Chapter 4 - When School Bullies and Honourable Prefects collide...
The day was a blur. A colourful and happy blur, for Remus Lupin.
He sauntered dreamily down the deserted and dimly lit corridor, oblivious to Lily Evans’ angry grumblings beside him. Her steps were sharp and quick, her arms were folded tightly across her chest and a mixture of emotions played across her face. However, Remus was too lost in his own successfulness to notice something was bothering her.
That day he had sold over 150 newspapers. 150 newspapers, and not yet had everyone to be informed of the article. Remus smiled proudly to himself as he thought of it. He had never witnessed the feeling of success since he had begun writing the Hogwarts newspaper. He was so blown away by the emotion that he had begun to feel a bit light-headed. However, he shook it off, nothing was going to bring down his blissful mood. Not even McGonagall could keep him slightly fearful; she was going to be so excited. Well, maybe excited was far too much of a strong word for Professor McGonagall. Remus wasn’t sure if she had ever been excited about anything in her life, but Remus knew he was safe from that terrifying walk to her much too-organised office, for maybe a couple of days.
‘Remus, are you even listening to me?’ Lily Evans’ glistening eyes snapped towards him, as she stopped walking abruptly.
Remus, being oblivious to her angry tone, evidently still lost in his own achievement mumbled, ‘Hmm?’
Lily sighed angrily and clicked her fingers loudly in front of him.
He jumped and glanced at her questioningly. ‘Yes?’
‘You’re not listening to me!’
‘Sorry,’ Remus said distantly, before continuing stepping hazily down the gloomy hallway. Lily huffed moodily for a second before running quickly back to his side.
As the two of them were Prefects, they had both offered to patrol the corridors for an hour after restricted time. It was their job to send any rebellious students back to their dorms and take points from their Houses when necessary. For Lily, despite Remus’ distant mood, she was enjoying taking a break from patrolling with Potter, as they were Head Girl and Head Boy they were usually paired together, their duty usually ended with James moaning about her taking points from Gryffindor students. He knew just how to get her angry. Lily sometimes wondered if he only did that to get her worked-up, though he did seem to be the sort of person to worry more about their House Points than doing his job properly. Lily was bemused to why Professor Dumbledore had appointed him to such great standing.
Lily sighed at Remus frustratedly, but decided to let her hurt feelings go. He wasn’t ignoring her deliberately, and besides he was obviously feeling happy, she didn’t want to bring his mood down with what was making her so angry and upset. Even though he was usually the one she would go to when she was feeling wound up, she kept it to herself. Instead of confessing to him what was bothering her, she simply told herself. It was of course Kelly’s previous comment that was troubling her the most; she could still hear her smug voice ringing in her ears. ‘Then you better find some other way, because your Mr. Right doesn’t even know you exist!’
Lily fumed quietly. Russell Rite knew she existed, he did! She ran through all the snippets of conversation they had had together to prove this to herself. Though deep inside, Lily knew Kelly was right and that was what was the reason she was feeling so aggravated, she was completely crushing over a guy she had never had a proper conversation with, however she was simply too proud and too stubborn to admit this to herself.
Not only was that comment bugging her, but also was Kelly’s advice to use the newspaper to get Russell to notice her. As if! Potter was probably the person writing back the advice; he would get a good laugh at her. Beside, what did Potter know about romance? Yes, he did have every girl in the school falling over him, but that was beside the point. He couldn’t give people advice! Lily snorted softly to herself as she thought about it. The only reason he could ever get girls was because of his handsome looks, without those, no girl would ever go near him. He was a bigheaded, self-centred prat! Lily snorted again as she thought of him, trapped by lots of letters trying to figure out what to write, his misery actually made her feel a lot better.
The two students walked silently through the winding corridors, both trapped in their happy thoughts, Remus about his newspapers success, Lily about Potter’s misery. Both of them barely registered someone’s arrival, until they heard of noise. A sharp, angry, muffle escaping from the corridor around the corner. Remus and Lily both jumped, startled, and glanced at each other questioningly, before turning the corner, readying their detention slips.
‘That’s it! I’m out of here!’
Lily had just turned the corner, when Zoey Laurence came flying from the opposite direction, she came at such a speed, Lily barely registered her arrival and before she knew it they had both crashed into one another. Lily stumbled slightly, but before she could fall, Remus grabbed hold of her shoulders and steadied her. Lily rubbed the palm of her hand against her forehead where she had collided with her friend, before glancing up at the livid Zoey enquiringly. Zoey’s face was flushed pink with rage, her light blonde hair was tussled (probably because of their collision) and she had a mixture of emotions playing across her face, mainly anger. Lily looked round the side of her, catching sight of a guilty-looking Kelly, Sirius and James.
Remus, still grabbing hold of Lily in case she stumbled again, also looked up at his friends. ‘Guys?’ He asked. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’
Before anyone else could answer, Zoey angrily glanced at Kelly and replied, ‘Well, I thought I was here to get some food off the house elves!’ She stopped momentarily before fixing Kelly with an icy glare, ‘That’s what Kelly said we were doing!’ Kelly merely smirked at her furious friend and shrugged.
‘I knew you wouldn’t want to come if I told you the truth.’
‘Well, if he was involved,’ she said indicating at Sirius. ‘That’s something you got right about me!’
‘Zoey you shouldn’t be getting food off the house elves, it’s not their job to make food for you!’ Zoey glared at Lily, who immediately regretted her choice to speak her opinion.
‘Sirius, what are you doing here?’ Remus said turning to his friend, puzzlement etched across his face.
Sirius studied his nails and nonchalantly replied, ‘We were just on our way back from the library.’ James hit him on the back at his lame excuse, while Remus just snorted.
‘Okay,’ Kelly spoke up. ‘The real reason why we’re here is that we’re planning a surprise party for you Lily.’
Lily rolled her eyes. ‘Try again, my birthday isn’t until six months.’
‘Err… Well that’s the surprise!’ Kelly said, throwing her arms up in the air.
James glanced at Remus then sighed at his demanding expression. ‘Fine, the real, real reason why we’re here is because we’re pulling a prank on the Slytherin’s, we didn’t want to tell you two, because we knew you wouldn’t like it.’
Remus rolled his eyes at his friends, while Lily immediately started complaining.
‘Lighten up, Evans!’ James said rolling his eyes, ‘It’s just a bit of fun!’
Lily huffily crossed her arms, while Remus rolled his amber eyes at his friends again. ‘Whom exactly would we be pulling this prank on, all the Slytherin’s or just one or two major enemies?’
‘Remus!’ Lily cried. ‘You’re a prefect, you’re not supposed to be egging them on!’
Remus shrugged. ‘There’s nothing we can really do once they’ve put their mind to something.’
‘That’s a maunder!’ Sirius said, while thumping him on the back.
‘Well, in answer to Remus’ question,’ Zoey said, grinning evilly. ‘Since Kelly’s dragged me into this, I might as well express my opinion, Lucius Malfoy is a clear target for me.’ She pulled Lily aside and mumbled, ‘That’ll teach him to laugh at pink hair.’ Lily shot her friend a disapproval look, but couldn’t help a small smirk playing across her face.
‘Wait a minute,’ Sirius said holding up his hands, ‘If Malfoy’s a target, then Snape certainly should be!’
‘No one’s going to be a target!’ Lily said. ‘We’re not pulling a prank on anyone!’
‘Yes we are!’ Kelly, James and Sirius replied frustratedly at Lily.
‘No you’re not!’
Lily’s heart immediately sunk as she heard a voice she really didn’t want to hear.
‘Um… Hello Professor Blackart,’ Lily squeaked at the angry Ancient Runes teacher.
Professor Blackart’s blazing chestnut eyes, rested on Lily. ‘Miss Evans, I would assume you would be doing more studying, I see now why you are failing.’
Lily looked down at her shoes. It was so unfair! She was only trying to do her job and she was the one who gets in trouble!
Professor Blackart looked around the circle of friends, from the angry Zoey, to the stubborn-looking Sirius, his eyes widened as he saw Kelly.
‘Miss Pearson, I think you friends have been a bad influence on you!’
Lily’s mouth flew open in shock. Us being a bad influence on Kelly! She thought. Why on earth would he think that? Then she remembered Kelly’s previous test result, an O. She only got it by cheating off Russell, she thought to herself stubbornly.
Kelly tried to suppress a laugh, which came out as more of a sad sniff. Professor Blackart shook his head at her, his tangled black hair flew in all directions as he did so.
‘That’ll be detention for all of you, I would expect.’
‘I didn’t even do anything!’ Zoey cried. Lily had to admire her friend’s bravery. Professor Blackart was easily the scariest Professor at Hogwarts; he could even give McGonagall a run for her money.
‘So you’re not out of bed after the restricted time?’ He asked raising one of his black eyebrows under his tangle of hair.
Zoey began to reply, then stopped and pursed her lips together.
The teacher smiled. ‘Everyone to my classroom then, you can start your detention’s now.’
‘But it’s night!’ Sirius replied, stubbornly crossing his arms. ‘We can’t do detention at night!’
The Professor smiled at him. ‘You should of thought of that before you broke the rules Mr. Black, now quickly to my classroom.’ He started to march speedily down the dimly lit corridor. The six friends glanced at each other, but they could do nothing more than follow.
‘This is stupid!’ Zoey muttered frustratedly as they entered Professor Blackart’s classroom.
The five friends studied the all-too-familiar room. (Zoey was too busy mumbling angrily to herself to pay any attention to her surroundings.)
The only word to describe it was hectic.
Millions of books were dotted around the room, half-balled up pieces a paper were laying on the dusty floor. Old exercise books lay on the slightly leaning shelves, and upon the Professors desk, millions of pieces of paper were sprawled across it, with various banned objects hidden beneath them. It was apparent Professor Blackart was not exactly the tidiest of people.
Lily’s eyes came to rest on the school bully before them, sitting on one of the wooden desks, swinging her legs moodily. Lily backed away, somewhat intimidated by Abby Maxfield.
Abby glanced up at the friends, then immediately crossed her arms moodily.
Professor Blackart flung his jacket on his desk and sat down, he fumbled around the pieces of paper for a second before lifting his gaze at the students.
‘Your detention is simple,’ he said icily. ‘Sit here, do nothing, don’t fall asleep, perhaps in the morning you’ll have learnt your lesson.’
‘So you’re just going to leave us here all night!’ Zoey cried. ‘It’s not my fault, they dragged me along, there was nothing I could do!’
‘A convincing story, I’m sure. Just, all of you try not to murder each other in here. Spending a night with all your friends might seem like a idea of fun, but believe me, once this night is over you’ll be around each other’s throats.’
‘Are you allowed to do this?’ Sirius asked.
‘Of course, it’s a detention!’
‘But we’ll be so tired in the morning!’ Zoey wailed.
Professor Blackart coldly glanced at Zoey, he had had enough with her moaning. ‘Miss. Laurence!’ he snapped. ‘Tomorrow - as I’m sure you know – is the weekend, you’ll have plenty of time to relax then!’
‘But I have Quidditch practice!’ Kelly and Zoey both said symmetrically.
‘I’m sure - as Mr. Potter here is captain, he’ll reschedule it.’
‘But Sir!’ James begged. ‘We need to train up, otherwise we’ll never beat the Slytherin’s!’
‘That’s it!’ The Professor roared taking everyone by surprise. ‘Your detention is NOT being lifted!’ With his last words he marched out the classroom before anyone could shoot one last complain in his direction.
Lily sighed and sunk down on one of the chairs.
Zoey began mumbling angrily to herself.
Kelly smiled, unconcerned.
Sirius stubbornly crossed his arms.
Remus glanced weakly at Abby.
Abby started to twirl her black hair with pink and purple streaks, around with her fingers.
James was the first to check the door. He pulled at it with all his strength, but the door would not budge. The Ancient Runes Professor had cast a spell on it. It was well and completely locked.
They were trapped.
‘Well what now?’ Zoey moaned. Everyone had moved the desks together to make a table. They were all sitting round it, staring blankly at one another.
‘We need something to pass the time,’ Lily said sighing.
‘Look out Sherlock Homes.’ Sirius said sarcastically.
‘Sirius, SHUT UP!’ This was the first time Zoey had ever shouted at Sirius, he looked extremely taken aback, exactly how she herself was feeling. Kelly started laughing at Sirius’ shocked face, and smiled at Zoey, silently congratulating her. Zoey starred blankly ahead of her, then smiled to herself.
Abby, who was sitting next to Remus, and had kept well out of the six friend’s conversations until now, broke the awkward silence and said. ‘Isn’t there another one of you?’
‘What? You mean Peter?’
‘Yeah, that’s the one, where’d he go?’
‘Well…’ James said glancing at Sirius. ‘We were going to pull a prank on the Slytherin’s so we left him behind, he’s extremely clumsy and we knew he’d just attract a Professor’s attention.’
‘But in the end you didn’t really need him,’ Abby said smirking.
‘It wasn’t our fault!’ Sirius muttered.
‘Sure,’ Abby said flipping back her black hair.
‘Why are you here then?’ Sirius demanded.
‘I don’t think that’s really any of your business.’
Sirius was about to reply when Remus stopped him. ‘Just leave it, Padfoot,’ he mumbled quietly.
Sirius glanced at him quizzically. ‘What is up with you, this is the second time you’ve defended Abby. Moony, Abby! Are you feeling okay?’
Remus just smiled at his friend calmly.
‘When do you think he’ll come back?’ Lily murmured tiredly.
‘About six-ish?’
‘Nah, five.’
‘He’d better come back soon!’ Sirius muttered. ‘I’m not staying here all night!’
‘Then what do you propose to do?’ Abby said angrily.
‘I say we get out!’
Abby raised one of her black eyebrows. ‘How exactly?’
‘There’s gotta be some secret passageway in here somewhere!’
‘You’ve been watching too many muggle movie’s Padfoot,’ James muttered. ‘Why would a classroom have a secret passage?’
But Sirius was already on his feet, pulling books out from the shelves and fumbling with items, as if a hole in the wall would magically appear.
Zoey rolled her eyes at him. ‘Black, just face it, we’re stuck!’
‘I know!’ Kelly said, her eyes excitedly lighting up. ‘Truth or Dare?’
‘No way!’ Lily muttered. ‘How tacky!’
‘I dunno Evans’ James said smirking. ‘Could be fun.’
Lily snorted at him. ‘Well, I’m in,’ Zoey said.
‘Me too,’ Abby said and began to lazily twirl her hair.
‘I’m in,’ James said winking at Lily. ‘Sirius? Remus?’
‘Fine,’ Remus said rolling his amber eyes.
‘Okay,’ Sirius said, as he stopped looking for a secret passageway and sat back down.
‘Go on Lily!’ Kelly begged. ‘We can’t really do it without you.’
Lily sighed. ‘Fine, but I’m not pleased about this.’
Kelly grinned. ‘Who’s first?’
‘Wait!’ James said and ran across to Professor Blackart’s desk, producing a green glass bottle from its contents. ‘How about we make this a game of spin the bottle?’
‘You’re such a girl,’ Lily muttered as everyone else agreed excitedly.
James sat back down at the table, and spun the bottle with a swift flick of his wrist. ‘Not me, not me, not me.’ Lily muttered quietly to herself. The green blur began to steadily slow, landing on Sirius.
‘Sirius you have to ask the question,’ James said before spinning the bottle again, this time, much to Lily’s relief, it came to a rest on Abby.
Abby sighed frustratedly and rolled her coffee-coloured eyes, before muttering. ‘I suppose you’ll enjoy this,’
‘Truth, dare, double dare, kiss, command or promise?’
Abby glanced at Kelly blankly as she asked this. Kelly sighed. ‘Truth – answer a question truthfully. Dare – you should know that. Double Dare – You and the person who told you the dare both have to do it. Kiss – quite obviously kiss someone. Command – basically like a dare except you don’t have to do it straight away, and Promise – you have to keep a promise and if you need to, full-fill it.’
‘Erm. Okay then, truth.’
Sirius thought for a moment before asking. ‘Why are you really here?’
Abby sighed. ‘Should of saw that coming. I’m here because I shouted at Professor McGonagall.’
‘Why?’
‘Because she delivered some bad news and I took my anger out on her.’
‘What bad news?’
‘You don’t have to answer that,’ Remus said, glancing at her worriedly.
‘Hey, Moony, a truth’s a truth.’ Sirius said shrugging and looked at Abby expectantly.
Abby remained silent. Then sighed ‘My foster family dumped me okay?’ she said angrily, ‘I have no home anymore, my Dad is looking for me, oh and did I mention he’s a complete psycho path, I think that would be enough to get anyone angry. Now spin the bottle!’ Abby crossed her arms and looked away. Everyone glanced at each other, worried about her outburst. Sirius, for once in his life was speechless, and looked extremely guilty, he tried to take the attention away from Abby by spinning the bottle.
This time it rested on James. Oh crap Lily thought to herself and started to whimper in her head, not me, not me, not me. But of course luck was against her and as the bottle faced her, she gave an angry sigh.
‘Ah, Evans’ James said sighing dreamily. ‘I’m just loving this power.’
Lily stubbornly crossed her arms, and said, ‘Fine then, I’ll pick truth as well.’
‘Do you – being completely honest Evans - like me?’
Lily sighed, trust Potter to think of a question completely self-centred.
‘You’re a bigheaded git,’ she replied stubbornly.
‘That wasn’t really answering my question, Evans.’
Lily pulled at her red hair angrily. ‘You’re such a prat!’
‘Lily, love, you’re still not answering the question, I must remind you that you are a terrible liar, and everyone here will be able to tell if you’re not answering completely honestly.’
Lily turned just as red as her hair and muttered something quietly that no one could hear.
‘What was that?’ James said cuffing his ear. ‘You’re going to have to speak up a bit.’
‘You’re not all bad,’ she said, blushing furiously while averting her gaze.
James smiled happily. ‘That’s all I wanted to hear.’
Again he spun the bottle.
As the cloudy night slowly turned into a red-skied dawn, the seven friends were simply too excited to sleep. It was now five a.m. and everyone had witnessed embarrassing confessions and crazy dares not to mention stupid commands and sole-swearing promises. The only person who wasn’t enjoying them self was Lily Evans. Her heartbeat quickened dramatically as the green blur of the bottle spun round and round. She flushed bright red as she was chosen. She almost fainted as the questioner asked embarrassing questions and told her to do wild dares. She just simply didn’t like to tell the Marauders about her personal feelings, in fact she didn’t even want to tell her friends her personal feelings! She liked to keep them thoughts to herself. At some times she refused to answer, others she simply lied. Her friends were actually getting quiet exhausted as she protested. But not once did they think about packing it in, they had grown fonder of each other and felt as though they were getting to know each other better. They were having a great time, maybe Professor Blackart was wrong, this had turned out to be a night of fun.
‘I don’t know what to say!’
‘Lily, just say anything!’
‘Fine, Remus, what’s the most successful moment of your life?’
‘Call that a truth!’
‘Well you think of something then, Potter!’
‘Okay, okay,’ Kelly said shushing everyone. ‘How about we make this more interesting?’
‘How?’ Zoey asked.
‘What if the questioner has to choose what category instead of the person?’
‘Category?’
‘Yeah you know, truth, dare, blah, blah, blah,’ Kelly said waving her hands.
‘Sure.’
The bottle spun and marked Kelly as the questioner. She then spun it again it landed on Remus.
Kelly smiled. ‘Remus you have to kiss Abby.
Remus looked bewildered. ‘What?’
‘Kiss Abby,’
‘I’m not going to kiss Abby!’
‘Thanks for that,’ Abby replied dryly.
‘No, I, just that, well you know!’
‘You have to respect the rules of spin the bottle, Moony,’ Sirius said smirking.
‘Yeah go on!’ James said laughing.
‘Remus you have to do it,’ Kelly said.
Abby beside him sighed. ‘Let’s just get it over with.’
‘What?’
‘It won’t mean anything,’ Abby said shrugging. ‘It’s just a stupid game.’
‘Erm, okay then,’ Remus stuttered and began to feel extremely nervous.
Abby shuffled closer to him. She was now so close her could see every freckle across her face, he could smell her coconut scent. An odd fluttering feeling began to well up in the pit of his stomach. He closed his amber eyes as she closed her coffee-coloured ones. Everyone held their breath behind them.
Slowly they both leaned together…
‘Okay, children time up!’
Remus and Abby both shot quickly apart before their lips could make contact as Professor Blackart interrupted their not-so-private moment.
Remus embarrassedly rubbed the side of his nose. Everyone glanced at the Professor and cheered. Lily let out a sigh of relief. ‘I’ve hope you’ve learnt your lesson,’ he said and excited the classroom.
‘Lets never talk of this again,’ Zoey said watching the Professor fade into the darkness.
‘Agreed,’ Lily said and sighed. They all left the messy classroom.
All except Remus and Abby.
Remus started to go red as she looked at him.
‘I hope your foster family realise their crazy,’ Remus had meant this to sound as though he cared, but this time it was Abby’s turn to go red, not with embarrassment but with anger.
‘You think you have me all figured out don’t you Remus Lupin!’ she spat and angrily crossed her arms.
‘What? No I was just-’
‘Well you don’t okay? You don’t know anything about me! So just keep out of my life!’
‘I was only trying to help!’ Remus said, for once losing his calm and starting to get annoyed.
‘Well I don’t need you’re help!’ she fumed. ‘I’ve been okay by myself all my life, I don’t need you now!’
‘Well, next time maybe I won’t help!’
‘Good! I DON'T NEED YOU!’
‘FINE!’ Remus shouted.
‘FINE!’ she screamed back and marched heavily out of the room.
Remus watched angrily as she left.
Girls. He just didn’t understand them. Author's Note: Another quick update! But that was probably because I had already planned this chapter out. I have no idea for the next one but hopefully inspiration will strike. So...please let me know what you think of this! *Looks Hopeful*
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