A Fairy Tale

A Fairy Tale | Chapter 1

Lily Evans woke up early the next morning. She sighed, remembering what happened the previous night. Lily was sorry that she irritated her friends, but James Potter! She just couldn't stand him. Stupid git...

Lily walked over to her full-length mirror and observed herself. Last night, James had called her "shorty." It's true--she was pretty short for her age. But--but it wasn't her fault that she was vertically challenged! And it was certainly not her fault that James Potter was so tall.

Lily looked at her delicate features next. She had wavy, dark red hair that reached her shoulder blades. She hated it. Her sister, Petunia, had always said that it was a freaky red color. Lily had pale skin with a lot of freckles. A rather large amount of them had gathered across the bridge of her nose. She hated it. Petunia had always said that it made her look like those people on the muggle television show "The Hillbillies." Lily didn't understand why, but she believed her sister. In Lily's eyes, Petunia was gorgeous. Beautiful blond hair and nice blue eyes--she's perfect. Talk about eyes...Lily's eyes were the only thing about herself that she was really satisfied with. They were an incredible green color framed by long, dark lashes.

Lily looked around the room and watched her friends sleep. They were far more attractive than her.

Andrea Takahashi, or Andie, had shoulder-length, shiny black hair with a pink streak in front. She said it helped her stand out. Andie had black eyes with violet flecks. Lily had always wondered about them. According to Andie, she didn't like her black eyes so she had her mother enchant it for her at a young age (how she managed to persuade her mother, nobody knew). Andie had flawless, creamy skin--Lily had always been jealous of it.

Veronica Cooper, or Ronnie, had long, honey blond hair and skin even paler than Lily's. But she made it work for her somehow. Ronnie had pale blue eyes framed by a pair of golden-rimmed glasses. She didn't really need them, but Ronnie had said that she didn't want to be judged by her looks. Before she got her glasses, Ronnie said that she had been discriminated against as a blonde. Boys were constantly hitting on her, thinking that she was easy. So Ronnie started to wear her glasses, claiming that it made her looked intelligent. Lily thought that it wasn't really necessary, since Ronnie was already one of the top students in their year--everybody knew that she was smart. Still, Ronnie insisted that the glasses helped.

The three of them, Lily, Andie, and Ronnie, are the best of friends. They understood each other very well. This amazed a lot of people, because the three are so different. Lily was fiery and had the temper to match her hair, Andie was spontaneous and fun, and Ronnie was quiet and studious. They even have different likes and dislikes (Lily liked reading and writing; she kept a journal that she wrote in every night. She hated James Potter. Andie liked jokes and Quidditch. She hated Sirius's perverted jokes. Ronnie liked her boyfriend, Remus, and health food. She hated meat and fur clothing). Despite the difference in their personalities, all of them have one thing in common: They all loved and valued their friendship very much.

Lily sighed. She had wasted a lot of time thinking. Lily grabbed her school uniform and headed toward the showers.

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They day sped by quickly. Before he knew it, Remus found himself sitting at dinner with his friends.

"Pss!" Sirius hissed out of the corner of his mouth.

"What?" Remus asked, annoyed. He was just about to ask Ronnie to the next Hogsmeade weekend.

"It's time for step one of Project Extraterrestrial."

Remus dropped his fork with a clatter. "Project what?"

"Project Extraterrestrial!"

"Why Extraterrestrial?" Peter piped up.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Beings beyond our planet are interesting. I thought our plan to get James and Lily together could use a cool name."

"Padfoot, you know aliens don't exist, right?" Remus said, picking up his fork.

Sirius frowned. "You don't know that," he said. "Now, come on. Let's go." He got up and started walking away.

Peter got up and quickly followed Sirius. Remus sighed, kissed Ronnie, and he, too, got up.

"Where're you guys going?" James asked.

Sirius turned around. "Er...we're going to the...er...the girls' bathroom!"

Remus shot him a glare and mouthed, What the hell are you thinking?

"The girls' bathroom?" James looked confused. "Why?"

"Prongs!" Sirius cried. "What a question to ask! Jesus...how many reasons can there be for one to use a bathroom?" He hurried out the Great Hall. Peter shrugged and ran after his friend. James and the girls looked at the remaining boy curiously. Remus laughed nervously and said, "Er--see you guys later." He disappeared quickly.

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"Padfoot, we're not really going to the girls' bathroom, are we?" Remus asked.

Sirius snorted. "Of course not. Jeez, Moony, I always thought that you were the type who uses the boys' bathroom. I mean, you do have a girlfriend."

"Shut up. So where're going with the map and James's cloak?"

"We're going to the library."

"Then why do we need the map?" Peter asked, perplexed by Sirius.

"Because," Sirius said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "So James can't find us! Duh.... Now, come on. Put on the cloak. We're going to the Restricted Section."

Outside the library, the three boys put on James's invisibility cloak and walked quietly in, dodging Madam Pince, who was carrying a tower of books and muttering something about noisy kids and not putting the books back where they found them.

The boys stepped carefully over the rope that separated the Restricted Section from the rest of the library and began searching. About five minutes into finding the right book, Remus and Peter heard an "Ah hah!" from Sirius.

"I found it!" Sirius sang.

"Shh..." Remus hissed. The three huddled together and looked through the book.

"Uh huh...mm hmm...right..." Sirius said repeatedly. "Right...uh huh...bingo!"

"You found something?" Remus asked, surprised.

"Er--no."

"Then what was with all those 'uh huhs'?"

"It made me sound smart." Sirius giggled and blushed.

Remus sighed. "This'll take forever."

"Right," Sirius said. "Let's take it back to the Common Room. Then, you can look for it."

"Me? This was your clever idea!"

"Yes, but Moony, do you honestly think that my attention span can handle this?"

Remus sighed yet again. "You're right. Come on. Let's head back."