James And Lily Potter: Third year

Chapter 4: Third Year

James looked around. Surely, everyone did leave, even Sirius, Remus, Peter, and the girls. He quickly rushed out of the Hall, and stopped in front of the Fat Lady, who sighed at the sight of him.

"Password? Dear me, it's another year, isn't it, James Potter?"

"Er—Sherbet Lemon?" he asked tentatively. It had been the password on the first day last year, so he assumed it would be this year, too.

"Certainly not!" the Fat Lady exclaimed.

"Er—oh damn, where's that prefect I was with a minute ago?"

"You mean me?" The girl was standing there, her prefect badge shining down all the way in the corridor.

"Yeah. What's the password?"

"Cornish Pixies," the girl said to the Fat Lady. The portrait swung open, revealing the old portrait hole leading to Gryffindor Tower.

"Jamie-boy! Where were you?" Sirius was running towards him, looking rather worried.

"All right, why'd you ditch me, Sirius?" asked James loudly.

"I didn't. Dumbledore announced something and told us to all go to bed. We all got up, and you were still zoned out somewhere, so I poked you. You said something about coming up later, so I went with the others. Then when you didn't show up later, I thought that you and Snape were dueling in the dungeons or something." He shrugged. "Where were you, anyway?"

"Trying to get into Gryffindor Tower. I didn't know the password."

"R-ight. Well, we'd better go up to bed, Jamie-boy. It's going to be a long day tomorrow. But we get to visit Hogsmeade this year!"

"Yeah. That's the only good thing besides Quidditch. And...our secret plan to become you-know-what."

"If Trelawney predicted my death one more time, I swear I'll kill her," muttered James, as he stared blankly into his star chart.

"What does it all mean?" asked Sirius, poking the same chart in front of him with his wand. "It makes no sense at all."

"That's because there is no sense to it, Siri-boy. So we'll make it up."

"Jamie, that's a genius plan! Ah, what would I do without you."

"You wouldn't be able to do anything, because I'm your savior."

"Er—right. So let's get started."

Half an hour later, both boys brandished their parchments, which were filled with fake predictions, proudly to the girls.

"Isn't it brilliant?"

"'Next Thursday, I will be attacked and eaten by the giant squid in the lake'," read Arabella, peering at Sirius' parchment. "Er—Sirius, it's too obvious that none of this is going to happen. You go to Azkaban because you betrayed James? That's ridiculous!"

"Maybe not." He shrugged. "Hey, I was running out of ideas! Let's see how you girls are going to bluff up the homework that Trelawney gave us."

"We don't have to," said Lily practically, as she joined them. "We finished it two days ago. And it's all accurate too."

"You understand what the mad woman's trying to make us do?" asked James, his mouth sagging open?

"Yeah. Even though it's all a bunch of nonsense, we still know how to do it." Violet rolled her eyes. "It's not that hard."

"All you do is choose the planet that's two squares away from the one you're doing," said Jennifer, trying not to laugh. "It wasn't too hard to figure out."

"What? How come we never knew that?"

"I told you, Sirius, but you wouldn't listen," sighed Remus, shaking his head.

"You mean you finished too?" asked James furiously. "And you never told us how to do it?"

"I tried," said Remus, shrugging. "You two wouldn't listen, though."

"We would too!" exclaimed Sirius, pretending to look "injured".

"You said it was a bunch of crap," he said seriously.

James' eyes widened and he put his hand on Remus' mouth. "Sh...don't say it, Remie."

"Thanks a lot, Remus," said Sirius sourly.

"Well, it is a bunch of crap," admitted Jennifer, trying to save her boyfriend from getting killed.

"Well, I'm glad you think so, Jen, because it's the truth," said Sirius proudly. The other three girls rolled their eyes.

Lily and James were off in their own worlds again. It happened quite frequently, now that they started to have those dreams about Harry again. When James looked over Lily, his stomach lurched. It had been two years since they've known each other, and they were already in their third year. He thought of Lily as a friend now, not someone he hated. Of course, it was a ridiculous notion, for Lily hated him, and he still didn't like her too much to be her friend. No...he wasn't ready just yet to become friends with Lily.