Legacy of the Marauders

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

James finally reached his dorm and charmed the door against Alohomora to escape Lily. No matter how much he cared for her he would NOT under any circumstances allow her to tidy his hair.

"Hey, Prongs, where were you last night?" Sirius slyly queried.

"In bed with Lily."

Sirius clapped. "Sexcellent job!"

"Was she good?" asked Peter.

Before James could answer Sirius interupted, "She probably wasn't as good as she normally would be since she was drunk."

Remus looked at James with disapproval and disgust. "I can't believe you would get Lily drunk and take advantage of her. Even Padfoot wouldn't sink that low."

"Hey!" said Sirius, offended.

Again, James opened his mouth, but this time Peter interrrupted to defend James, "Evans is lucky that he would give a Mudblood like her any attention." No one took notice of his comment since Remus and Sirius were still bickering and James was running his hand through his hair in frustration at being ignored.

"GUYS, LISTEN!" James commanded.

Sirius and Remus joined Peter in gazing at James with such undivided attention it was almost creepy.

"Thanks," James said. "Okay, what I meant by being in bed with Lily was that we were both wasted and jumping on a bed. We got tired, so we fell asleep."

Peter and Sirius looked disappointed, yet Remus smiled.

James detested seeing his comrades upset; therefore he added, "I found out what turns her on, though."

Mollified, Sirius and Peter smiled also.

"Prongs, you have a Quidditch match today," Remus reminded him.

"Oh, bobasmeel, I do!" James immediately removed the spell from the door and rushed to the Quidditch Pitch.

"Bobasmeel?" wondered Remus. "I know that's not in the dictionary."

The other two shrugged and soon they all headed to the Pitch as well, locating seats beside Jessie, Lily, and Sapphire.

Madame Hooch beckoned Godric's and Salazar's teams onto the field and had James and Lucius, the captains, grudgingly shake hands. Instead of a quaffle she released a bed-knob to signal the beginning of the game. Flustered by her mistake, she threw the Snitch and quaffle forcefully at the sky in the same moment. The players sped into the air to attempt to catch the balls and started to play.

"The first goal is scored by Potter," came Lucetta Malfoy's drawl.

Sirius glanced over at her. The sunlight illuminated her sleek silvery-blonde hair as she sat in the commentator's box, which caused it look white. His wretched cousin, Narscissa, was dating her equally wretched brother. He couldn't imagine that Lucetta, who was also in Slytherin, would be any different from them.

Lucetta continued, bored, "That was quite a foul the beater, Goyle, just did to Gryffindor's Keeper, and Hooch is clearly unhappy about it. Okay, she's done yelling at him and the game resumes with even more energy than before. Both team seems to want the other to loose shamefully because they loathe each other." She brightened for the first time. "That reminds me of a song."

Lily thought, I hope she doesn't sing.

She sang, "What is this feeling
So sudden and new
I felt the moment
I laid eyes on you?
My pulse is rushing.
My head is reeling.
My face is flushing.
What is this feeling?
Fervid as a flame,
Does it have a name?
Yes! Loathing,
Unadulterated loathing
For your face,
Your voice,
Your clothing.
Let's just say I loathe it all.
Ev'ry little trait, however small
Makes my very flesh begin to crawl
With simple utter loathing.
There's a strange exhilaration
In such total detestation.
It's so pure; so strong,
Though I do admit it came on fast,
Still I do believe that it can last,
And I will be loathing,
Loathing you,
My whole life long!"

Everyone, including the players, stared at her. She would most assuredly be remembered for her chant, not as a result of her voice being particularly good or poor (it was of middling quality), but because no commentator ever sang before.

While everybody gazed at her James took advantage of the moment and easily scored five goals in a row. The final tally was Slytherin- 60 Gryffindor- 270.

Jessie leapt up on the stands and exalted with the rest of her house, "I can't believe we won by so much!"

After a moment of swift calculating in her head Sapphire added, "This means we're almost guaranteed to win the Cup, for the Slytherin-Hufflepuff match is the last one of the season and Hufflepuff has done so badly this year they've no hope of winning the Cup. Slytherin can't win it either unless they beat Hufflepuff by one-hundred ninety points."

"That's great!" exclaimed Peter. He dashed off as rapidly as his stubby legs could carry him to inform James of the fabulous news, followed leisurely by Sirius and Remus. James grinned ecstatically when they told him.

Lucius glared sulkily at the happy Gryffindors. "Go screw yourselves."

"I'd rather not," was Remus' mild reply.

James' eyes swept over the stands for a brief second to ensure that Lily wasn't watching ere he fished his wand out the pocket of his Quidditch robes and cast a jinx. At the last possible minute Peter accidentally bumped into his wand arm, sending the spell in the wrong direction.

It hit Lucetta. The shoelaces crawled out of her shoes and belly-danced away from her across the grounds and into the lake where they drowned. "Those were my favourite shoelaces!" she cried. "They had the ABC's on them..." She covered her face with her hands and darted to the castle.

Remus suggested, "Maybe you should apologise."

"What for?" demanded James, who shared Sirius' opinion that no Slytherin was a good one.

"Never mind," the lycanthrope muttered. "Let's just go."

"Not till I hex Malfoy." James spun around wildly. "Where did he go?"

Sirius spat, "Sodding coward must've run off."

"Oh well." James shrugged and smiled. "Let's go have a party in the common room!"

Nobody could argue with that, so they left.

Severus Snape regarded their departure with contempt. He knew not that James' action was an accident, however, even if he were aware of that it would have mattered little. All he knew was that jynxing him was one thing, yet Lucetta was another thing entirely. The other students trudged back towards the school whilst he made his way to the greenhouses to gather potion ingredients. The Marauders were going to pay.

Minerva's Note: "Loathing" is a song written by Steven Shwarts.