with James and Sirius all summer, together. How did their house stay up?
"No not really. We're both spent the whole summer debating on who the superior one was."
"So who won?"
"I did!" James said, just as Sirius black jogged up saying the same thing at the same time, though with less breath. "James, we have to talk."
I knew exactly what he was going to say, or thought I did. "It's time for the annual spring prank.' He replied. James face fell, and I realized he must've thought we'd forgotten his birthday.
"Yeah, aren't you sick?"
"Sick?" Sirius met my eyes for a second before saying, "uh, yeah, that was a ruse for the prank."
"Oh. You could've asked me." James smiled, but it was a sad one.
"Nah, we just knew you wouldn't want to join in, you haven't pulled a prank anyone since the beginning of the year." James looked hurt, and asked
"Are you forgetting anything?"
"Nope. Prank's all set up, and everything's in place." I watched James face sink.
"Okay. What do you want me to do?"
"Just watch and enjoy yourself. You aren't allowed to punish us just because you're Head Boy. That goes for you to, Evans." Black replied with ease, pulling a weary James through the grass and towards the hall. By now the sun had almost completely set, and the stars had started to come out.
"Who's the joke on this time??" James asked as we walked up to the portrait. Sirius was such a good liar, I almost believed the charade, and it was somewhat scary anyone could fib like that to their friend.
"This time-" Sirius said, stopping to say the password before climbing in. "You are."
Sirius-
I watched in pure amusement as a look of shock, then laughter lit up James face. Finally he was smiling. He had been when talking to Evans too I could see it. But right now he looked like his old self.
"Admit it. I got you."
"Fine Padfoot, you won that round." I watched as people came up to James, talking and teasing, and for just a while, James was his old self again, and everything was all right.
AN-I will continue the birthday party in the next chapter, but if it all went in one, this would be an extremely long chapter, and would take a while to update, and two the next one would be extremely short. So that was his day with Lily, and Sirius's idea as to how to sheep Prongs up and give him the locket all at once, though he hadn't given it to him yet. Also, it took me a few days to write this, and I'm not sure if it's entirely smooth. If it bothers you, don't flame me, I know, but I'm not perfect. And about the whole American speech thing, well, I'm not British, not matter how badly I want to be, so I can't perfectly imitate their language.
Blackmail- here, let's do this. I know you guys don't want to have to wait for ten reviews to come in, because that would annoy me too. I'm just looking for eight, but if I get ten, you get to choose what the upcoming chapter will include, besides the party. Just put the number with your review, and I'll see what I can do, (I have an idea for all of them, but your decision will plow the path for the future of this story.) so here are my ideas to add into the next chapter.
1. - Lily and Sirius have a talk about how Lily got James to smile, what happened between Sirius and his family from his point of view, and how Lily needs to `Fix him', though she insists she had nothing to do with him breaking this badly.
2. - Quidditch match. Is winning really everything?
3. - James has a talk with his father, and then Lily has a talk with her `stag'.