The Perfect Plan

Smoky · Geplaatst: Di Nov 20, 2007 18:39

Hi folks!

I finally decided to post my fanfic, on which I've been working since last summer. The last week inspiration finally hit me, and I think I'll be able to post a new chapter once in a while ^^
It's a James/Lily fanfic 'cause I adore them and the young Marauders!
I don't have a beta-reader, but if you guys think I need one, just tell me.
Comments are very, very much appreciated

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Prologue

‘Hi, I’m James Potter. I go to Hogwarts school for Witchcraft and Wizardry. I’m in my sixth year. I’m the kind of guy that, excuse me for being modest, makes heads turn when I walk by. I have three good friends. One of them is Sirius Black. He is, almost, as handsome as I am. That is, if I have to believe the head-turning people, who look at him too. And I do believe them. Another friend is Peter Pettigrew. He’s probably the dorkiest of us four, but he’s cool. Another friend of mine is Remus Lupin. Remus is a werewolf. Yeah, I know, pretty disturbing right? But we can get through it. ‘We’ meaning us, the Marauders. When it’s full moon, we all go to the Shrieking shack. Sirius, Peter and I are animagi, and so we all transform up there. In the beginning our monthly visits had meant bruises and big cuts occasionally. I once got a cut so bad it didn’t heal for weeks. Pretty painful. But Remus learned to control himself a bit more, and our visits to the shack got less painful and sometimes even enjoyable.
There’s something else you should know about me. I’m in love. And it’s not just the kind of ‘kindergarten love’ we all experience when we’re young. No, it’s a lot more than that.
Lily Evans, another sixth year Gryffindor. The problem is, she doesn’t like me. I know what you’re thinking, she’ll come around. Well, probably not. She rejected me five times over the past three months. That doesn’t exactly give you an ego-boost, I’ll tell you that. Of course this all happened in our fifth year, when I was young and innocent and I had no knowledge of the harsh world I lived in, whatsoever. So you can’t really blame me, can you? Even though our fifth year was only two months ago...
I’m getting off track here. All I’m saying is, I won’t give up on her. I won’t give up hope. James potter never gives up hope.
You’ll see.’

Smoky · Geplaatst: Ma Nov 26, 2007 23:46

@Martine & Lady Quiera: Thanks guys! I really appreciate your comments!

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Chapter one

The lucky lesson

I yawned. It was early, but not too early to get up. Still half asleep, I changed into my robes, glancing in the mirror to check my hair. I noticed Sirius and Peter were still asleep but I didn’t have the decency too be quiet. I stretched my arms above my head while walking out of the boys’ dormitory. Then, I strolled down the stone steps to the Gryffindor common room. In one of the big, fluffy armchairs, sat a boy with sandy brown hair: Remus Lupin. He was reading a large book. ‘Seriously? You’re reading your Transfiguration book before the lessons have even started?’ I asked him in disgust. ‘Yes, I am,’ he answered, looking up at me. ‘You should see the cool stuff we’re going to do this year James.’ ‘You can’t make me read it, you can’t,’ I said, pretending to protect myself from the evil schoolbook. ‘I can’t, but McGonagall sure as hell can,’ Remus said. I wanted to change the subject, to get rid of the thought of classes, but Remus already did that. ‘Let’s have breakfast, I’m hungry,’ he said. ‘Yeah, hungry for knowledge maybe,’ I murmured.
A few minutes later, we walked down the marble staircase to the Great Hall. We sat down at the Gryffindor table. At Slytherin table, you could practically hear the crickets chirp, the Hufflepuff table was a bit more occupied, and at both Ravenclaw’s and Gryffindor’s table, sat six people, give or take. That meant it wasn’t crowded yet. I loved eating breakfast when it wasn’t crowded. I hated people staring at me while I was eating. I just wasn’t comfortable with that. McGonagall came to us and handed us our timetables. ‘Sixth year Transfiguration seems pretty difficult, Professor,’ Remus said to her. ‘It is, Lupin, but I’m guessing you’ll be fine,’ she said. Remus smiled and McGonagall walked back to the staff table. ‘Moony, you’re such a suck up,’ I said. I took a big bite of my toast. ‘Why is the first lesson of the year always potions?’ I asked, tiny toast crumbs shooting from my mouth. Remus rolled his eyes. ‘Don’t talk with your mouth full, it’s disgusting,’ he said. ‘I mean, they know I don’t like potions,’ I continued pretending not to have heard Remus. Remus rolled his eyes again, which he always did when he was annoyed. ‘Like they’re going to adjust the timetable to your wishes,’ he said. I fell quiet. He had a point there. Peter and Sirius arrived at the dinner table and they both looked at their timetables. Sirius brushed the dark hair out of his face. ‘Why is it always potions?’ he asked. I shrugged and threw a meaningful look at Remus that was supposed to say, ‘See, I’m not the only one.’ Remus sniggered and we finished our breakfast in silence.

After breakfast we walked to the dungeons. I was bored to death. The most exiting moment of the day was Peter tripping over his robes and falling flat on his face, a few minutes ago. And that’s not so rare. Peter falls at least trice a day, so if that’s the most exiting, it’s saying something. ‘I hope master Slug goes easy on us with the homework, seeing as it’s our first day,’ Peter said. We all murmured in agreement. When we entered the classroom, we rushed to our favorite seats in the back of the dungeon. Slughorn, the potions master, coughed and the class fell silent. Quickly two or three students that had been talking to each other, hurried to their seats. Slughorn spoke, ‘Good morning! I see most of last year’s class managed to get Exceeds Expectations on their potions OWL, which means you lucky people are able to follow my magnificent classes this year.’ ‘Yippee,’ Sirius said sarcastically, just loud enough for Slughorn to hear it. He threw Sirius a warning look, and Sirius blinked innocently at him. ‘I want everyone to take out their copy of ‘Advanced potion making’ now,’ Slughorn continued. He walked to the front of the class, and squeezed himself between his chair and his desk. Because of his huge middle section, he could barely fit in between. He pushed his desk a little further away from him, so he had more space, and could breathe again. Then he tapped his wand on a small cauldron on his desk that appeared to be boiling. ‘Who knows what this is?’ he asked the class. A hand shot in the air. I glanced at the hand to see who’s it was, though I already knew. Red-haired Lily Evans. Potion genius and one of Slughorn’s favorites. ‘Miss Evans,’ Slughorn said, smiling widely. ‘I must say, I wasn’t surprised when you got Outstanding on your potions OWL. Not surprised at all. Well, go ahead then.’
‘It’s Felix Felicis, sir,’ Lily said, staring at the little cauldron. ‘It’s a luck potion.’ ‘That’s correct! Five points to Gryffindor,’ Slughorn said. I watched Lily smile. She caught my eye and I grinned at her. ‘The drinker of this potion will have all the luck in the world for an amount of time, depending on the amount of potion taken,’ Slughorn went on. Sirius saw me gazing at Lily. ‘Oi, Prongs,’ he whispered. ‘What?’ I mouthed back. ‘Maybe you should try taking some of that potion the next time you ask Evans on a date. Who knows, she might say yes,’ Sirius said. Peter and Remus both laughed. ‘Charming,’ I muttered.

The lesson turned out to be pretty cool. The whole class was allowed to take two drops of Felix Felicis, which was enough for the rest of the lesson. Drinking Felix, felt like drinking hot chocolate outside in the icy snow. Slughorn told us it was pretty dangerous to have so many lucky people in the same room together. ‘Remember I want you to focus on making your potion, and on nothing else. If you do, you’ll be spending the rest of your first school week in my office, doing the stupidest tasks you can imagine, so beware. The effect of Felix Felicis isn’t strong when so many people take it though, so if you’re planning on doing exiting things, like jumping off the astronomy tower and crash into the ground without a scratch, you’d better make sure someone’s down there to catch you,’ he said.
‘Professor, what kind of potion do we have to make?’ Remus asked, exited. ‘Surprise me,’ Slughorn answered. Then we got divided into couples. Slughorn told me to team up with Lily. Voila, there was my luck already. Lily didn’t seem to care who she’d team up with. She only seemed eager about making the potion. ‘So what shall we make?’ she asked me. Everything’s fine,’ I said, flipping through the pages of my potions book. ‘This one doesn’t look too complicated,’ she said, pointing at the left page of my book. ‘Draught of living death,’ I read out loud. ‘Sure, why not?’ It looked pretty damn complicated to me, but of course I didn’t tell her that. We got the ingredients and I lit Lily’s cauldron. ‘How was your summer?’ I asked. ‘It was good,’ she said, but she did not elaborate. We didn’t talk much the rest of the lesson. We just worked hard to finish our potion. The results at the end of the lesson were spectacular. Everyone succeeded in making a great potion with Felix as teacher. When Slughorn walked by our cauldron, he gave us the thumbs up and said, ‘You make a good team!’ Lily and I gave each other a high five. ‘Because it’s your first lesson, no homework!’ Slughorn yelled, trying to make himself clear above the noise of people talking and laughing. Lily hurried over to her friends and left the classroom. I had wanted to say goodbye, but I guess I was out of luck.

Smoky · Geplaatst: Za Apr 26, 2008 20:05

Wow, It took me some time to finish a new chapter, but here it is. I [finally] figured out where I'm going with this story so I've also changed the title of it.

Comments are still very much appreciated!

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Chapter two

The awakening

‘That is só totally not my point,’ Remus said as we walked through the entrance hall to the marble staircase. We just ate diner and were on our way back to the common room. ‘Totally,’ Sirius laughed. ‘Padfoot, could you stop making fun of me for one minute please?’ Remus asked anoyed. ‘I could, but I really don’t want to,’ Sirius reacted, raising his eyebrows at me. ‘You were saying?’ I asked Remus impatiently while we climbed up the stairs. We just had dinner and I was very stressed. The thought of the amount of homework I still had to do for tomorrow was nausiating . ‘To make a long story short, you should tell Lily how you feel,’ Remus said simplistic. ‘Did you just say what I thought you just said? In case you forgot, she knows how I feel. I know how she feels about the fact that she knows how I feel. She made that pretty damn clear to me. She told me five times. Five!’ I shouted. ‘Isn’t that enough for you? I know it is for me.’
‘Maybe she changed her mind,’ Remus said shrugging. ‘Moony, I thought you were supposed to be the smart one,’ Sirius said as we came to a halt. Remus was about to give him a snappy reply when a voice came, ‘Are you four going to give me the bloody password or what?’ the Fat Lady asked angry. ‘Someone’s in a bad mood around here, and it sure as hell isn’t me,’ Peter said sniggering. ‘Swedish short snout,’ I said, and the portrait swung open. We entered the common room, where it was warm and cozy. ‘I mean, it really is what you make of it yourself, isn’t it?’ Remus asked. We sat down in the big chairs by the fire. Remus took out his Transfiguration book and started reading again, just like he did almost every evening. I grabbed my Defence Against the Dark Arts book and opened it at page sixteen. I dipped my quill in the ink and started with my homework. It was silent for a while and then Remus said: ‘Think about it James. As long as you don’t make a move you are one hundred percent sure that nothing will happen between you two. What have you got to lose? It’s like you said, she already rejected you five times, once more won’t make a difference right?’ I sighed and lifted my right hand to him as if I was trying to say ‘enough already.’ He was kind of right but I was not in the mood to admit it.

The next weeks went by very slowly. The huge piles of homework seemed to get bigger and bigger every day. I had almost no free time left. Classes were very exhausting, so the moment that I managed to finish my homework every day, I went straight to bed. We didn’t speak about Lily anymore. I guess we didn’t have the time for it. I was kind of happy about that. I knew Remus and Sirius still wanted to bring her up all the time, but every time I felt that our conversation was going the wrong way, I started another subject. I was trying to forget her, and in my imagination I thought that I was doing a pretty good job. That was untill one Saturday morning...

‘Get up!’ I heard a voice say. ‘Whadisit?’ I asked sleepy. I tried to open my eyes, but they weren’t coorporating. ‘I’ve got it,’ I heard the same voice say again. I realized that it was Sirius’ voice. ‘Good for you. Now let me sleep,’ I groaned. ‘No Prongs, don’t go back to sleep,’ Sirius said cheerfull as he grabbed my blanket and pulled it away from me. ‘I’ve got the perfect plan.’ I tried to ignore him, but before I knew it, his fingers closed arround my wrist and he tried to drag me out of bed. I tried to grab anything that I could hold on to, but I was to late. There I lay on the ground. At this point, I simply had to open my eyes, whether I wanted to or not. When I looked up I saw Sirius’ smiling face. He didn’t look tired at all and that bothered me. ‘What exactly is your problem?’ I asked when I stood up. I wanted to get back in bed but Sirius pulled me away from it. ‘Let’s go to the common room, before we wake anyone,’ he said. I raised my eyebrows. ‘For your information, dear Sirius, you already woke someone. That person is me, and I can tell you that I’m not a happy camper right now!’ We walked down the stairs to the common room. Well, Sirius walked, I stumbled. ‘I like my sleep. You know that I like my sleep. You shouldn’t wake me, especially not during weekends!’ I went on. Sirius merely smiled. We entered the common room. It was empty.
‘What time is it anyway?’ I asked when I sat down in one of the big fluffy chairs. ‘Four-ish, I think,’ Sirius said indifferent. ‘That is just great,’ I sighed. ‘Okay, now tell me what you’ve dragged me out of bed for.’ Sirius grinned at me. ‘Well, being such a good friend, I have noticed how much you crave Lilly Evans,’ he said. ‘I do not crave her,’ I said indignant. Sirius raised his eyebrows at me. I stared at him for a few moments and then I sighed. ‘Okay, maybe I do. Go on,’ I said. ‘Well, because I’m such a good friend, I thought of a plan. And I can assure you that she wants you after you complete it,’ Sirius said smirking. I thought about what I just heard. It was a lot of information for my brain to progress at this hour. ‘I’m listening,’ I said interested, leaning back in my chair, finally giving in to the fact that I would not see my bed again this night.