Our Little Cliché- A Jily and Remus/OC Story (Harry Potter)

Halloween

James POV

Oh, how I adored Halloween. The pranks, the sweets, the excitement. Especially the pranks. It was basically an entire pep-rally of pranks for the lot of us. A pep-rally including pep-talks. One of which I was doing right now. Not the pep-rally, stupid. The pep-talk.

"Are you boys ready?" I laughed, holding out my contraband bottle of butterbeer.

"Fuck yeah!" hooted Sirius.

"Aye, captain," said Remus dryly.

"Wormtail?" I asked Pete.

"Yes sir!" he cried, saluting.

"Overkill, mate," Sirius said, clapping his hand on Peter's shoulder.

It was our last Halloween at Hogwarts, and we were determined to make this one count. We continued to talk quietly as we stepped down the stairs to the common room.

When we were about halfway across the room, we were assailed by Marlene.

"Hey, boys," she smirked, poking her head in between Sirius and I and slinging an arm over each of our shoulders, "what's this year's prank?"

"Marly-moo, why on Earth would we tell you?" asked Sirius sweetly, craning his head to look at her.

"I said that calling me that means that you are rather fond of reminiscing on the past, although you don't show it that often," said Marlene smoothly. "And that's because you called me that when we were kids. So don't call me that please. You're embarrassing yourself."

"Oh come on, Mar," I said, "we're not going to tell you our last Halloween prank of the year! It would ruin the surprise! It's supposed to be special," I coaxed.

"Oh, fine," she rolled her eyes, "but if I am injured by one more of your pranks, I can't be held accountable for what form of revenge I might take." The blonde skipped ahead and out the portrait hole to meet her friends. We followed.

"She has us wrapped around her little finger," Sirius grumbled, watching my honorary sister argue with Dorcas.

"We love her though," said Remus, looking at the scene fondly.

"Yeah, we do," I said, grinning at my friends, "Now." I grabbed my friends to a halt and pulled us into a circle just as we stopped in front of the Great Hall. "This is our last Halloween prank at Hogwarts. We have to make it count, yeah? Don't take the high road." I put my fist in the middle of our group.

"Accept any consequences," smirked Sirius, adding his own fist.

"No regrets." Remus put his hand on top.

"Don't get caught!" finished Peter, adding in his palm.

We threw our hands up in the air. I nodded at the three of them.

"Move in, men."

The four of us swaggered into the Great Hall. For a moment, I stopped to think. Was this what Lily hated? Us swaggering around like we owned the place? I looked around, and found her at the Ravenclaw table glaring at me with her boyfriend. Ignoring the twinge in my chest at the word, I turned my back to her and went to answer Marlene's pestering question with a resolute 'No.'

"I'm not telling you about the prank! Give up, Marlene. You'll see in a few minutes." I ruffled her hair affectionately.

"Oi!" she swatted my hand away, "I work on this hair!"

"Girl," I coughed.

"Lovely," she shot back, "and don't hide it. I can tell that you're hurting."

"What?" I yelped.

"Lily, over there, with her stupid ponce of a boyfriend. Ring any bells?"

"Nope," I said firmly, looking at the floating pumpkins above us, "no bells are being rung." The pumpkins' jaws dropped. No one noticed. So far, so good.

A sharp whistle was issued from the largest pumpkin at the centre of the hall. Now heads were turning. The pumpkins began a chorus of Christmas carols. They were perfectly in tune, so at the beginning, no one could tell what was wrong with them other than the fact that it was Halloween, not Christmas. However, it became increasingly clear to the audience that the lyrics were rude enough to make Sirius blush (he didn't).

The pumpkins became steadily louder and out of tune, and soon it was a large chorale of noise as the gourds began spitting out red, blue, yellow, green, gold, bronze, and silver fireworks.

The final touch was Sirius' idea. The fireworks would rise to the ceiling to spell out "Happy fuckin' Halloween!" in sparks. But Remus said that we would get in even more trouble than was necessary due to the foul language, so we settled on just "Happy Halloween!"

Through the noise and colour, I turned to look at Lily. She was already glaring, and our eyes met in a gaze of animosity. Oh, and I swear sparks flew. I got to my feet and left the hall, Lily soon following. The second the Hall doors closed behind us, she stopped.

"Potter, I swear, you never will change, will you?" she asked, smiling sadly and leaning against the wall. What, no duelling? No yelling? That's depressing. "Now, I have a boyfriend that I have to get back to, but can you promise me that you won't drag me into any of this? I've realised you'll never change. Just because I'm not going to bother with scolding you doesn't mean that we're friends or anything. It's just... I'm tired of this. And you're not hurting anyone, at least, not yet."

"Evans?"

"No, don't talk to me Potter."

"No, it's just..." I waved my hand and looked down to hide my growing blush. "Thanks, Lily."

Her green eyes caught my hazel ones. "You're welcome," she said, bewildered. I smiled softly. As long as this eye contact was held, I sure as hell wasn't breaking it. Then he ruined it.

"Lils!" The boyfriend.

"Damien!" Lily's downcast expression lightened a few shades, to a cheery smile. She kissed him and I looked away pointedly. Merlin, did I ever want to be the one she was kissing. "Damien" gave Lily a taut smile before turning to me with a mutinous look on his face.

"Potter. I KNEW it was you. I've wanted to catch you at your stupidity every single bloody year, but you and your little gang have been so... evasive."

"Oi!" I protested, "They're my friends! Gangs are-"

"So out of season," drawled Sirius, cutting me off, "now, blondie-boy, mind leaving my friend James here alone?"

Damien pointed at Sirius. "You! Detention, Black! And your sandy-haired friend!"

Sirius shrugged. "Putting that sort of torture on Minnie? Suit yourself, mate. Hey, Remus!"

The cautious one of our group sauntered out of the Great Hall. "Yeees?"

"Booked yourself a detention," said Sirius.

Remus flashed Damien his prefect badge and an apologetic look. "Sorry, can't be there."

"Two of them are authority figures! Two! What was Dumbledore thinking?" Damien asked himself, bewildered. Lily bit her lip, mouthed 'sorry' at Remus, took her boyfriend by the arm, and took him into the Hall.

"Am I late?" panted Peter, "Sorry, there was chicken."

"Nah," I grinned, punching him in the shoulder, "you missed out on detention with Sirius. Good on you." Peter grinned proudly.

"Come on, Marauders! We have a successful prank to celebrate!"

Sirius hollered unintelligibly, leaving his lone voice to echo around the Entrance Hall as we left early. He needed a drink, he was the one dealing with detention.

Halloween was brilliant.