Great Tuna Sandwiches

Chapter Two: Quidditch and Monkeys

"Go give this to Lily!" James hissed.

"No!" Jack said. "She'd hate me!"

"So?"

"James!"

"Fine! Remus?"

"No, James. Lily is our friend. We can't do that!"

"It has to be from someone she trusts! You two are the only ones who could do that!" Sirius said.

"Maybe if you leave it on her bed..." Peter began.

"She's not stupid, Peter, she's not going to drink something that was left on her bed!"

Lily could barely contain her laughter. The Marauders were 5 feet away and having a 'whispered' conversation that was growing louder with every sentence.

"You know, boys," Lily remarked casually, "I wouldn't drink or eat anything any of you gave me."
"Good going, James, she heard us," Sirius said.

"Me? It's your fault, you were the one who started it!"
"Did not!"

"Did too!"
"Boys, boys, boys!" Marie said, walking over to the couch where they were crowded around. "The other Gryffindors are trying to study. It would be greatly appreciated if you would SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Marie said, patted Sirius on the head and walked back.

"Come on, Gryffindors, we don't need to study!" James shouted, standing up on a table. "Join us Marauders in the party of the century! Homework, who needs it? We have all the time in the world to do our homework when we're dead! So who cares what McGonagall says? Rip up your parchment, throw it in the fire and lets have a party!" James finished his corny little speech and smiled at his fellow Gryffindors who stared at him blankly.

Jack stared up at James. "Are you mad?" he asked, grabbed his robes and yanked him back down into his seat. The Head Boy, Arthur Weasley placed a Silencing Charm on him.

"Thank you!" a few 5th years said as they resumed studying for an exam.

"Ah, come on, Arthur, I wanted to see James make a bigger fool of himself!" Lily complained.

Several Gryffindors laughed, James blushed and then glared at her. Lily smiled back charmingly.

'Stupid Evans,' James thought to himself, since he couldn't talk.

*

"C'mon, Lils, you gotta eat something!" Shannon said, offering her a peice of toast. Lily shook her head. It was Saturday morning and the Quidditch match would be starting soon. The Marauders, Lily, Marie, and Shannon, were, for once, sitting together, trying to convince the Quidditch players (James, Sirius, Jack, and Lily) to eat. Jack, who was eating like he had never eaten before, had piled all of their plates with food.

"C'mon," Jack said, through his eggs, "James, Lily, I'll spoil your pranks if you don't eat something." Lily took a bite of eggs, glaring at James. "James, come on. OK, Lily, he's going to put 53 snakes in-"

"Whoah, ok!" James interupted and shoveled a full waffle into his mouth.

"Hey, need syrup?" Sirius asked. James nodded, tilted his head back and opened his mouth. Sirius then poured syrup into his mouth until James gave him thumbs up.

"GROSS!" Shannon yelled while Marie watched on, a grin of both amusement and disgust on her face (which was kind of weird, really). Lily simply rolled her eyes, scooped up a spoonful of butter and dropped it into his mouth.

"LILY!" Shannon exclaimed, "That was horrible!"

Lily shrugged. "He's going to throw it all up anyway."
*
"And they're off! Gryffindor Chaser Evans in posession, passes to Fandley, he passes to Potter, POTTER SCORES! 10-0, GRYFFINDOR! Ravenclaw Chaser McKinney- he's had a bad week- has the Quaffle, passes to- intercepted by Evans! Good job, Lily! Evans passes to Potter- hey, they're getting along! Potter passes back, EVANS SCORES! 20-0, GRYFFINDOR! Watch out for that bludger, Lily! Black deflects it at Ravenclaw seeker Michaels who's diving- Gryffindor seeker Wood follows- Wronski Feint! Too bad it didn't work, Michaels! JACK! You're supposed to hit bludgers AT the Ravenclaw seeker, not deflect them! Come on, Jack, you know what you're supposed to do! There ya go, hit it at McKinney, good job JACKIE BOY! Hey! You're supposed to use that anger up on the other team, not your own classmate! Ok, I'll leave you alone! Anyway, back to the game. Wood dives again, Fandley scores, Ravenclaw Keeper O'Fartsey- I mean, Farsey, is having a hard time blocking the Quaffle from Gryffindor chasers- WOOD HAS THE SNITCH! GRYFFINDOR WINS, 180-0!" Remus, who had done the commentray, jumped up and down and hugged Marie, who had sat with him.

Down on the field, the Gryffindors were laughing, jumping and hugging each other because they only had to win one more match and they had the Qudditch Cup. James hugged Lily without thinking. As the stands grew silent, he looked to see what was wrong. Every student and teacher was staring at him and Lily. Evans stared back at him, removed his arms from around her, and walked away. Feeling very awkward and embarrased, James looked helplessly at Sirius and Jack. The two exchanged glances and shouted "PARTY IN GRYFFINDOR COMMON ROOM!" The Gryffindors shouted their approval and raced back inside. James, relieved, sighed, said a very sincere "Thanks," and the three boys met up with the rest of the Marauders and went back to the castle.

*
Lily glared at the ceiling. It was a very ugly ceiling. Lily conjured up a can of paint, a paint roller and ladder and got to work painting the ceiling, ignoring the party that was beginning in the Common Room.

"Lils?" Shannon came in, looking around cautiously. "What are you doing?"

"Painting the ceiling."
"Why?"

"It was ugly."
"Oh. Are you ok?"

"Well, these paint fumes are pretty bad."
"Not about that. Come on, Lil. James was just caught up in the excitement. That's all."

"Oh, I know. I was just thinking."
"About what?"

"About how it would be so much easier to just magic the ceiling the right color."
Shannon sighed. "You're impossible! When you're done, come down to the Common Room. And if you don't I'm sending Sirius and Jack up."
Lily grinned and followed her friend downstairs.

Sirius and James were bouncing around the room, acting like psychotic monkeys and Jack and Remus were throwing different candies to the Gryffindors.

Lily grinned, muttered a spell, and instead of James and Sirius, two real monkeys were running around. The monkeys began throwing things, swinging from chairs that had been stacked on top of each other and causing plain chaos. Lily left them as monkeys for a few hours, laughing at the students who were being chased by them.

Unfortunately since it was two AM, McGonagall stormed in.

Lily quickly muttered the counterspell and sat down on the steps like she had done nothing wrong.

McGonagall glared suspiciously at her, but didn't do anything. "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" she yelled. The Gryffindors stopped what they were doing. "You will all be cleaning this up in the morning, no magic. You're lucky you all don't have detentions!" she then stormed out as the portrait hole slammed shut, Sirius muttered "Dang, now I need a banana!"

The Gryffindors laughed and headed to their dorms.

*
"Lily? Come on, you made half the mess!"
"No, Shannon, I'm not cleaning it up!"

"You're the one that made the monkeys go crazy!"

"So? How was I supposed to know they'd go berserk hearing the Filibuster Fireworks explode? And it's not my fault they're wild animals and they destroyed the Common Room."
Marie and Shannon exchanged glances, grabbed Lily's arms and dragged her down to the Common Room (which was very painful, mind you).

"About time you showed up," James muttered.

"I can't believe you turned us into monkeys!" Sirius said. "I've been craving bananas all day! Besides, you should save that for the Slytherins." Sirius' face lit up at this. "SLYTHERIN MONKEYS! You're a genius, Lil!"

"Er-thanks," Lily said.

*
"I'm exhausted," Marie said, almost 4 hours later. "Who knew it would take so long to clean the Common Room?"

They were all sprawled out on couches, chairs and the floor, exhausted from cleaning the Common Room.

"That was fun," James muttered. "Let's do that again."
"Shut up, Potter," Lily said, half heartedly, "nobody wants to hear what you have to say."
"You're implying that everybody wants to hear you talk?" James asked.

"Sure am." Lily sighed. The Marauders, Marie and Shannon all looked to James for his response.

James, sensing this, said, "Right."
The group, excluding James and Lily (of course) and Peter, who had been gone all day, exchanged glances.

"Are you ok, Lil?" Jack asked.
Lily nodded sleepily. "Grand. Why d'you ask?"

"No reason," Jack said. "You just seem a little weird."
Lily raised an eyebrow but let it go.

*

Jack, Remus, Sirius, Shannon and Marie were worried. Very worried. Lily and James were actually being civil toward one another. It was a mystery that needed solving, in Sirius' opinion.

"They're in love with each other," Shannon said, "why else would they have stopped fighting? It's the only reasonable explanation." They were all in the boys' dorm, Lily and James were both in detention and Peter was still nowhere to be found (not that they had looked very hard).

"Maybe they're just tired of arguing," Remus said.

"I still say they're in love," Shannon said.

Marie rolled her eyes. "James and Lily are NOT in love. They've just figured out that if they're nice to each other, the world will not end."
"You're saying they could end up being in love?" Jack asked, skeptically.

Marie shrugged. "I've no idea."
"They can't be in love!" Sirius said. "That would ruin the energy we have! It would destroy it!" Sirius then burst into fake sobs.

Shannon rolled her eyes. "It will not. That would only happen if they got together and then decided they hate each other."
Sirius stopped his 'crying' and looked up at Shannon. "Well, that would just suck, wouldn't it?"

*

"So I said to her, 'The only person here like that is you, so maybe you should leave!' She just glared at me and left! It was so funny!" James finished telling his joke to the marauders and the girls. Lily laughed, even though it wasn't very funny. The look on James'face when he told it was priceless, though. James grinned with satisfaction. It was mid-April and the weather was beautiful. Lily couldn't believe she and James could actually be considered friends, but, well, miracles DO happen. Lily looked up, hearing the sound of many owls coming in to deliver the post. Lily never really got anything, so she was surprised when a letter was dropped in front of her. She picked it up curiously, wondering what it could be. James, who was watching her read it, saw many emotions cross across her face. She looked up when she finished and stared in shock at the bowl of eggs.

"Lily? Are you ok?" Shannon asked.

Lily looked up again. "I have to go," she said and ran from the Great Hall.

"Wonder what that was about," Sirius said, looking at James. James shrugged.

"I left my Herbology notes in the dorm. I'll be right back," James, too, left the Great Hall.

"Dunno what he's thinking," Sirius said. "We don't have Herbology today."
*
"Lily?" James asked, approaching the huddled figure. Lily had ran outside and was now huddled next to the lake.

"Go away."

"Nah, I like it here."
"James, seriously, leave me alone."
"I can't. Something's wrong and I can't just walk away. That'd be really rude," James said.

"Oh, yes, valiant James Potter, to my rescue. Woo Hoo," Lily muttered sarcastically.

"Come on, Lily, I'm trying to be helpful."
"Yeah, well, you're not. So shut up and leave me alone for once."
"Somebody's grouchy."
"Really James? I hadn't noticed because I'm too busy thinking and wishing I were alone!"

"I think somebody's parents forgot to teach somebody their manners. MY father always said manners are one of the most important things in making a sale. I guess your father didn't think manners matered," James said, annoyed.

Lily stood up and glared at him. "What did you say?" she said in a soft voice.

James stared at her. "I wasn't being serious," he said. "I was trying to joke."

"Don't joke about my parents, James," she said. James was wishing she'd just yell at him, it was better than this controlled anger she was expressing.

"Lily, I'm-"
"I don't want to hear it. Leave me alone," Lily said and walked into the Forbidden Forest.

James watched after her. What was wrong with Lily?

*
"Jamsie, we don't have Herbology today." Sirius informed him when he went back to the Great Hall.

"What?" James asked. "Oh...right. I forgot."
"Where's Lily?" Marie asked.

James shrugged. "Why would I know? Or care, for that matter."

Jack glared at him. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" James said. "Why do you think I did something wrong? Why are you always on Lily's side? That's just like you, Jack! You always take Lily's side! Nevermind what I did or didn't do!" James stormed out of the Great Hall.

Jack always did that. He never paid any attention to whether or not James was right, he just automatically took Lily's side. James hadn't even done anything wrong this time. Had he?

*
Lily wiped away a tear. James was so stupid. How dare he insult her parents like that! Especially after- Lily shook her head. 'No,' she thought to herself, 'I'm not going to think about stupid Potter. I hate him!' Lily jumped at a breaking branch. 'I better go back...Stupid Potter.'

*

"LILS! WHERE YA BEEN!" Jack cried, seeing her walk into the Great Hall for lunch.

"You look awful," Marie said, ever the curteous one.

"What happened?" Shannon asked.

"What? Oh, nothing," Lily said and ignored the rest of her friends' questions.

James came in a few minutes later, and, since the only empty seat was next to Evans, that's where he sat. Lily glared at him, stood up and walked out. James glared at Jack, waiting.

"What?" Jack asked. "I don't know what's going on. You two better fix things before the game tomorrow, though."

James blinked. "What game?"

Sirius hit him on the head with a roll. "The QUIDDITCH game. If we win, we get the Quidditch Cup. Go fix whatever you broke."

James groaned. Lily hated him and they had the most important game of the year the next day. What was he going to do?