Hogwarts, 1977-1978 (Marauders Era/Jily Fanfic)

Chapter Twelve

Hey!! Sorry it took so long to update! I will try to be quicker in the future :)
Anyway, enjoy and please comment at the end and tell me what you thought!
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Chapter Twelve

{Lily}

"How do I look?" Alice asks, stepping out of the bathroom.
She is wearing a beautiful pale pink dress. It is long and flowy, and goes down to just above her ankle, where you can see her blacked heeled sandals.
"You look amazing," I say truthfully.
"Absolutely stunning!" Em chimes.
I nudge Marlene and she looks up, "Oh, Frank would be getting a boner if he was here now," she says looking at Alice.
Mary hits Marlene and scolds her.
"Sorry, Mum," Marlene replies with a glare.
We are all in our dorm getting ready for the Halloween ball and we are taking it in turns to change into our dresses in the bathroom and then showing everyone.
Em, Mary, Marlene and I are all sitting in the same bed; Alice flops onto the bed next to us, "I wish Frank was here," she says dreamily, "last year's was so much fun!"
Seventh years are allowed to take younger students with them, so of course Frank took Alice last year.
"Did you get drunk?" Marlene asks.
"You've asked me that so many times," Alice replies, sounding bored and slightly annoyed.
"Well I don't remember the answer!"
"Do remember holding my hair up over the toilet the next day?"
"Oh yeah, I do," Marlene answers rather vaguely.
Alice shakes her head with both amusement and exasperation and we share look, the corners of both our mouths twitching.
"Who's next?" Em asks.
"Lily!" Marlene shrieks.
"Oh-kayyy," I say, standing up and picking my dress off one of the empty beds, before going into the bathroom to change.
My dress is a similar style to Alice's, it is long and flowy, and while the bottom is a pale, pastel green, the top is a lot more striking and apparently brings out my eyes.
I take off my clothes and slip the dress on, but it gets stuck half way because I forgot to unzip it.
"Lil? What's taking you so long?" Alice calls.
"I'm stuck!" I yell, my voice muffled.
There is a sigh and I hear the door open as someone comes in and unzips it.
This time the dress really does slip on and I see myself in the mirror.
My green eyes blink back at me; the dress really does bring them out.
Alice stands behind me and smiles, "You look amazing Lil," she whispers.
"Thanks, can you zip me up?"
"Of course,"
"Lil!! Let us see!" Marlene calls from the dorm.
I step out into the dorm and Marlene squeals, "You look a-MAZING! You'll definitely give James-"
But Mary whacks her before she can finish her sentence, and I roll my eyes.
Mary, Em and then Marlene all get changed. Mary and Em both wear beautiful dresses, Mary's is a striking red, and Em's a pale blue. Marlene, of course, wears an incredibly short black and white dress, that she claims is 'the slut of ball gowns'.
"Do you think you could wear less clothing, Marl?" Mary asks sarcastically.
"Well Sirius and I considered going nude, but in the end I decided I didn't want everyone else to see his bollocks," Marlene says seriously as she applies her lipstick. I think she missed Mary's sarcasm.
"Okay, everyone ready?" Em asks.
I nod, but Mary shakes her head, "No, Marls, I need you to redo my eyeliner!"
"Well be quick!" Em says, "We can't be too late,"
"I have to look perfect!" Mary says, before Marlene tells her to shut-up if she wants good eyeliner.
While neither Alice, Em or I have dates, both Mary and Marlene do. After the Quidditch game last week, Mary had promptly asked Greg Mason, the Gryffindor beater to go with her.
"You're done," Marlene tells her.
"Does it look good?" Mary asks.
"Yeah it does!"
"Lil, Alice?" Mary asks, "Em?"
We all nod, "trust me, it looks awesome," Alice says.
"Okay, we can go now!" Mary says enthusiastically.
The common room is filled with younger students, which tells us that the feast is over. Seventh years, of course are allowed to go to the feast as well, but most of us choose not too.
Mary says a quick goodbye to us, as she strolls over to Greg Mason.
Sirius, James and Peter are all waiting by the fire place; Remus must be going to get Daisy.
The four of us walk over to meet them.
"My my my," Sirius says, kissing Marlene, "You look fucking beautiful,"
"I know," she says, kissing him again, "I look amazing! And you're not too bad yourself,"
"You look nice, Evans," James says to me.
"Nice? That's a pretty mild comment for you," I say.
"I told you, I will not annoy you. I am a mature adult now,"
"Yeah I'll believe that when I see it,"
"Well milady," Sirius says, doing his best to sound posh (and failing), "and milady's friends and me own friends, shall we go?"
"Oh we shall kind sir," Marlene says, and the two snort with derisive laughter.
"Where's Mary?" Peter asks us.
Peter had asked Mary to go a couple of days ago, but Mary had to say no due to the fact that she was going with Greg (and I don't think she wanted to go with Peter, at all).
"She's going with Greg Mason, remember?" Alice tells him.
Peter nods, his face flushing scarlet.
"I think they've already left," Em adds.
Peter sighs and looks disappointed.
"Don't worry mate, plenty of other fish in the pond, or sea, or something," James says giving him a pat on the back.
"Speaking of fish in the sea," Em starts, but James cuts her off, "Actually I think it was birds in the sky..."
"It's fish in the sea," Alice says, rolling her eyes.
"Well speaking of animals in places or whatever, where's your date, someone told me you were asked to go no less then 24 times," Em teases
"26 now," James says proudly.
"Well I was asked out 34 times, if anyone cares, which meant I got to remind them of the hot girlfriend I have," Sirius tells us.
Marlene kisses him, "I love it when you brag about me,"
"Can we please go now? The other five of us are starting to feel like the third wheel," Alice says loudly.
"Sure, Marls and I aren't even going to be staying that long," Sirius says.
"Yeah, gross, we already hear about your sex life from Marlene. We don't need it from you too," Em says.
"Agreed! Let's roll!" Alice adds.
We leave the common room and head down to the Great Hall.
The doors to the Hall are already open, and many seventh years are already there. The long house tables have been replaced with many, much smaller, circular tables with a small glowing jack-o-lantern in the centre of each one. More, much larger jack-o-lanterns are hovering in mid-air. It is raining outside, but the bewitched ceiling seems to be exaggerating the storm. It is showing great purple-gray clouds and every now and then a bolt of lightning.
The teachers table at the end of the hall has been made shorter, and a band of skeletons has replaced one end of the table.
"Wow, a skeleton band? They've gone all out this year," Alice comments, as we find a vacant table and all sit down.
"Is a skeleton band allowed? Isn't that kinda like inferi?" Peter asks.
"Peter inferi are corpses, not skeletons," Sirius tells him.
"And plus, they haven't come back to do a dark wizards bidding, they're here to play music," Marlene adds.
Remus and Daisy join us soon after; Daisy in a stunning white dress and Remus in pale blue dress robes.
The hall begins to fill up, and it is not long before the skeleton band begins to play upbeat folk and jazz songs.
Sirius and Marlene jump almost straight after the music starts, which is strange because they are never eager to do anything (apart from wreck havoc and have sex, sometimes at the same time), they both consider themselves 'too cool'.
"Where's the fire?" Remus asks.
"We're not going to be here very, long, might as well get a few dances in while we're here!" Sirius yells, as Marlene drags him into the ever growing crowd.
"Do you want to dance?" Remus asks, turning to Daisy.
She smiles, "I feel like I should reply with a sarcastic response, like 'Dance?! At a ball?!' But yes, I would love too,"
The two go and join Sirius and Marlene.
"Are we just gonna sit here or is someone gonna come and dance with me?" Alice asks us.
I can feel James side glance at me, and I feel instantly guilty.
He shrugs, "Why not?" He stands up, "Em, Wormtail? And Ev- uh Lil, I mean um," he goes bright red, and more guilt fills me. I have somehow managed to turn smooth-talking, flirtatious James Potter into awkward, flustering James Potter.
I share a look with Em, who hides her laughter, and stand up and join the others to dance.
The dancing does take away some of the awkwardness and guilt, but that is mainly thanks to the flask Sirius passes around to all of us, that is obviously filled with fire-whiskey.
An hour and three swigs later, I slump down at our table; Marlene and Sirius had disappeared 20 minutes ago; Peter was off somewhere snogging a Hufflepuff; Em, Alice and Cass, who are all dateless are dominating the dance floor; Mary and her date are also off snogging some where and Remus and Daisy are dancing together, grinning and kissing periodically.
I sigh and eat a chocolate from one of the bowls, as Dumbledore announces that the long-awaited Hogsmeade weekend would finally happen sometime in November. This is met with cheers, before the music plays again and everyone goes back to dancing.
"Hey Evans,"
I turn to see James walking over and sitting next to me.
"Jamessss," I say, my voice slightly slurred (fire-whiskey is strong stuff).
"Come up and dance,"
"Jamesss, no, you can't dooo thisss," I protest lamely.
"Why, it's just two friends dancing together! I was dancing with Alice before, what's the big deal?!"
"Because when it's just the two of usss, we can't be frienss- friends," I tell him, putting extra emphasise on the 'd' in friends.
"One dance," he says, taking my hand, but I pull it away angrily.
"One dance, and if you kiss me and run away again then we'll stop," he says.
I shake my head stubbornly, "What happened, to the, um, to the mature Jamesss? Who ssssaid I would get to assskkk him out if I, uh, wanted tooo,"
"That James disappeared about seven swigs of fire-whiskey ago," he tells me, taking my hand again.
This time I've had enough, I shake him off violently and stand up angrily before storming off and yelling to him, "Go back to what ever hole you crawled out of! You prickkkk!"
"Evans, Evans! Lily! LILY EVANS!"
"WHAT?!" I snap, turning around and glaring at him.
He shrinks back a bit, but points to an owl, holding a envelope in its beak with 'Lily Evans, Hogwarts' written on the front.
Still fuming I stalk back over to the bird and snatch the letter out of it's beak. Startled by my abruptness, it bites me.
"Fuck!" I swear, sucking on my bleeding finger. "Fly away then!" I tell the owl, waving it off. It flies out of the Great Hall, cawing angrily.
"Is your finger okay?" James asks tentatively.
"What do you fucking think!" I snap, not even looking at him.
I rip open the letter and read it quickly; tears immediately fill my eyes and I run out of the Great Hall, clutching the letter tightly in my fist.
"Evans! Evans! Evans, wait up!" James calls, running after me.
I dart up the stairs and run down a corridor, coming out at a balcony somewhere.
I let out a sob as I hear footsteps behind me, "Lily?"
"Go away James," I say in between sobs, "Go away!"
"Lily what's wrong?"
"Go get Marlene!"
"What?"
"Marlene! I need Marlene!" I sob, breathing heavily.
"I think she's having sex with Sirius," James says awkwardly.
"Please, if you want to help, go get Marlene!"
"Okay, I'm on it!"

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{James}

I have no idea why she is crying, I think it has something to do with the letter, but how could a letter make her that upset?
I rush up to the Gryffindor Tower, through the Common Room, which is dotted with some younger students and up to my dormitory.
I burst through the door to find Marlene on top of Sirius, and thankfully a sheet over the two of them.
"What the fuck, Prongs?!" Sirius asks.
"Sorry, but Lily is really upset and she needs you," I say to Marlene, who is still lying on top of Sirius.
"Okay, okay," she says, sitting up, the sheet falling off her, "Mind turning away while I put something on," she adds.
I quickly advert my eyes and turn around.
"Where is she?" Marlene asks.
I take this as my cue to turn back to them. Marlene is wearing only a sheet and Sirius is still lying on the bed, naked, hiding his balls with his hands.
"Just take the map," I tell her, retrieving the Marauders Map of Remus's bedside table and quickly tapping it and whispering, "I solemnly swear that I am up to know good,"
"Awesome thanks," Marlene mutters, taking it from me and disappearing down the stairs.
"Padfoot, mate, put some clothes on," I say, chucking him a t-shirt.

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{Lily}
"Lil! Lillllyyyyyyy!"
I turn around to see Marlene running towards me in nothing but a sheet, and black bra and undies, which I can see through the sheet.
I half laugh at the humerous sight, but the laugh turns into a sob, and I wrap my arms tightly around Marlene as reaches me, crying into her shoulder.
"Lil, Lily, what's wrong?" Marlene asks soothingly, hugging me back, despite the fact that it means her sheet falls down around her ankles.
"Petunia," I sob.
"What?" Marlene asks, as we let go and she picks up her sheet and wraps it back around her.
"Petunia is getting married and she didn't tell me," I say again.
"Oh Lily,"
"Why wouldn't she tell me? Does she really hate me that much?"
"She doesn't hate you, she's just-"
"Don't tell me she's jealous!" I snap at Marlene.
"Lily, you get all of this, this whole world that she will never get it. And now she is getting something that has nothing to do with you, and she doesn't want to let be part of it. She's getting back at you," Marlene says softly.
"But I never wanted her to hate me like this! We used to plan our weddings together when we were little! And now, I found out about it, through our parents! Two weeks late! And even worse they seem to think that she told me! And she wants to have the wedding before I get back from Hogwarts! Oh I wonder why?!" I half-yell into the darkness, not to anyone in particular, "What the FUCK, Petunia!"
"Do you remember last year?" Marlene asks, somehow staying calm. We are both leaning over the balcony now, the cold breeze blowing in our faces.
"Last year?"
"Rose was top of her class? Great at everything?"
"This is completely different Marls! Don't-" I say but Marlene cuts me off, "Lil, for fucks sake just listen," she snaps, but not in a mean way, more in a 'listen-to-me-cause-I-have-something-good-to-say' way.
I nod and shut my mouth.
"Rose went from just being adorable to being great at every fucking thing, whereas my life was just a train-wreck, a wild, amazing train-wreck, but a train-wreck all the same. And Rose was perfect,"
"You're not a train-wreck," I say weakly.
"I am, but I love it! I'm a fucking amazing train-wreck, and that's who I am and Rose is cute, cheeky, and weirdly super smart,"
I half-laugh and wipe my eyes.
"Petunia just hasn't gotten over that she isn't the cool, awesome, smart, funny, pretty witch sister,"
"You basically just said she was jealous," I point out.
"I haven't finished," she protests.
"Okay, go on,"
"She hasn't gotten over it, and history shows that she isn't going to, so you have to you,"
"What?"
"I'm not one for apologising, but that's what's going to fix this, if anything will,"
"So I have to apologise? I have done that a thousand times!" I tell her.
"So tell her for the thousandth and oneth time,"
"Oneth?"
"First, whatever,"
I sigh, "When did you become so wise?"
"A wise, wild, sexy, amazing, awesome, best friend of a train-wreck,"
I laugh, "Are you a high?" I ask suspiciously.
"A little," Marlene says nodding seriously.
The two of us laugh, "That explains the sheet, and how wise you've been tonight!" I say.
Marlene opens her mouth to reply as someone walks by and yells out at her, "NICE DRESS SLUT!"
"SUCK ON MY DICK PERV!" Marlene yells back.
The guy and his friends quickly disappear as they recognise Marlene, probably because she has been known to jinx people into unconsciousness.
Marlene turns back to me laughing slightly, "Do I look slutty?"
"Your dress was sluttier,"
Glaring at me, but with the corner of her mouth twitching, Marlene elbows me in the ribs, and we laugh into the October darkness.