Could It Get Any Worse?

AN: Hey everyone! I’m back with my latest work. I’ve had this idea floating in my head for a while I and I thought I’d entertain it. It turned out to have a life of its own and just kept on going! Now, this is my first serious attempt at writing humor so you’re going to have to let me know how I do. Also, it’s my first ever attempt at writing in the first-person point of view so bear with my POV mistakes and any other discrepancies. I hope that you guys enjoy it though! I had tons of fun writing it!

Disclaimer: I do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter. Nor do I own the wonderful world of James Potter and the Marauders. Ah well, I’m happy with writing them the way I want and leaving the tough characterizations to the lovely J.K. Rowling!

Could It Get Any Worse?

That darn blasted sunlight shot through the bleeding window way too early this morning. And I, James Potter, do not appreciate the sunlight for waking me up so early. I mean, I have curtains for a reason, but they just don’t seem to cut it when all of that light is being so insistent. I groaned irritably before starting to roll out of bed. It would be a real pain to get out of bed this morning. What with my nice warm scarlet and gold comforter, and the magically soft mattress, oh, and not to forget my pillow. How could anyone forget something so exceedingly soft and—whoa!

At that moment, I tumbled out of my bed and landed heavily with a thud on the solid ground. I groaned grumpily and just lay there.

“Oy, Prongs! You alright?”

I immediately thought ‘Of course I’m not alright, you sodding git!’ but I’m too nice to say that out loud. “Of course I’m not alright, you git!” There, I took the ‘sodding’ part out.

“And what has your knickers in a twist this morning, oh Great Irritable One?”

“Padfoot, leave him alone. He’s obviously not in the mood this morning. “

Thank the heavens for Moony. He always knows what to say.

“I think he fell out of his bed.” Wormtail stated solemnly from his bed.

If it wasn’t clear before… at least it is now. I grumble again before making to get up.

Thunk!

Ow… that hurt.

“Watch out for that desk, Prongs.” Padfoot, a.k.a. Sirius Black, sang. I really do loathe him…

“Whoa, are you alright, James?” Moony, a.k.a. Remus Lupin came to my aid and helped me up. He quickly plucked my glasses from off my nightstand and handed them to me before I hurt myself again.

“Thanks, Moony.” I mumbled. I glared menacingly at Padfoot before making my way to the bathroom to wash up and clear my head of this awful morning.

“I wouldn’t shower now—” Wormtail, a.k.a. Peter Pettigrew, started, but I cut him off.

“Time and place, Pete. This isn’t it.” I answered quickly and made my way into the bathroom.

“We’re going to go down to breakfast now.” Sirius shouted after me.

“We’ll save you something to eat, James.” Remus added.

I waved my friends off and entered the bathroom.

“I wonder if they have blueberry muffins this morning!” I heard Peter exclaim excitedly.

~<>~

I hate Sirius.

That was the mantra running through my head as I quickly descended the stairs down to the Great Hall on this fine Monday morning.

I really do hate that guy. I wonder all the time why we’re even friends!

That babbling buffoon had just so happened to charm all of our water into glue. And me, in my distractedness didn’t check before I showered, a grave mistake on my part. I’m going to blame him for all of my troubles anyways though. I wasted nearly ten minutes trying to get out of the shower because my feet and legs were glued down to the bloody ground! Then it took me absolutely ages and nearly every charm I knew to get the sticky adhesive out of my hair…

I hate Sirius.

I sighed heavily as I approached the doors to the Great Hall and took a deep breath. I was now ready to get this day started and to forget my crummy morning. I checked my hair, which was still quite sticky. If I could just remember not to touch it, I think I would be alright. I took another deep breath before I pushed open the doors to the Great Hall and made my way in.

Wham!

What in the name of Merlin’s soiled underwear just happened!? The entire hall was deathly silent.

“Wormy! Why, oh why, did you have to dare me to do that?” I heard Sirius groan.

“You didn’t have to take it up, Sirius.” Remus said.

“It’s a dare, Remus! I can’t decline!”

I felt a gooey substance slide leisurely off of my face and some of it got into my mouth. Pumpkin pie… Sirius better be glad that I like pumpkin pie. I licked my lips and wiped the sweet mess off of my face. I whipped my wand out menacingly and the hall held its breath. Slowly. Agonizingly slowly, I raise the wand. And with a quick swish and flick, my face was relatively clean, though I’m not sure if the smell disappeared along with the food. With that taken care of, I stomped over to my supposed friends and glared at the other staring students.

“Back to breakfast everyone.” Remus said loudly.

“Yeah, that’s right, nothing to see here—eh… Hiya Prongs! Nice morning, eh?”

I just stared levelly at him. I would make him suffer under my deathly gaze before answering. “It’s been an interesting morning, definitely.”

Sirius laughed nervously while Remus and Peter watched the exchange with interest. “Yeah… well… I hear that the scones are absolutely delicious this morning.”

I nodded, “The pie isn’t half bad either.” Sirius winced. “Now, Padfoot, could you explain to me why glue came out of our shower this morning?”

“Ha! That’s a funny story, Prongs, buddy ol’ pal, because, I was actually trying to get Pete with that. He didn’t fall for it though, so, well… erm… Glue can’t just disappear, you know.”

“You were trying to get me!?” Peter cried indignantly. Remus rolled his eyes.

I decided to let Sirius off this. It was all in good fun, and no one was hurt. I sat down across from my best friend and piled my plate with the food before me. Sirius was right! The scones were delicious!

~<>~

The day was starting to look up now. I mean, after this morning, could it get any worse? Breakfast didn’t turn out to be anything exciting.

Boom!

I think I spoke too soon. A livid Lily Evans is marching towards me now. Ooh, her glare seems to be at Level 5, this could be dangerous to my health… I don’t know what it is about her, but this girl just makes me so bloody nervous. I stand up to greet her.

“Hi Eva—”

“Don’t talk to me you, insect!”

Okay, not going quite as planned. I haven’t even finished saying her name yet, what did I do this time? “What’s wrong?”

Lily fumed silently and I think her glare just got to Level 6… uh-oh… “Don’t play that game with me, Potter.”

“What game?”

“I love games.” Sirius joined in.

“Shut up, Padfoot,” Remus muttered quickly.

By now, the attention of the entire Great Hall had returned to me. Gosh, this really wasn’t my day. First the morning fiasco, now the girl I like hates me for something that I don’t even know about. I sighed, “What did I do, Evans?

She rounded on me again, “Oh, you know what you did, Potter! Do you have any idea how incredibly infuriating you are! How could you even think about doing what you did!?”

“What did I do?!” I asked again. This is getting really frustrating. She won’t even tell me what I did! I really hate how Lily makes me so nervous. Unconsciously, I reach my hand up to mess up my hair. It’s a nervous habit—and one that I will soon regret. After scratching my head for just a moment, I feel something is wrong… Oh Merlin, save me! My hand is stuck to my head!

I hate Sirius!

Of course, having my hand glued down tightly to my head would be an incredibly embarrassing thing to admit—especially in front of the entire Great Hall. I obviously can’t jeopardize my reputation so I just keep acting like that itch is still there. This, in effect, causes Lily to become even more furious. It was a well known fact that Lily hated when I messed up his hair.

“You insufferable, pig! There is no one else on the planet that would even think of doing what you did!” Pause. “I hate you!” With that, I felt a burning, stinging, sensation on my left cheek. Merlin! That girl could really slap! If I hadn’t been so much bigger than her, I’m sure I would’ve gone flying in the air! Oh someone help me, I think I just lost a tooth!

“Potter! Evans!” a new voice entered the mix. We both look to the new entrant and pale under the livid stare of Professor McGonagall. “Detention! Tonight! Both of you, for this inexcusable disruption!”

Lily glared at me a final time before she departed in a huff to the opposite end of the table. I just stood in the same spot. My eyes rolled to the back of his head briefly and I just groaned loudly. I sat down roughly by my friends who looked at me pityingly. This definitely wasn’t a good start to this day.

“James, why is your hand on your head?” Remus inquired hesitantly.

I glared threateningly at Sirius and replied simply, “Glue.”

Peter “oohed” and Sirius shuddered under the piercing gaze I was sending him. Remus shook his head tiredly and pulled his wand out. With a few choice words and waves of his wand, my hand was suddenly freed from it sticky situation. I immediately leapt across the table and smacked Sirius on the head. Sirius loudly protested that it wasn’t his fault. Professor McGonagall—who was still watching—just shook her head and sat back down to finish her breakfast. Why fight a lost cause, right?

I sat back down in my seat and started to eat again. I’d be lucky to squeeze in a half-decent breakfast after all of the times I’d been sidetracked today.

“Alright, students.” Dumbledore stood up at the front of the hall. With a wave of his hand, all of the food disappeared. “Breakfast is over. Start getting to your classes. I’d say we’ve had quite enough excitement today.”

Are you serious!? (No pun intended) I just started eating. I’ve only had some waffles, eggs, toast, scones, and a bit of fudge. (Yum!) Oh… and pie.

I hate Sirius!

This is all his fault! If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have fallen out of bed or smacked my heat on my bedside table. If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t have been the glue fiasco. If it weren’t for him, Lily wouldn’t hate me. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have missed breakfast! It’s all his fault!

Now, if Remus knew what I was thinking, I’m sure he’d have something to say about how unreasonable I’m being. I really don’t think I’m being unreasonable though. If he had gone through what I just did, I’m sure he wouldn’t be so quick to jump on my case. It’s all Sirius’s fault, there.

Now that my mental venting is over, I sigh heavily. Time to get to classes. Yeah, this day isn’t lost yet! There are still some fourteen hours left in the day. Plenty of time to turn things around. Hopefully classes will help me take my mind off of this horrid morning.

…

Oh bugger. I left my books up in the tower!

~<>~

Wow, the Gryffindor Tower is a lot farther away from the Great Hall than I thought. And if those stupid suits of armor hadn’t stalked me, I wouldn’t be so bloody late. I checked my timepiece. Ten minutes. McGonagall is going to kill me.

I stealthily made my way into the room. I shouldn’t have been so careless as to miss sight of the innocent-looking cat at the back of the room. I stole into my seat next to Sirius who was giving me funny looks. I see Lily turn back to her book with a disgusted look on her face several seats behind me.

I sigh heavily. McGonagall is nowhere in sight. She must have left the room. “Good thing McGonagall isn’t here, eh, mate?” I saw quietly to my best friend.

“Prongs…” Sirius says warningly.

“She’d definitely kill me after this morning.”

Sirius is looking straight past my shoulder. That’s when I realize my mistake.

“As teachers, we’re not permitted to kill out students, Mr. Potter.”

I shudder and jump up. “Why, good morning, professor!”

“It’s rather dreary outside, Mr. Potter,” she responds dryly. Her tone then sharpens up immediately, “Why are you late, Potter?”

“You see, professor, it’s a funny story…” I trail off try to think of a cover story. Sirius is next to me making odd swooshing motions. I pick up immediately, “I was on my way to class—on time, mind you—when I walk by a tree. It’s no ordinary tree though, it happens to be the Whomping Willow. Now I got busted up a fair bit—”

“Do not question my intelligence, Mr. Potter.” McGonagall cuts me off quickly, “You tried that excuse last week and the Whomping Willow is on the other side of the school. What were you doing there?”

“Ah… did I say Whomping Willow?” I trail off again, “Ah, pumpkin pie!” I curse, “You got me professor. I’m late because I left my books in my room.”

The professor nods, “I will let this occasion slide, but see to it that it doesn’t happen again, Mr. Potter.”

“It won’t happen again, professor.” I answer obediently.

“Take your seat.” I nod dutifully and sit down.

“You’re lucky she didn’t take points.” Sirius whispered from beside me.

“Mr. Black. You’re lucky I don’t take points. Quiet down, the lesson will begin now. Today, we will be working on…”

~<>~

I let out a relieved sigh when Professor McGonagall dismisses us from class. I toss my books into my bag. My next class will be Herbology outside in the greenhouse. Oh joy… I step outside behind my friends and see them head up the stairs.

“Where are you guys going?”

“Up to the tower, mate.” Sirius says.

“I need to start on that Potions essay.” Peter supplies.

I groan, “Are you kidding me? I have Herbology now.”

“Interesting,” Remus says, “I only have two classes today.”

“Me too.” Sirius adds.

“Just great,” I mumble, “I’ll see you guys later. Start planning that prank for next week.”

“Will do, captain.”

I departed from my friends and walk in the opposite direction down the stairs. Suddenly, I hear something…

Clang! Clang! Thunk!

Merlin save me! Those suits of armor are after me again!

I make it to the greenhouse completely out of breath. For things that technically aren’t living, they’re rather persistent. At least I’m not late for class. Honestly, I don’t even know what I’m doing here. If Lily weren’t in the class, I definitely wouldn’t be.

I set stuff down next to Lily. She completely ignores me. Hmm… maybe she didn’t realize that I was here yet.

“Hi, Evans.”

“I hate you.”

Okay… I’ll just leave her alone then. It was at this time that Professor Root entered the room. This old windbag is definitely ready to retire. I mean he’s probably old enough to be my parents’ grandparent. I have no idea what he’s doing here teaching. I hear that there’s a new prospective Herbology teacher though. Professor Leaf or Sprout or whatever.

“Good morning, class.” He says. For an old guy, his voice isn’t completely gone yet. It must be all of those steroids he creates with these herbs. Everyone knows that he runs the wizarding black-market.

“Today, we will be learning about a rather, ahem, noisy plant. Have you all heard of Mandrakes?” We all shake our heads in unison. What the heck are Mandrakes? “Great! Then we’ll just get right to it. Good luck class, and remember, don’t forget to wear your earmuffs.”

Mandrake. Okay… It sounds like some kind of exotic chili. What are we supposed to do?

“Professor?” this is Lily.

“Yes, dear?”

“What do we do with the Mandrakes?” I’m sure she knows. She’s just asking for the benefit of the class. Lily is so nice.

“Ms. Evans, now is hardly the time to be discussing sock drawers. Get to work now.”

Okay… so asking clearly isn’t going to help. I guess we’re just doing something with these plants here…

…

Oh! I get it. I just move this thing from this pot to that pot. This will be a piece of cake. I grab my weed-looking thing at its base and prepare to pull.

“Potter.” Lily looks at me warningly.

“What?”

“Put your earmuffs on?”

“Why?”

“These are mandrakes. When they’re uprooted, they—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. They sing some song that will put me to sleep in a minute. No worries, Evans, I got this.”

I pull.

!?!?!?!?!?!?

I’m out.

~<>~

Holy monkeys in a barrel, my head hurts! I’m on the ground. Slowly, I get up and rub my eyes to clear them. This throbbing in my head wasn’t helping my sight. I woke up to see Lily looking sympathetically at me.

“Worried, Evans?”

Her eyes sharpen instantly and she ignored my comment, “You were right, Potter. It did put you to sleep.”

I look around. The greenhouse is empty. “Where is everyone?”

“Class just ended.” Lily said simply. With that, she left.

Even with my pounding headache, lunch sounds like a lovely change in pace now…

~<>~

As soon as I walk into the Great Hall, I know something is terribly wrong. The entire hallway is deathly silent and looking right at me. Or maybe that’s Lily a few steps ahead of me. She seems to be looking straight up at the ceiling… Wonder what’s up there. My eyes widen.

Lily, Lily, Lily,

will you go out with me?

Lily, Lily, Lily,

I promise you’ll be very happy.

Lily, Lily, Lily,

After a date or two or three,

Lily, Lily, Lily,

we could go and get married.

After a nine more months,

Lily, Lily, Lily,

we’d be a proper family!

~James

Oh my bleeding socks… How the heck did one of my poems get on the ceiling?

“Oy, Prongs!” That explains it…

“You’ve been having a bad day, so I thought I spare you the trouble and ask Lily out for you!”

I hate Sirius. Then again, I’m thankful that he only put up the first verse. There are twenty five more from where that came from.

I look down again to see Lily seething at me. Her shoulders are trembling and I can tell that she’s trying hard not to kill me now. She stalks up to me, “Never ask me again, or you’re chances for having children will be reduced to nil.” She pushed roughly past me and exited the Great Hall with a bang.

I groan. Why me?

When I get to the table, Sirius is looking please with himself. One look into my eyes and his smile falters. “I take it she said no?”

I take a deep breath. Okay, I can get past this. I’ll just never speak or think of this incident again for as long as live.

“She wants me on the inside.” I say nonchalantly and start eating. Mmm, the turkey is very nice.

~<>~

I walk into charms class and decide to sit in the very back. I’m in Lily’s class and I don’t particularly feel like getting holes burned through my head while she glares laser beams at me. I decide to just quietly get through the class and get this day over with. All of these unfavorable events are starting to wear on me. Heck, I’ll even take notes in class so I can distract myself.

I pull out parchment and my favorite quill and sit prepared for class. Lily walks past me without a glance and sits down at the front of the room. The rest of the students file in dutifully and Professor Flitwick follows closely. I’m in this class alone, Moony and Padfoot opted for normal Charms while I decided to take Advanced Charms with Lily—er… like Lily. Now let me tell you, I’m absolute rubbish at Charms, but hey, it it’ll get me another class with Lily, why not?

Flitwick climbs onto his stack of books and begins the class. Hmm… right now he’s talking about some Fundamental Properties of Charms. They sound rather important.

All of a sudden, I see Lily turning back to look at me. Wait, it must be a trick of the light. No… I see her turning back to her notes now. Flitwick’s voice starts to fade away as I become lost in my thoughts about Lily. She has such nice hair. It looks soft, I wonder what it smells like…

~<>~

I bet Lily would make a jolly good conversation. She’s so smart, it wouldn’t be hard at all to sustain a conversation. I’m knocked out of my reverie by the students leaving the class.

I hear Flitwick still talking. “Okay class, that’s it. Remember these notes well now. In Advanced Charms, these notes will be very useful in understanding the charms. Not having these notes will be detrimental to your marks so memorize them. Have a good day!”

Uh-oh. I look down at my parchment.

It’s blank.

Oh bugger…

~<>~

Man, this day hasn’t been going my way. I doubt anything’s about to change either. Potions will be my last class of the day, and let me tell you, I’m complete trash when it comes to potions. If you thought my charms were bad, wait until you see my potions. Lily is spectacular, but I just don’t get it. Oh well, at least Sirius, Remus and Peter are in the class with me. We have class with those dirty Slytherins though, so we’ll see how this turns out.

I go straight to the dungeons where the lessons are always held. I take my spot and wait for my friends to show up. Snivellus (Severus Snape) is in corner reading some book—probably about Dark Magic. He sure doesn’t read “normal” books like “normal” people. Perhaps Sirius and I will be able to tip his cauldron over today. That would be fun!

Everyone begins to make their way into the classroom. Padfoot takes his usual seat next to mine and we strike up a conversation about Quidditch. Moony and Wormtail sit in the desks behind ours. After a few moments, Professor Slughorn enters the room. He lumbered up to the front of the room and began the lesson.

“Good afternoon, class.” He said with a wide smile on his face. “Today we will be working on the Exploding Potion.”

There were various nods and murmurs of approval. Finally, we’re making a potion that’s actually useful!

Professor Slughorn went on to describe the potion, “These exploding potions are useful in practice when wizards need explosives in order to get their jobs done. Often, it is less draining on a wizard or witch to simply use the potion rather than casting a complicated spell. There a little more room to make mistakes because of the very nature of the Exploding Potion. Now, to create this potion, all you do is add some Erumpent fluid. Of course, that’s the easy part. Your mission today is to create the most efficient Exploding Potion that you can. I hope you all remember my lecture over potion concoction and the different bonds that they can form. You may begin.”

Sirius turned to me. “So, Prongs, should we go with the Eye of the Rat and Swine Tongue? I’m rather partial to a good dash of Wumping Powder though.”

I roll my eyes. “Makes no difference to me, mate. Throw it all in!”

“Will do.” Sirius haphazardly tossed the ingredients into our cauldron and began to stir is in a clockwise motion. He immediately lowered his voice. “Alright, mate, I’m going to sneak over there and drop some of this Erumpent fluid into Snivelly’s cauldron. That ought to clean his hair, eh?”

I snicker, “Go for it. I’ll stay here and mind our potion. We don’t want some dirty Slytherin to be messing up our potion while we’re gone.”

Sirius saluted and grabbed the vial of clear liquid from off of our desks. He uncorked it. Letting curiosity get the better of him, Sirius brought the flask to his nose to take a whiff. “Whoa! This stuff reeks!” he said flinging the vial away from him.

Unfortunately, the two of us didn’t notice that a single drop of Erumpent fluid hopped out of the glass bottle and straight into our cauldron. Sirius immediately got up and began to make his way to the back of the room where the ingredient cabinet was—and Snape’s cauldron!

I watched Sirius while I continued to stir our concoction. He suddenly “tripped” and dropped the entire container of fluid into Snape’s vessel.

“Black, what have you done!?” he exclaimed.

I laughed silently and turned back to our dull rust-colored potion. It seemed to be simmering. This was a rather interesting development though, because we were not heating the potion. Suddenly, the nice rust-color was eaten away by a malevolent bubbling green brew. I stopped stirring immediately.

…

This can’t be good.

BOOM!

BOOM!

Snape’s and my mixture simultaneously exploded. And mine did with force enough to knock me out of my chair and onto the floor. Ouch. Why couldn’t Sirius have been here to take the hit with me?

“Prongs, are you alrig—whoa!?” Sirius rushed over only to be covered by green muck that was still spewing out of our black pot. The slimy green potion was still bubbling and convulsing erratically.

Professor Slughorn rushed over. “Great work, gentlemen! You guys really made a smashing potion if I do say so myself! Fifteen points to Gryffindor!” he paused when he noticed my state, “Whoa, are you alright there, Potter?”

I winced when he touched me. Ow, that stung! “Oh dear, you’re burned pretty badly aren’t you?” No kidding? The fat old man hurried over to his potions cabinet and came back with a container or grey paste. He quickly smeared the gooey junk onto my burned sections. “No need to go to the Hospital Wing, son. You’ll be just fine.” The paste was very soothing, but it still felt rather awkward and icky. I just sighed heavily. Whatever else this day was going to throw at me, I was just going to take it. After all of this, there’s hardly anything else that could happen that would top this. Could things get any worse?

By the time class was over, the grey goo had dried and flaked off. I felt much better but was still pretty sore overall.

“Sorry, mate, I didn’t realize I had dropped some into our cauldron.” Sirius apologized.

I nodded, “Don’t worry about it, mate. I’m just ready for today to be over.”

“Are you alright, James?” Remus asked cautiously.

I forced a smile onto my face, “I’ll be fine. Let’s get to dinner. We still have four hours for this day to get better!” Who am I kidding?

~<>~

Dinner was a peaceful affair. My friends seemed to be intent on cheering me up though. No matter what they did, I couldn’t help but feel a foreboding sense of hopelessness. This entire day has been a colossal mistake. What a complete waste of time. I don’t even know why I got out of bed today. Oh yeah, I fell out.

I idly spooned custard into my mouth while I listened to Sirius recall an old prank. Ah, the classics. Why couldn’t today have been a productive and fun day like all of the others. What did I do to deserve this? I quietly excused myself from the dinner table and begin to make my way back up to the Tower. I could’ve sworn that I saw Lily gazing at me again, but I quickly shake my head. There’s no way…

~<>~

Why, oh why, did I sign up for nearly every class Lily was taking! Sirius and Remus only had two classes today. Peter got away with one! I had four. It ought to be against some law to have four classes on a Monday. I like the girl, but this has got to be taking it too far. I mean, she’s taking more classes than Remus! I know because for some reason, the stupid school board actually gave me every class I signed up for.

This has really been a bad day for me. I can’t wait for it to be over. First, being late for Transfiguration. Second, those “Screeching Mandrakes” in Herbology. Next, I missed some really important notes in Charms. Not knowing “The Notes” is supposedly detrimental to our markings and I have no one to borrow them from! And finally, let’s not forget the “Potions Detonation”. Not to mention “The Morning” and the “Glue Fiasco”.

I finally make it up to the Gryffindor Tower. After muttering the password to the Fat Lady, (Infelicitas—I wonder what that means…) I decided to just go up to bed. Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail were sitting near the fire playing a game of Exploding Snap. I declined their offer to join for my bed though. After everything I’ve been through today, I think I deserve some rest. It was time to just let the day end and put everything behind me.

As I lay sprawled across my comforter, (which was very comforting indeed) I thought about all of the ways this day had gone wrong. First off, the glue thing this morning. Then McGonagall was mad when I was late to class—come to think of it, she was mad earlier this morning too. When Lily and I…

Oh bugger. I’m late for detention!

I jumped out of bed, grabbed my wand, snatched my glasses and fled the room. Luckily, I hadn’t changed before dropping onto the bed. Flew down the stairs into the Common. My friends jumped up at the commotion I was causing.

“What’s the matter, Prongs?” Remus asked.

“I’m late for detention!”

“Get moving, mate! Seriously, McGonagall won’t be happy.” Sirius said, “No pun intended.”

No kidding. I nod and dash out the Portrait Hole and run down the hall to McGonagall’s office.

When I arrive at my professor’s office, Lily is already there and Professor McGonagall is looking at me disapprovingly.

“It won’t happen again, professor?” the professor said mockingly. I only cringed.

“Potter, why are you late?”

I opened my mouth but Lily cut me off. “Professor, if I may explain.”

To say that the professor and myself were stunned is a gross understatement—to say the least! McGonagall regarded Lily carefully and answered slowly, “What input may you offer, Ms. Evans?”

“Potter had an accident in Potions today. When I was coming, I had just seen him coming out of the Hospital Wing.”

“Is this true, Potter?”

It wasn’t the entire truth… but it was true that I had a “little” accident today in Potions. Why in the name of Quidditch was Lily bailing me, though? “Yes, Professor.”

“Very well, this tardy will also be excused, Potter. Now both of you, follow me.” We followed the stern teacher out of her office and trekked down to the Great Hall. All the time, I was trying to make eye contact with Lily, but she seemed to be deep in thought and didn’t spare me a single glance. (I would know if she did)

We arrived at the empty Great Hall. Professor McGonagall turned to both of us again. “You two know what you’re here. There should be no reason at all to disturb the peace like you two did. Potter…” she conjured a bucket and a clean rag, “I’m sure you know what to do. And for you, Ms. Evans,” she conjured another set of cleaning supplies, “I’d like you two to scrub the Great Hall from top to bottom—with no magic.” The professor glared at me, “I expect for the two of you to be done within an hour. I suggest you work out your differences while you work.” With that said, she left us standing in the barren room.

I looked to Lily again, “Lily?”

“Let’s get to work, Potter.” She brushed me off and walked past me to the opposite side of the room. There she began to clean.

I sighed and got down to start scrubbing. Might as well get this over with.

~<>~

Most of the hall was sparkling now. Although Lily and I were working together, very little had been said. She wasn’t yelling at me which was a change in pace. I didn’t want to push my luck.

Eventually, it was her that broke the silence. “Po—James?”

She was talking to me. “Yes?”

“I’m sorry about yelling at you this morning and at lunch. I was really mean.”

“You’re saying sorry to me? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” I’m rather incredulous.

“I’ve been watching you all day, Potter. You’re clearly having a really bad day and I’m sure I made it worse. I just wanted to say sorry.”

“What exactly where you mad at me abou—wait, you said you’ve been watching me?” I grin cheekily.

“Don’t get big-headed about it, Potter.”

“Apology accepted, Lily. I really appreciate it. Today has been absolutely horrid.”

Lily paused for a moment. “Is there anything I can do to make it better?”

I thought for a moment. ‘You could go out with me.’ That’s probably not a good idea though. We’re already at a truce, no sense in pushing things. “Nah, there’s nothing?”

“Are you sure?” Lily inquired

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Lily glared at me. “What?!”

“Just ask me, James!”

“Ask you what?”

“You know…” Lily’s face flushed as she said this.

Was Lily Evans actually asking me to ask her out? Or maybe she’s asking about something else… Aw, what the heck. This can’t get any worse. “Will you go out with me, Lily? There’s a Hogsmeade visit coming up.”

“Of course.”

“Why did you want me to ask that?” I ask. I couldn’t suppress my curiosity.

“I’m not sure, but today made me realize that you’re a real person. Everyone has bad days, James. As I saw you going through your bad day, I realized that you never gave up—just like with me. That’s something I admire about you, no matter what happens, you always look forward to the good things to come and never completely quit.”

I’m speechless, this was Lily’s first ever rant about me that wasn’t describing (with great detail) my family tree being related to that of gorillas. “Thank you, Lily.”

The Great Hall was clean. We stood up to examine our handiwork and smiled. “Nice work, Evans.”

“You too, Potter.” With a small smile, Lily leaned up and kissed me on the cheek. I stood in a daze until the moment was interrupted.

“Very good Potter, Evans. You two are dismissed; you may go to the Tower now.” McGonagall couldn’t seem to hide a smile and I wonder how long she’s been watching us.

“Thank you, professor,” Lily and I said in unison. We smile at each other and begin to make our way up to the Gryffindor Tower and our beds.

“You smell like pumpkin pie,” Lily said idly. “I think I like it.” My day just suddenly got a whole lot better.

~<>~

I returned to the Common Room to find that my pals had already left. They were all up in the dorm already. I made my way up to be greeted by my friends.

“James! You’re smiling!” Remus said happily.

“What happened?” Peter asked inquisitively.

“I asked Lily out.” I answered.

“Why are you smiling—wait, she said yes!?” Sirius exclaimed. I only nod.

“Ha, Padfoot! You owe me twenty Galleons.”

“Prongs, why’d she have to go and say yes!? Now I owe Remus money—again.”

“You’re fault for betting on my love life, mate.” I changed and sat down on my bed.

Sirius sat in his bed next to mine and looked at me slyly, “So, Prongs, how was your day?”

I opened my mouth to answer when I realized that I didn’t know how to reply. With all of the junk I had been through today, this would technically be a completely horrible day. But with the happenings of the past hour, I wasn’t so sure. Was Lily saying yes really so monumental that it offset all of those other happenings?

Oh bugger…

Why did Padfoot have to ask such a stupid thought-provoking question!?

I hate Sirius!

Fin

AN2: Alright! That was fun! I had a lot of fun writing that for you guys so I hope you enjoyed it! As always, feel free to leave comments and suggestions in review form! Cheers!