The Next Great Adventure (A Marauders Fan Fic)

Chapter Thirty Six

‘I wouldn’t push your luck if I were you Potter. I need some semblance of a plan for the weekend and unfortunately you’re it.’

‘So we’re on?’ Lily took advantage of a quick break in Professor Beazley’s speech to turn around and glare at him. ‘Obviously I’m taking that to mean that we’re on then,’ had appeared on her parchment when she turned back. ‘Well… should I meet you in the common room or the Entrance Hall?’

‘Entrance Hall. Wouldn’t want to deprive you of your last few minutes of hell raising with Sirius.’

‘Actually we were thinking about doing something special for Halloween…’

‘Oh really? Could you keep it away from anything that involves too much mess? It’s enough effort getting up to shower as it is.’

‘Actually we were thinking more along the lines of a Halloween party. You know, to celebrate the beginning of the end.’

‘The world’s not ending James.’

‘No I meant the beginning of our final year. Anyway so I thought… well I know you’re very organised and this isn’t going to be any old Quidditch victory party. We’re going to need decorations and things and I know you’re really good at that kind of stuff. I’ll take care of the rest and let everyone know, you just need to make sure that it looks good.’ Lily added a couple more sentences to her notes as she considered the offer.

‘Okay,’ she wrote back, ‘I’ll help.’

Lily returned to her notes but it wasn’t long before she felt someone tap her arm. “Lily,” Cassie whispered, “can I borrow your notes quickly? I zoned out and missed what Beazley just said.” She pushed her notes over towards Cassie who read them quickly; too late she realised that she hadn’t Vanished her conversation with James and her friend looked at her in shock, raising one eyebrow as she leered at Lily who tried to snatch it back from her. Professor Beazley looked up as Lily lunged for it and frowned disapprovingly. “And just what do you think you’re doing Miss Evans? Miss Jones?”

“I’m sorry Professor,” Lily replied quickly, “my notes were caught by a gust and blew across the table. Luckily Cassie caught them before they fell on the floor though.”

The woman narrowed her eyes at her and pursed her lips as she judged the merit of Lily’s story; she was lucky that she had never yet been caught messing around in a lesson so Professor Beazley let her off saying, “Try to be more careful next time Lily; it can’t be that hard to make sure you keep your work in front of you. It’s very fortunate that Cassiopeia managed to catch them before they fell on the floor.” Cassie shrank as Beazley fixed her with a piercing stare and handed the parchment back to Lily wordlessly as Lily mouthed, “Please don’t tell Alice and Mary!”

As they left their Herbology lesson that afternoon, James tapped Lily on the back and fell into step with her, his legs carrying him easily over the uneven ground. “So about the party,” he said, “we’ve decided to have it the Saturday after the Hogsmeade trip.”

“In a week or so then,” she said as she nodded, “okay that’s fine. Why not this Saturday? It’s closer to Halloween.”

“Yeah we have the Halloween Hogsmeade trip this Saturday and then Monday is the thirty-first…” He ran his hand through his hair as he said pensively, “Well... we thought that Hogsmeade weekends are always great anyway so we need something to cheer us up the weekend after. Plus we thought it’d give us way more time to let us organise it.”

“Fair enough,” she replied, “sounds good. Is it going to be just Gryffindors going?”

“Yeah I think so,” James replied, “and it’s easier that way anyway. Otherwise we’d have to tell the people that we want to come without anyone else finding out… It’s just too much trouble. You don’t mind doing the decorations do you?”