“How do I look?” asked Lily anxiously as she stood in their dorm.
“Twirl,” said Cassie, and Lily obliged. “Awful, as always.”
“That’s not funny Cass! I need your honest opinion just for once!”
“Chill Lil! James has fancied you for years, even when you had acne! He’s not going to care now!”
“I never had acne!” she gasped.
“What are those things on your face?”
“Freckles, and there aren’t very many of them either!”
“Oops, my bad. I can give you acne if you want,” she said, holding her wand out.
“I’m fine thanks,” said Lily. “So this?”
“You look fine,” said Cassie, exasperated.
“Good. Fine is good enough for me,” Lily replied as she turned and walked downstairs, “after all, it’s only Potter. Aren’t you coming?” she shouted, her voice drifting back up the stairs. “Your boyfriend’s going too you know!”
“Yeah yeah, just coming now,” Cassie said, as she grabbed her shoes and raced down the stairs after Lily. “Just needed some shoes.”
“Well they’re not exactly essentials,” she smirked.
“Yeah yeah,” said Cassie as she pushed Lily out of the portrait hole. “Time to meet your Prince Charming.”
“How do you know about Prince Charming?” asked Lily curiously.
“I was once forced to spend a night with a young and homesick Muggle.”
Lily laughed as she remembered her very first night at Hogwarts when, despite all of her excitement she couldn’t sleep because she missed home, and Cassie had stayed up with her and read fairytales. “I forgot about that!”
“You shouldn’t. In fact, you should be forever in my debt.”
“Here, have an IOU,” she said, as she conjured a scrap piece of parchment with her wand and gave it to Cassie.
“Thank you, I will treasure it forever. Not to mention cash it when it’s most inconvenient for you.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything less,” she said as they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Have fu-un!” called Cassie in a sing-song voice before she kissed Sirius.
“I missed you,” he whispered with a smile, making Cassie hit him lightly. “Don’t be silly Sirius! I saw you yesterday!”
“I still missed you.”
“Come on stupid, let’s go and buy up Honeydukes!” she said as she dragged him through the grounds.
“What are you dressing up as for the Gryffindor party?” he asked.
“What Gryffindor party?” Cassie asked.
“We’re holding a Halloween party in the common room tonight. Gryffindors only, of course. It’s going to be really good and everyone’s dressing up. Prongs has it all organised.”
“Wow that’s a first! Him being organised!”
“Well I think that Lily organised it and then just told him when she needed to spread the word,” he said with a grin.
“Well that would be the typical way that it would happen, wouldn’t it,” she replied with a grin as they entered Hogsmeade.
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The common room looked amazing; streamers, banners and Zonko’s Portable Spider Webs were hung from every wall and all of the chairs and sofas looked like they had been drenched with blood. Candles floated in every corner, giving the room an eerie glow as the Gryffindors entered, their gasps filling the room.
“It looks amazing Lily!” grinned Cassie as she hugged her best friend, both of them dressed as vampires in floor length black dresses. “How did you manage to do all this without me ever noticing?”
“You’re not very observant Cass!” Lily laughed as Sirius, James, Lupin and Peter joined them, Sirius wrapping his arms around Cassie’s waist.
“Hello-o!” he whispered in Cassie’s ear, his breath tickling it and making her laugh before she kissed him quickly in greeting.
“Hello my future wife,” James said to Lily teasingly, who blushed and giggled, a small smile crossing her face as he hugged her.
“Would you like a drink?” Sirius murmured to Cassie later, taking her hand and leading her away from their group of friends to where they had set up a refreshments table. Sirius took two pumpkin juices and gave one to Cassie who smiled at him gratefully.
“Thanks, I was getting really hot.”
“Shall we go outside quickly? Get some fresh air?” Sirius suggested before they left the common room. Just outside the portrait hole they almost ran into a couple of fifth years kissing; turning left they headed for one of the classrooms, the noise of the party fading into the distance as they walked down the corridor.
“In here?” Sirius asked as he pushed open the door. “Oh Merlin sorry!” he cried, seeing Alice and Frank sitting on one of the desks. “Ok, let’s go,” he muttered, shutting the door behind him quickly. They ignored the next couple of classrooms for fear of a repeat of what had just happened, knocking on the door before they entered another.
The classroom was dark inside, lit only by the faint light of the stars which shone in through the window and illuminated their way, the desks and chairs a number of darker spots in the gloom of the room. They made their way over to one of the desks and sat down, Sirius wrapping his arm around Cassie and burying his nose in her hair as he sat beside her.
“Lily’s really outdone herself this time,” she said, “the party was amazing.”
“Yeah,” Sirius agreed. “Yeah it was.”
“And she actually managed to cooperate with James for once!” Cassie cackled, her laugh echoing around the deserted room as Sirius joined in.
“Prongs has it so bad!” he smirked as he thought about James and his infatuation with Lily.
“I know,” Cassie smiled, “but I have to admit I’m surprised they managed to organise a party together without killing each other.”
“Prongs would never do anything to annoy Evans on purpose; I think the danger there was her killing him. He’s useless against her; he’d just stand there and smile.”
Cassie laughed again. “True, true. She is a rather formidable opponent as well. Try never to be on the receiving end of one of her hexes because they’re torture. She made my ears twitch for a week in second year.”
“She made your ears twitch?” he asked incredulously.
“Don’t laugh, it really hurt! And she left it for a week! It felt so strange!” Cassie cried, hitting Sirius playfully as he snorted at her. Suddenly they heard the door creak as it drifted ajar and Sirius and Cassie stopped talking instantly.
“James! Cassie will be looking for me!” they heard Lily say from the corridor, her voice floating towards them through the darkness.
“No she won’t,” he replied, “she left with Padfoot; we have ages.”
“And just what do you think is going to happen Potter?” Lily asked sternly.
“Well you see Lily… I was thinking that… what with the party and everything… you might… reconsider.”
“Reconsider what?” she asked, sounding a little breathless.
“Going out with me,” he murmured, his voice low.
“But I said yes to Hogsmeade James.”
“And your point is?” he asked. “That’s not good enough for me. I want more Lily; I want you for my girlfriend.”
“Potter shut up! I said yes to Hogsmeade so surely if I reconsider then that means that I wouldn’t be your girlfriend.”
There was a moment’s silence as James tried to puzzle out what Lily had just said. “What? I don’t understand. Can you please say what you just said in English please?”
Lily huffed, frustrated, as her attempt at being clever went completely over James’ head. “Are you asking me out Potter?”
“I always am. I’m just waiting for you to see how much I love you… what? Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked confused.
“You’re not asking me out James!” she sighed exasperated.
“Er… Lily will you… go out… with… me?” he said slowly.
“Yes.”
“Yes! Wait, what? You’ve never said yes before. Is this a joke?”
Cassie could practically see Lily roll her eyes at him as she sighed again. “No Potter, this isn’t a joke,” she said. Suddenly the silence was broken by a loud cheer as James finally realised what had happened.
“Merlin! Are you serious? You’re serious! Oh Lily! I’ve been waiting so long-”
“I think we need to get out of here,” whispered Sirius to Cassie. “It’s making my ears bleed. I don’t like to see Prongs lose his masculinity like this.”
“How should we do it?”
“Just follow me,” Sirius said, pulling Cassie up by her arm and ruffling her hair up.
“Stop it! What are you doing?” she squealed.
“Ssh you’ll see!” he hissed as he tugged her along behind him, mussing up his hair and wrinkling his shirt, not that it was properly tucked into his trousers anyway. He opened the door casually and started when he saw James and Lily, who sprung apart looking embarrassed. “Prongs! Evans!” he exclaimed. “What are you doing here? What about the party?”
“Padfoot!” James yelped at the same time. “What are you- oh Cassie!”
“Well… we’ll just be going then,” Sirius said before yanking Cassie after him and dragging her down the corridor.
“What was that?” she hissed at him once they had turned a couple of corners.
“Trust me, it looks way less suspicious if you make it obvious what you’re doing. I’ve had years of practice with the Marauders.”
“I believe you,” Cassie muttered as they climbed back through the portrait hole and rejoined the party.
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The Marauders were gathered around in a small group, eagerly looking at the piece of old parchment before them.
“Shall we take a look then?” said James, holding out his wand as they held their breath. “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” he recited, tapping his wand against the parchment. Suddenly a number of brown lines spread out from the tip of his wand, stretching over the pages and covering them in ink, as what was once blank became a map of Hogwarts, every person in the castle displayed.
“It’s beautiful!” exclaimed Sirius, looking at it reverently. “We’ve outdone ourselves!”
“It’s amazing!” squeaked Peter, beaming at James.
“Brilliant,” Lupin said, a grin lighting up his face. “I can’t believe we did it.”
“Neither can I Moony, neither can I.”
“How are we going to pass it down to future troublemakers?” asked Sirius.
James pulled out his Snitch and began to play with it. “Hmmm…” he said thoughtfully. “We need to think of a way in which we would find something that we’re not supposed to have.”
“Is that the Snitch you stole?” asked Lupin disapprovingly as Sirius’ eyes lit up.
“We could put it somewhere that you’d need to steal it to find!”
“Brilliant Padfoot!” crowed James. “But where?”
“Watch out. Filch is coming,” said Lupin, pointing to the map.
“Filch! Filch will confiscate it! And he’ll never notice when someone steals it from his office! That’s how I got those Dungbombs!” suggested James. “Mischief managed,” he whispered, and the parchment turned blank.
“What are you doing here?” Filch wheezed. “Out of bed as usual. I’ll have you in detention for this,” he threatened.
“No, no,” said Sirius. “You’ve got it all wrong. We’re just going back to the common room from detention now. But we… er… found something a little suspicious which we think you should keep an eye on. It could… threaten the school.”
Filch’s eyes lit up as he instantly forgot about their misdemeanour. “What is it? Show it to me!” he said as James waved the map under Filch’s nose. “It looks like a piece of parchment,” he said, disappointed.
“Yes but we found it lying around. Maybe it has some sort of hex on it or something,” suggested James. “I’m sure it would help someone, somewhere, cause trouble.” Filch grabbed the parchment and hurried off, Mrs Norris behind him, as the Marauders high fived.
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“Where have you been?” Cassie asked nonchalantly as they entered the common room early in the morning, the only light provided by the dying fire and the one candle beside her.
“Nowhere,” James replied quickly as the three of them shot worried glances at each other.
“Sirius? Where’s Remus?”
Sirius gulped and looked at James and Peter for back up as he tried to avoid Cassie’s question.
“Sirius?” she repeated, hurt and anger laced in her voice as she stood up and glared at him, James and Peter edging away from her and up the stairs as they left the couple in the common room, hearing only the slam of the portrait hole behind them as Sirius and Cassie left the Gryffindor tower.
“Why won’t you tell me?” Cassie cried when they reached a deserted classroom.
“I can’t Cassie! It’s not my secret to tell…”
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Of course I do!” he replied.
“Well then tell me!”
“I can’t!”
“Oh come on Sirius! You know I’d never tell anyone!” she shouted, her hurt at being kept in the dark spilling out. “I know you’re keeping something from me, it’s clear as day! I hate it Sirius! I hate being kept in the dark! Especially by someone who claims they trust me! This is like the fifth time I’ve caught you!”
“I’m sorry Cassie. I can’t tell you,” he repeated, making Cassie scream in anger.
“Screw you Black! Look what you’ve done to me! I’m out here in the middle of the night, breaking rules and yelling so loudly they can probably hear me from the Forbidden Forest! I’ll talk to you again when you’ve decided you can tell me what it is,” she said as she stormed out, almost crashing into Filch as he rounded the corner of the corridor.
“Out of bed at night, oh I’ll have you in detention for this!” he wheezed as he led Cassie down the stairs, oblivious to the tears she was hurriedly wiping off her cheeks.
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“Why won’t you speak to him Cassie?” Lily asked concernedly as they sat in the library.
“I told him I wouldn’t speak to him until he tells me what’s going on.”
“But Cass, you know you can’t hold grudges.”
“Well I’m making a point,” she replied stubbornly.
“That’s not like you at all Cass! You’ve always been so calm and level-headed. It’s not how I’d expect you to behave!”
“What so just because I’m a seventh year now it means I have to be mature all the time?” she said angrily, tears threatening to spill over onto her books. “I just get to a certain point and snap Lil, you know that. Being calm is so stressful sometimes. And you can’t forget what happened at the beginning of the year; I’m just a bit… paranoid at the moment, you know?”
“He’s really upset Cassie,” Lupin said as he sat down beside her. “What are you even arguing about anyway?”
“I saw all of them but you coming back late a couple of nights ago, and there’s something he just won’t tell me and it’s really getting on my nerves. He’s my boyfriend Moony! He’s supposed to tell me stuff! I just feel so… excluded. And he got me detention from Filch! I can’t deal with this!” she mumbled, laying her head on the desk in front of her.
“Maybe they were just planning another prank?” Lily suggested, rubbing Cassie’s back soothingly as Remus realised he had to tell Cassie what was going on.
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“I can’t believe you Sirius!” Cassie cried as she stormed towards him, hating the way seeing him still brightened up her day and made happiness burst inside her.
“What? Now what have I done?”
“Nothing! Moony told me everything!”
“Well then why are you shouting at me?” he asked, panicked.
“Because you’re a you-know-what!” she hissed under her breath. “You couldn’t tell me that, could you? That sounds like it’s your secret!”
“I’m sorry Cassie! I would have told you but-”
“But what? You knew I’d be worried about you gallivanting around the castle and seeking out danger? This is different Sirius! This is illegal!” she whispered. “You could get put in Azkaban if you’re caught! You could have been injured learning to do it; didn’t you listen to what McGonagall said?”
“We’re fine Cassie! No one got anywhere without taking a couple of risks in life-”
“Yes but a number of people took risks and ended up in Azkaban! Why are you so- why do you always have to go looking for trouble?” she asked, pausing as if waiting for Sirius to answer.
“Um… I don’t know?” he replied hesitantly, clearly picking the wrong answer.
“Oh my god Sirius!” she cried. “You’re utterly hopeless!”
“I mean because it’s fun!” he interrupted hastily, receiving a glare from Cassie in return.
“Wrong answer,” she said coldly, turning to walk away.
“I’m sorry Cassie!” Sirius cried, making her spin around and face him again, prepared to listen to what he had to say. Sirius cast around for words as he gazed at her, meeting her glare. “It’s just… we wanted to be there for Moony you know… like good friends. And that was much safer than staying with him normally, if you get what I mean. This way we can control him and he doesn’t try to bite us,” he murmured, his words lost to everyone in the hallway except the pair of them.
Sirius could see the battle in Cassie’s eyes as she fought with herself and he allowed a small smile of triumph to grace his lips. It looked like he had said the right thing this time.
“I understand that you wanted to help him but why do you always have to break so many rules?” she sighed exasperatedly. “I’m always worried about you Sirius! Every time you leave the common room I wonder what you’re doing – wait, I phrased that wrong. I always – I always…” Cassie growled in frustration as the words evaded her. “I just want you to be safe okay?” she said finally. “You and James are always so… reckless and you just don’t care about how much trouble you’re in, or whether you’re in danger. Well I do! I mean, it’s fine while we’re at Hogwarts but I don’t know if I can handle it once we’ve left – you could die! I just wish you’d stop being so… blasé about everything.”
“We are careful Cass; we think everything through, especially when it could be dangerous. It’s only the risk of things like detention that we don’t really ca-mind about,” he corrected himself quickly. “I mean, I quite like my life as well and I know Prongs and I certainly aren’t planning on throwing it away soon!”
“Good,” she said, a faint smile playing around the corners of her mouth.
“So am I forgiven?” he asked finally.
“Maybe,” she teased, turning her head away from him.
“Ah that’s not fair!” he cried, grabbing her and pulling her into a tight hug.
“Sirius! I have to go to Transfiguration!”
“Not until you tell me I’m forgiven.”
“Okay, okay! You’re forgiven! Now let me go!” she laughed. “I’m going to be late!”
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James stroked Lily’s hair as she sat in his lap, laughing at Cassie as they pulled faces at each other.
“I am so hungry!” moaned Cassie as her stomach rumbled.
“You should have gone down to breakfast then!” laughed Sirius as Cassie pulled a face.
“Cassie would never voluntarily get out of bed when she could lie in, not even for food!” laughed Lily as Cassie stuck her tongue out at her. “You’re just lucky that you didn’t get any post!”
“I know! No one loves me!” she said dramatically, pretending to cry. “I bet you didn’t either though so stop pretending to be so popular!”
“I did actually,” said Lily, sticking her tongue out at Cassie as she pulled out a letter, reading it quickly. Her eyes widened in shock as she reached the end before a smile crossed her face.
“What? What is it?” asked Cassie eagerly as James tried to read the letter over Lily’s shoulder.
“Petunia’s engaged!”
“What? Who’d want to marry her?” exclaimed Cassie as James and Sirius laughed. “I mean… wow, who’s the lucky guy?” she amended as Lily glared at her.
“Vernon Dursley,” she replied, after scanning the letter again. The other three exchanged looks as they tried to hold in their laughter, spluttering as it finally exploded.
“Dursley? Dursley!” cried James as he doubled over, tears streaming down his face. “That is the funniest name I’ve heard in my entire life!”
“Your sister’s going to become Petunia Dursley!” roared Sirius as Lily glared at them.
“I’m sure he’s a perfectly lovely man. You two,” she said, eyeing Cassie and Sirius, “are not ones to talk either.”
“I’m sorry Lils but Cassiopeia is a million times better than Vernon!” sniggered Cassie. “At least I can shorten it to something.”
“Yeah and I happen to think that Cassiopeia is a very pretty name!” added Sirius, defending his girlfriend and making her smile at him. “Plus, I come from a long line of Siriuses.”
“Sirii,” snickered James.
“Maybe he comes from a long line of Vernons,” said Lily.
“I’m sorry Lily but no one should be stupid enough to start a line of Vernons unless they just want to torture their child,” said James.
Finally Lily cracked and began to laugh. “Ok so I admit that he has a stupid name, but I’m sure he’ll be really nice!” she said hopefully.
“Vernon!” muttered Cassie a few minutes later, making them all start off again.
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Lily was hit by the cold as she stepped into the courtyard, the breeze playing with her hair and whipping it around her face as James led her out into the middle, pulling her close. Lily huddled into his body, using him to keep herself warm as they walked through the grounds, laughing and enjoying each other’s company.
As they returned to the castle James took her hand and began to spin her around slowly. Stepping away from her he swayed gently as he hummed a tune which was almost lost on the wind under his breath, Lily following his moves. They danced slowly, smiling as they twirled around under the steely sly, the occasional breath rising in a puff. The only things which broke the silence were the infrequent laughs which rippled around the courtyard when one of them took a wrong step. As they danced through the courtyard both of them were lost in the other’s eyes, emerald and hazel, as they grinned at each other stupidly, the tune James was humming grinding to a halt as he lost himself to the dance and to Lily as they continued in silence.
Their dance was interrupted by the sudden, quiet, click of a camera from the doors to the entrance hall.
“Cassie!” laughed James as she walked towards them slowly.
“What are you doing?” Lily asked curiously.
Cassie brandished the camera in explanation. “Sorry, you two looked so cute I just couldn’t help myself. Plus I’ve decided to try and take more pictures, after all it’s our last year here and I want to remember it all,” she said as Sirius followed her.
“Yeah but you’re looking rather infatuated Prongs,” he smirked, making James scowl.
“Oh come on, like you’re one to talk!” James protested, making the others, especially Lily and Cassie, laugh loudly.
“You don’t have to stop just because we’re here, you know,” Cassie said slyly.
“I think we’re fine now,” Lily replied.
“Well you know… I could do with a bit of a waltz,” Sirius said, offering Cassie his arm with a flourish; she took it equally melodramatically and they began to tango around the courtyard, laughing enthusiastically. James and Lily began to laugh too as Sirius lifted Cassie up and spun her around before making her do a number of pirouettes and leaning her back so far that she was almost lying on the cobbles. “Why zank you, zank you,” he said, affecting an awful accent as he bowed and pretended to stroke his moustache, “we perform again for you, yes I think?”
“I think no,” laughed Lily as Cassie and Sirius walked over to where she stood with James. “You can’t even tell the difference between a waltz and a tango.”
“Well what did we do?”
“A tango.”
“And a waltz is what?” Sirius asked confused.
“Not that!” Lily laughed as they headed inside.
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Ok I have added the party scene in so hopefully... As ever, votes are appreciated hint hint!!!!! :P and I love to hear what you think so...
The song on the side is... a song which I like and think is appropriate... check it out and you won't regret it, the man is a god!