Courting Lily

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Courting Lily
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Chapter 3: The Games Begin

A week later, Sirius' bruises had disappeared, and his ego was fully restored to its original wholesome state. However, being Sirius, he still held a grudge against Leigh and the Gryffindor girls for his humiliation. (In the interests of preserving the peace, James probably should not have brought up the "threat of sledgehammer" part of Sirius' temporarily garbled memory as many times as he did; however, having never suspected James of being particularly tactful, we should not be surprised.)

The immediate demand among the Marauders was for some kind of prank to be pulled on the girls. Something along the lines of, say, garter snakes hidden in their beds, or spiders in their pumpkin juice. Something rather evil was called for.

The Marauders finally agreed unanimously on skunk essence subsituted for perfume. All were greatly excited about this newest development except for James, who wondered at the effect this would have on his attempted courtship of Lily. Unfortunately for him, Sirius was so very convincing in his eagerness that James had to give in, in the end.

The plan worked. Jo shut herself up in her dormitory for a week, offering much cause for amusement to Remus, understandably proud of the potency of his Skunk Essence. No matter that it was only from skunk cabbage, there being no skunks readily available for the Marauders--the victory melted on their tongues as rich and sweet as chocolate frogs (which, in those days, were sadly lacking in the card department).

But of course some measures had to be taken in retaliation by the Lily's outraged group. When Joanna came up with the idea of dyeing Sirius' prized just-above-shoulder-length black hair white-blonde, it was with great satisfaction that Leigh switched the contents of Sirius' shampoo with Lily's own formula for the dye. If Sirius were less oblivious, he might have been warned by the many squeaking mice running about the Gryffindor common room in the week before the fateful switch, but he never paid attention to the mice, fur colored in various shades of blonde.

The result was a hissing mad Sirius and a school full of lovesick girls. The week it took Remus to figure out how to change Sirius' hair back was remembered in the minds of all Hogwarts professors as the week in which Hogwarts' female population set the record for the least amount of work accomplished in all. Sirius, though, was outraged that he could no longer be the 'dark' in 'tall, dark, and handsome,' and it wasn't long before a furious Leigh could be found with long, catlike whiskers and a yowl loud enough to burst someone's eardrums.

This continued for the rest of the year, with a short break a month before Christmas aimed at reminding the increasingly confident Slytherins where their place was in the pranking hiearchy of the school. And this was the situation as Hogwarts neared New Year's.

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"So, Prongs, what's your resolution going to be this year?" asked Sirius, talking around a mouthful of chocolate. The two were sitting in a quiet corner of the common room, waiting for Remus and Peter to show up.

James looked warily at Sirius before replying. "To get Lily to go out with me," he responded, reaching for a cupcake.

Sirius laughed. "That's it?" he asked. "Whatever happened to 'get Lily to fall madly in love with me and promise to adore me forever'?"

His hazel-eyed friend rolled his eyes, not deeming the comment worthy of a reply.

"You're hopeless, Prongsie," grinned Sirius. "Bet you even I can win her before you can," he teased. On seeing his friend's rather dangerous expression, Sirius decided in the interest of his personal safety to revise his challenge. "Or at least I can win one of them before you..."

James knew exactly what he meant. "You're on," he said, eyes sparkling with anticipation. "I get to choose for you, though."

"Sure thing. I bet I still can win."

He laughed. "Whatever, Padfoot... so, what are the stakes?"

Sirius leaned forward, daredevil smirk all over his face. "Do we need any?"

James eyed his best friend with mirth. "Of course not. You're on." He looked around the room for a target. Lily was of course out of the question, and Alice would be no fun. Jo was pretty enough to hold Sirius' interest, but she didn't have that spark of something that would make it all the more fun. Leigh, though--James smiled. She'd be perfect. "Okay, Padfoot. You get Leigh."

Sirius choked on the pumpkin juice he'd been drinking. "Leigh Delamere?" he asked incredulously.

James smiled wider. "The one and only," he said, smirking.

Sirius rolled his eyes heavenward before looking James straight in the eyes again and grinning. "Well then, Prongsie. Let the games begin..."

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To all my reviewers, including blackdragonofdeath13, firewalker, and San-san: thanks so much, guys! You're the ones who really keep me writing. ^.^ Special thanks to galagirl and B-a-B-i--I really, really appreciate it ^.^

Hugs,
~CD