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A Very Important Announcement


Next morning, the boys were waiting in the Transfiguration classroom for McGonagall, all tired and half asleep from the short night they’d pulled.

Charms had been a nightmare - Professor Flitwick had them up and moving about the whole time, learning shield charms, which involved shooting spells at one another and, if the shield wasn’t good enough, getting knocked over repeatedly. Peter had left Charms rubbing his bum, complaining that he’d probably bruised it.

Sirius threw his legs up on the desktop now, leaning back in his chair so that it was only on its back two feet. “I could sleep right here and now,” he announced.

“I wouldn’t recommend it,” came McGonagall’s voice as she passed by him. “Feet on the floor!” she commanded, waving her wand and knocking his chair forward so he was forced to sit upright. She eyed him. “Tell me, Mr. Black, have you misplaced all of your school robes?”

Sirius shook his head, “No, Professor?”

“Then I recommend you wear them to classes,” McGonagall said curtly. He was wearing a pair of jeans with rips in the knee and a Deep Purple t-shirt.

“Yes, Professor,” Sirius said, sitting up. He glanced at James and breathed, “Blimey, she’s got a bowtruckle in her bonnet today, ‘ey?”

McGonagall went and stood in the front of the room, her eyes very hard on Sirius. “No, Mr. Black, it’s not a bowtruckle I’ve got in my bonnet,” her accent was sharp, “It’s Professor Zosma informing me that two fifths of the Third Year Gryffindor class went missing during the Orionid viewing last night.”

James flushed and lowered himself in his seat guiltily. “Oh bullocks,” he murmured.

McGonagall’s eyebrows quirked up as her focus shifted to James’s red face. “I shall take that as your confession, Mr. Potter.” She looked at Sirius, “Mr. Black, do we have something we might like to add to Mr. Potter’s confession?”

“Double bullocks?” Sirius ventured.

McGonagall nodded, “I had a feeling. You’ll both stay after class to discuss this unfortunate disappearance from class and your certain appearance in my office at a time to be determined.”

“Yes, Professor,” they chanted together.

James and Sirius looked miserable as Remus looked over his shoulder at them with a I told you sort of expression on his face. It was hard to feel much like it had been a mistake, though, even after McGonagall had given them detention for the following afternoon. After all, they might not have known anything was going on with Professor Veigler if it hadn’t been for them sneaking off like that during the meteor shower. Sirius was stubborn not to apologize, and showed his rebellion by refusing to put his school robes on over his muggle clothes.




That afternoon at lunch, James was sitting just a few seats away from Lily Evans, who was sitting back-to the Gryffindor table, facing Ravenclaw behind them where Marlene McKinnon and Pandora Jenkins sat, discussing Xenophilius Lovegood. The display he’d put on at the Three Broomsticks that weekend was still hot on their minds, and apparently was the key bit of conversation going ‘round in Ravenclaw. Lily was reassuring Pandora that the Gryffindors hadn’t been talking as much about it. “I don’t see why you’re so worried about it anyway,” Lily was saying as James was eavesdropping, “It’s really nothing to be embarrassed about! I found it terribly romantic that he went and declared his feelings for you in such a public way. I mean, that takes guts! I still don’t know how you’ve turned him down, I wouldn’t have been able to.”

James looked at Sirius at these words.

Sirius shook his head, but James was already standing up on the bench. Sirius grabbed hold on his robes, “James -- don’t,” he implored him, but it was too late. James was on the table now.

“I HAVE A VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE,” James shouted - loud enough that his voice echoed off the magical ceiling and the walls. Dumbledore looked up from his seat at the faculty table, as did several other teachers, including McGonagall who was standing up to stop the display. Dumbledore grabbed her wrist, pausing her, a rather amused expression quirking up the corners of his lips. James walked over to where Lily sat, carefully stepping around Peter’s large stack of sandwiches and chips.

“He’s gone mad,” whispered Peter, looking at Sirius with a frightened expression.

“Didn’t really have far to go,” Sirius muttered, a grin spreading across his face. Later, he’d remind James that he’d tried to stop him, but, for now, he’d enjoy the show.

Lily looked up at James as he stopped before her, “What are you doing?”

Everyone was looking at James. Across the Great Hall, Severus Snape glared at him from the Slytherin table as Regulus whispered to Barty Crouch that this was his stupid brother’s even stupider best mate.

“LILY EVANS!” James said the name loudly, “I LOVE YOU.”

Lily looked positively pissed. “Get down from there, you idiot,” she said, her face red, feeling eyes turn to look at her.

Sirius was snickering madly. He’d pulled his shirt hem up to his face to cover his eyes, nearly in tears, unable to look at the ridiculousity of James standing up on the Gryffindor house table shouting like this. Remus had widely surprised eyes, and Peter was giggling, as was Frank, Andy Woodhouse, Meg Johnson, and all the other Gryffindor students. Several Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were cackling and Xenophilius Lovegood looked quite peeved that James had stolen his idea of publically declaring love.

“I SWEAR THAT I, JAMES CHARLUS POTTER, WILL ONE DAY MARRY YOU, LILY JANE EVANS!”

“Bloody hell,” cried Sirius into his palms, “I wish I had a camera for this.” He wiped the tears leaking from his eyes with his thumbs.

“Stop that,” she pleaded.

“WE’LL HAVE LOTS AND LOTS OF LITTLE WIZARD KIDS AND A LOVELY HOUSE AND… AND A CAT... NAMED ROGER!”

“Roger?” hooted Sirius. “Roger,” he looked at Remus, who shook his head, not anywhere near as amused as Sirius was.

Lily was red as red could be. Her face actually felt hot, as though she’d stood in the sun too long and been burned. “Get. Down. Potter.”

“NO! NOT UNTIL YOU SAY YOU’LL GO OUT WITH ME!” James said.

“You’re going to be on the bloody table for the rest of your pathetic life, then.”

Sirius chuckled and reached across Peter’s place, grabbing onto James’s robe. “Get down, you ruddy prat,” he snickered.

“No!” James said, shrugging Sirius off him. He looked at Lily imploringly, “You’ve just told Pandora Jenkins that you wouldn’t have been able to say no to Xeno if it was you who’d been given such a display. Well here you have it, Evans. Prove it you couldn’t say no.”

“Maybe it’s Xeno I couldn’t have said no to, not the display, ever think of that?” she asked.

James hesitated. He asked, “Seriously? You’ve a thing for Lovegood? Nobody’s got a thing for Lovegood! You’ve got to be joking.”

“Don’t be mean!” Lily snapped. They both turned to see how Xenophilus Lovegood had responded to the rude reply. Xenophilius might have been insulted except he didn’t seem to have heard. He was distracted waving his palms at something invisible on his shoulder, muttering something about wrackspurts. James raised an eyebrow at him and then looked back at Lily. Lily looked back up at James, “Still, it’s no excuse for being a bully.”

“Did she say she’d go out with him yet or not?” demanded a Hufflepuff girl, standing up and shouting over the heads of the Ravenclaws that separated their tables, just far enough away to not be able to hear the words that weren’t being shouted.

Lily let out a hoot of frustration and stood up, “I SAID NO!” she said, “And I’ll continue to say no because James Potter is a great PRAT!” With that, she turned and, still red as everyone’s eyes followed her, she hurried out of the door, followed by a scurry of her friends - Marlene, Pandora, Annalee, Ali, and Emmaline.

James stood on the table, watching her go. When she’d stepped out of the Great Hall, everyone in the room shifted to look back at him. Dumbledore let go of McGongall’s wrist, though a somewhat amused expression still played about his mouth, and McGonagall rushed forward from ‘round the faculty table. “MR. POTTER!” she shouted, “GET OFF OF THAT TABLE!”

James sighed and jumped down, and the majority of the students returned to their meals, laughing to one another about what had just gone on.

When McGonagall had finished giving James a second helping of detention and gone back to her seat, James lowered into his between Peter and Sirius. Sirius’s cheeks were stained with the tears he’d shed from laughing and Peter nudged his double fudge cauldron cake closer to James’s plate, “You need this more than I do,” he offered.

Remus, who was sitting across from the other three, smiled ruefully, “Oh James. What’ve you done?” he asked, half laughing, half feeling sorry for his rejected mate. “You’ll be alright, won’t you? Your ego wasn’t mortally wounded?”

James shook his head.

Remus nodded, “I figured as much. Would take a lot more than that to do any real damage to an ego that size. Maybe it’ll be good for you. Shrink it down a bit so it won’t be so hard to carry about with you?”

James gave a rude gesture, which only made the others laugh.

Sirius flung his arm ‘round James, “It was a good try, though. And just think - one day, you’ll look back at this moment and you’ll laugh.”

“Yeah,” James said, determination marking his voice, “On our first anniversary, I’ll remind her of it.”

Sirius grinned, “Ah, the persistence of young love.”

James ate the whole of Peter’s double-fudge cauldron cake in one bite.




Severus was still glowering, even after Lily had called James a prat before the whole school, even after James had sat down. He felt a gnawing little ache in his heart. Lily had denied James a date, sure, but she hadn’t explained that she was seeing someone else - namely him, Severus. He wondered why she hadn’t said that she had a boyfriend already and didn’t need James Potter for that - wondered why she hadn’t told him about all the wonderful dates they’d been on all over the Summer. After all, wasn’t that what he was? Lily’s boyfriend? Why hadn’t Lily told James Potter to shove off - she was spoken for?

Severus stabbed at his food with his fork violently.

“Doing okay there, Snape?” Evan Rosier asked, a knowing, mocking look in his eyes. “Your ickle girlfriend getting proposed to by that Gryffindor bloke bothering you?”

Severus shook his head, but he didn’t dare speak, afraid that a crack in his voice might give him away.

McNair grinned with crooked teeth at Severus, “Do you fancy marrying a muggle girl? What would the Dark Lord have to say about that?”

“Not a thing because I don’t fancy marrying a muggle girl,” Severus growled. She’s a muggle-born, not a full muggle anyway, he told himself. She’s not a regular muggle-born besides that. She’s more. She’s special. She’s not like the other, more useless ones. She was born to the wrong family, like I am. The blood in her veins is pure magic, really, deep down...

“She doesn’t fancy him back anyway, like she said,” Regulus declared knowingly. “She hates him. Thinks he’s horrible.” He reached for the pepper and ground it over his food for a moment before putting it back down.

“How would you know about it?” snapped Rosier.

“Cos his idiot brother’s friends with her, isn’t he?” Barty said defensively.

Regulus started eating. Severus was staring at Regulus with a questioning look on his face. Regulus’s eyes sparkled maliciously.

But at least she mentioned James at all in her letters, Regulus thought. Mentions him quite a lot, actually. But I don’t recall seeing your name at all…

It was clear by the look on Severus’s face that he’d heard every word, just as Regulus had intended. He smiled and took a large bite of his salad.