The Diary

Chapter Five - The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Needless to say, James struggled to stay awake during Charms. Remus was tempted to give him a firm poke, but resisted. Sirius merely looked amused, as he was busy shredding bits of parchment and sticking them in James' black mop of hair.

The Marauders were too busy to notice a certain brown-haired Gryffindor girl that kept glancing over her shoulder at them wearing an evil grin.

After a mostly uneventful class (Flitwick had managed to reprimand James no less then five times for not paying attention), the four boys made their way out into the corridor. Sirius kept snickering, but James was too dazed to pick up on anything. Remus was busy explaining the lesson to Peter when all four of them were hit by a spell from behind. Sirius and Remus whipped their heads around to see who the spell caster was, but both were distracted by the sound of thunder that suddenly came from above their heads. Just as they saw the quickly spreading storm clouds, rain began to downpour onto their faces. Remus tried to catch a glimpse of who had hexed them, but the perpetrator had disappeared into the group of students gawking at the soaking Marauders.

Sirius stood there for a moment, then leaned his head back and stuck out his tongue. "How kind of them. I was getting quite thirsty." The other three stared blankly at him. Sirius glanced over at James and started to laugh again. Unfortunately, his mouth was still open, so he choked on some water. After regaining his composure, he commented, "Nice hair, James."

Giving Sirius an odd look, James ran his hand through his hair to find bits of wet parchment. He brushed them out, glowering at Sirius.

Remus set to work on trying to get rid of the shower, but to no avail. The miniature storm extended to as far out as any of them could reach.

James, who was now fully awake thanks to the sudden shower, transfigured a fake wand he had in his bag into a large umbrella. Upon opening it, though, he discovered that the raindrops fell right through it.

Peter pretty much just stood there and tried to prevent his schoolbag from getting wet. It wasn't working very well.

More people began to gather around to watch the Marauders get a taste of their own medicine. That, and to see an impressive bit of magic.

Heads began to turn as Professor McGonagall made her way through the crowd; she didn't look particularly pleased about the commotion in the corridor.

"What's going on here?" she demanded. The students parted to let her through. She stopped when she caught sight of the sopping quartet. "I should have known," she muttered sardonically. "Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

It suddenly occurred to Remus that they had not tried the most obvious tactic. He started to walk toward McGonagall, but a portion of the clouds travelled with him. He paused, then turned around to see his friends still standing together. "Well then." Remus turned back to face McGonagall.

The corners of her mouth twitched. "I see your predicament, Mr Lupin. Well, I certainly hope that you will not be in this situation when you come to my class this afternoon."

"Aren't you going to help us, Professor?" James was somewhat taken aback at her lack of assistance.

"Mr Potter, it appears that your attempts to rid yourself of this problem have not been successful. As I am not familiar with this particular spell, I do not know the counter curse. I am afraid that you are on your own."

"Surely Dumbledore knows how to get rid of it," James argued.

McGonagall's mouth twitched again. "Professor Dumbledore is out of the building for the rest of the day, Mr Potter." The Marauders just stared at her. "If that is all, I will see you gentlemen in class." She turned and strode off, and several students swore they heard her murmur, "Not an undeserved punishment."

James walked over to Remus. "Did that just happen?"

Remus nodded. "I think she's upset with us."

Sirius, who had also joined them, said in all seriousness, "Can't imagine why. Oi!" He was distracted by Peter, who was trying to outrun the rain cloud. Sirius started chuckling, followed by James and Remus. Chuckling soon turned into full-blown laughter, and Sirius doubled-over. The image of the small chubby boy sprinting in circles was too much for him.

As Sirius wiped a tear from his eye, James said, "This isn't too bad. It'll just wear off in a few minutes, right Remus?"

"Probably," Remus answered, still laughing.

0 0 0

An hour and a half later, the Marauders trooped into the Great Hall for lunch, followed by their stalker rain clouds.

"For Merlin's sake! Why won't it bloody stop?!" James yelled. The constant patter of rain on his head was driving him batty.

None of the boys answered him; each was too irritated to be bothered.

History of Magic had been more painful than usual, especially for Remus. He had not been able to take notes due to the fact that all his supplies were drenched, and he couldn't pay attention because of the distracting thunder. Professor Binns hadn't noticed anything, of course.

As the boys sat down at the Gryffindor table, James wondered aloud how they would eat. Sirius grabbed a piece of bread and quickly shoved it in his mouth before it got too wet. "Life fwat," he answered, his mouth full of food. James shrugged and copied Sirius' technique. Peter, being Peter, followed suit, but Remus held off from their barbaric tactics, only to quickly realise there was no other solution.

After they had eaten all that they could, they started to head out of the hall. James was starting to get a headache from the pounding rain. The four were quite miserable, and completely unprepared for another spell to come up and hit them for the second time that day. And again, the culprit disappeared into the groups of people filing out of the Hall.

This time, however, there were no immediate effects.

"You feel anything?" James asked Sirius.

Sirius shook his head. "Nothing."

Remus cocked an eyebrow. "Strange... It must not have worked." He shrugged, and they travelled up to the sixth floor for Transfiguration. They had not gone far when James suddenly fell forward. He would have landed face first had he not stuck his hands out in time.

"Alright there?" Sirius asked, sticking his dripping hand out to James.

"Yeah..." James looked around. "What did I trip over?" He couldn't spot anything lying on the ground. "Do you see anything with those wolfish eyes of yours, Remus?"

"No," Remus replied hastily.

"Probably just your lack of poise, Potter," Sirius teased.

The group moved on, but they had only travelled about ten meters when Remus fell forward in a similar fashion to James. Sirius moved to help Remus up, but was also tripped by an invisible object. "What the hell?"

The four slowly made their way to class, stalled by their frequent falls. Combined with the rain that failed to leave a drop on the ground, it was torture.

Finally, though, they made it to McGonagall's room. They took their usual seats in the back, and James noted that Evans was already there, sitting in the front row. Studying, no doubt.

A particularly loud clap of thunder pulled James from his thoughts. Bloody clouds.

Professor McGonagall walked into the room and stood in front of the class. None of the Marauders paid her any attention, as the rain and tripping had thoroughly irritated all of them.

Out of nowhere, James felt a sharp spark run through him, causing him to jump out of his seat.

"Is there a problem, Mr Potter?" McGonagall inquired. "Other than the obvious, of course."

James quickly examined his chair. "No, Professor, carry on."

"Thank you for your permission, Mr Potter."

James mustered a feeble grin and sat back down. McGonagall returned to her speech and turned to the board.

"Ouch!" Peter lurched forward in his chair.

McGonagall's head shot around. "You have something to add, Mr Pettigrew?"

"No, Ma'am," he squeaked. James scanned the classroom. What was going on?

Sirius leapt out of his seat a few minutes after Peter, and Remus not too long after that.

"If you boys cannot control yourself, I will have to give you all a detention," McGonagall threatened.

The shocks kept coming, but the boys struggled to not show any sign of pain. It was too much for Sirius. He began to bang his head on the desk.

"Mr Black, if you insist on harming yourself, I shall have to insist that you keep it down." Professor McGonagall was becoming quite frustrated with the Marauders. They didn't usually cause this much trouble involuntarily, but she was inwardly amused.

Sirius continued to slam his head on the desk, but did so much more quietly. Class wasn't over soon enough for the four traumatized boys.

0 0 0

That night during Astronomy, James had had enough. If I don't stop this soon, I think I might strangle someone! He approached the professor and said, "Professor, there's a slight problem."

"What's that, Potter?" he responded, clearly shocked at the presence of the clouds over James' head.

"I'm afraid that in my current state, I'll get my telescope wet," James made up on the spot.

The professor nodded, deep in thought. "I see what you mean. Well, turn in your homework and go see if Madam Harrison can get you sorted out."

James suppressed a grin. "Thank you for being so understanding, Professor. I just couldn't bear to damage my telescope."

Sirius fought back a laugh, but the professor put his hand on James' shoulder. "A wizard's telescope is an important tool. It's nice to see someone else who appreciates them." He shooed the boys out of the tower after collecting their soaking essays.

"Brilliant, James!" Sirius cried as soon as they were out of ear-shot.

James bowed. "Thank you, Sirius. I do my best."

As they approached the common room, the clouds suddenly disappeared. "Oh, thank Merlin!" yelled James.

Remus gave a sigh of relief. "Finally."

Peter looked at Remus. "What are you so happy about?"

It was too much for Remus - he thwacked Peter on the head. "How you ever passed your exams..."

0 0 0

Late that night, James strained to keep awake. The events of the day had exhausted him, and he was eager to go to sleep. Finally, he saw Evans' writing begin to form on the page.

Good evening!

My, we're cheerful tonight. What's the occasion?

Emily got back at the Marauders! It was fantastic!

Really? What did she do?

Well, first she cast this charm that caused rain clouds to follow them around all day, so they were soaking. Then, as they left lunch, she cast another spell that caused them to trip every so often, right when they were least expecting it.

James smacked his head. Of course it was Emily!

That's... interesting.

It was brilliant! They had no clue who was hexing them! Oh, and during Transfiguration, she jinxed their chairs so that they got shocked whenever Emily felt like it. I never knew she could do that kind of magic!

It all made sense now. Apparently James had misjudged Emily.

That seems like an awful lot in retaliation for a simple vanishing spell.

I don't think so. Besides, they've done plenty of other awful things over the years. They were just asking for it, really.

Were they? James just thought they were having fun. Sure, the Marauders had been pranked before, but never to the extent that Emily had gone to.

And I can't believe they didn't see the most obvious solution. Then again, none of them share my affinity for Charms...

James furrowed his eyebrows. What was she going on about?

What do you mean?

I mean they could have just made themselves impervious to water. I guess it never occurred to them.

The Impervius Charm! How could they have missed that?

That wasn't even the best part of today, though.

Oh?

After dinner, I was in the library doing my homework. I looked out the window and saw the most perfect sunset. It was just this giant orange ball of fire, with streaks of clouds tinted purple covering parts of it. It was just so perfect, my words don't seem to do it justice.

Intriguing. But James had learned in Evans' diary that she did have a penchant for noticing the little things. It was sort of cute that she took more joy from a simple sunset than from watching the Marauders suffer. He blinked furiously. Evans was not cute, he told himself. Not in any way.

Sounds terrific.

It was. I wonder... If I took a picture with a wizard camera, would I be able to watch the sun set over and over again? I mean, pictures of people move. Wouldn't the sun?

Interesting thought. I would think it would do something.

James had never thought about how little Evans knew of the wizarding world. But James realized he didn't know the answer. He'd never paid attention to the subject of photography; he'd always been too preoccupied with Quidditch.

That's what I thought. I didn't want to ask Emily - it's a silly question.

No, it's not. It's a perfectly legitimate question for a Muggleborn to ask. Or anyone, for that matter...

You think? Well, it doesn't matter. I might ask her or someone. I think I saw a first-year walking around with a camera... Maybe he'd know...

He found it strange that Evans was too embarrassed to ask Emily about the picture. Evans didn't seem like the shy type.

Oh, look at the time! I still have to finish my essay for Defence Against the Dark Arts, but I had to tell you about today. Good night!

Night, Lily.

It was awkward to write 'Lily' instead of 'Evans.' They had always called each other by their surnames. But what was most surprising was that she had put off homework to write in her diary. Most interesting...