The Race, 7th Year
Getting closer to Easter, Lily was in the library before dinner, finishing up an arithmancy paper, when Sirius suddenly appeared and declared, "I challenge you to a race!"
"Yes. Absolutely yes, anything to stall this paper," she said instantly, already closing her inkwell. "Where?"
"The lake?" he suggested, putting her books in her bag as well, completely getting ready to race lily evans to the death.
"Too boring," she said immediately, worrying at the possibility that maybe Sirius had matured into someone mediocre.
"With teams around the whole lake? Baton style?"
"I need something with more spice black," she said, though in all honesty she thought it sounded a lot better.
"The roof of the greenhouses?"
"The roof of the school," Lily countered, grinning.
"Done," said Sirius. "10 pm sharp tonight. Invite people to watch Evans,” They shook on it, and Sirius went to go get Peter to ref while Lily quickly walked back to Gryffindor Tower to change into something runnable, as there was no way she was running in the sea foam green mini skirt and button down white she had on underneath her robes.
Dinner was chaos, with bets being placed all around, while still trying to hide the race from teachers. Sirius, as it seemed, had spread the word to more than just a few people. When they met at the top of the Courtyard Walls, more than half of the year was there, either to cheer them on or to watch the two of them break their necks.
Either way, the adrenaline pumping through Lily's body was unmatched to any of her other excursions with the marauders.
James and Remus stood in the courtyard with the other spectators, completely unbothered that their partners were about to race and jump off the roof of a castle.
The race was not simple: run down the The Courtyard Walls steps, to the great hall, each grab a staircase and run down, then travel to the kitchens and grab a cup of tea, drink it, then run back up to the The Courtyard Walls, jump off the roof and trust James and Remus to catch them and fly them over to Peter, who by that time would be sitting in the clock tower where Jeffery the Stag Portrait was hung. Lily and Sirius would float over to the tower and Touch Jeffery, the first one to do so, would win the race. The plan was dependent on their friends, as one had to perform either Levicorpus, or Wingardium Leviosa to catch Lily or Sirius jumping off the tower to leap to the clock tower and touch Jeffery.
Lily was confident in her skills, and was sure she could beat sirius. Sirius, who had been roped into James's quidditch training, was equally expecting to win, and smirked at Lily as Peter said the starting words.
"No sabotage guys. we don't want you to die. I don't know why, but we do," Sirius turned to glare at him.
“Ready,” Lily turned to Sirius and cocked her head cheekily in the wandlight.
“Set,” Sirius flipped her off.
“Go!”
Lily and Sirius were off and galloping down the stairs, shoving people out of the way and generally causing mayhem. Most of the spectators got up and rushed up the stairs as well, wanting a good look of how the race was going. Back upstairs, Peter calmly walked off of the roof while looking at the map, making sure they were going on the agreed upon course.
Remus caught him and floated him over to the clock tower where he sat down on one of the ledges above the giant clock.
Already at the great hall, Lily sped off to the kitchens, sure she was miles ahead of Sirius, while in reality, he could be witnessed speeding along directly behind her. Though both were running out of steam, they had a few minutes to rest a bit while Lily politely asked for some tea, and Sirius came in, pleading for them to not give it to her.
The house elves thought this was all great fun, and though they punished themselves later, brought lily tea first, reasoning that as she asked first, she was served first.
Both burning off their taste buds from the scalding liquid, they kept up again, and were off, this time nearing the more dangerous part of the race.
Strolling around the castle, Professor McGonagall overheard two girls talking in hushed tones about the great race, and how they thought it would turn out. Listening to the girls further, she found out it was on The Courtyard Walls. “Now really,” she thought. “How stupid could James and Sirius get?
But when Professor Mcgonagall finished the long climb up the stairs, she was pushed to the side by none other than the head girl of the school, Lily Evans.
Sirius was winning. Lily knew he was. She just had to make sure James was as good at the charm as he said he was. Sirius took the astronomy stairs two at a time, pushing random people out of the way as he went. Bursting into the roof, he pushed herself to run the last stretch, around the tower to the front, his legs starting to fail as Lily gained on him.
Lily was invested, she had to say. Sirius was a couple steps ahead of her, but she hoped Remus wouldn't be able to beat James at the wand work.
Peter snapped to attention when he heard the screaming from the roof opposite him. "Sonorous," he said, pointing his wand at his throat. Looking over, he saw three figures running. One, the tall body of Minerva McGonagall yelling for them to stop, the other two Lily Evans, and leading the pack was Sirius Black.
He jumped over the edge, hovered for a second, then shot over to him. Lily jumped fifteen seconds after, and didn't fall at all, just sped over to the clock tower, James obviously concentrating on her.
Lily was screaming at James to propel her faster, but Peter could tell it was a lost cause. Twenty seconds before Lily, Sirius in a flourish hugged Jeffery, and won the race.
"Sirius black of Gryffindor wins the Great Jeffery Race!"
Lily touched the picture, glowering.
"Lily Evans comes in close second, by only twenty seconds!
The courtyard exploded into cheers. They fell silent though, as Professor McGonagall walked to the edge of the roof. Magically magnified, her voice stretched out over the grounds.
"Mr. Black. Ms. Evans. Mr. Potter. Mr. Lupin. Mr. Pettigrew. My office. Now." she swished away gracefully, well as gracefully as one can be with a disheveled bun, on top of a very narrow roof of a castle, and the cheers erupted again.
Looking at each other, Sirius and Lily floated back, James and Remus still deep in concentration. The four of them started to walk away in a single file line, and Peter shouted, “Oi! You fuckers! I’m still here!”
“Lan- oh why do I even try anymore,” muttered Professor McGonagall.
Remus turned around, and said “Accio Peter Pettigrew.”
Peter shot through the air and slammed into Remus, making them both fall down, rolling off the roof, and falling to the courtyard below. James, Sirius and Lil, hearing them fall, grabbed them with a levitating spell, lowered them to the courtyard, and then dropped them a couple feet off of the bricks.
Later, in McGonagall's office, she was lecturing them.”I mean, Sirius, James, Remus, Peter, I expect this from you! This is normal! But Ms. Evans, you are a prefect! This is highly abnormal behavior for you. Why would you decide to race Mr. Black all around the school?”
“Oh I promise Professor, I was chasing after him trying to stop him. I’d never-”
“I won,” said Sirius.
“Shut up Sirius! It was completely James’s fault, I would've won if he hadn’t been so cautious flying me.”
“It’s called caring Evans.”
“It’s called winning Potter.”
“Also, not sure if you noticed but,” Remus started.
“You just admitted to our lovely Professor McGonagall here that you were in fact racing Sirius,” James finished. Peter snickered.
“I love you James, but please shut up.”
“You two are-” Professor McGonagall took a deep breath. “Oh U can't wait to tell Poppy. Okay. On a different note, Mr. Pettigrew! Why would you take out one of Gryffindor’s most cherished paintings? For something as miniscule as this? And Mr. Potter. If you and Ms. Evas are in fact … together, shouldn’t you care more about her safety? The same goes for you Mr. Lupin!”
The five friends were silent. She knew about Sirius and Remus? That was … concerning to say the least. What else did she know?
“And Mr. Black! I- you know I’ll have to write to Ms. Potter about this, and she’ll be so disappointed in you. I’m disappointed in you. You both could have died. Snapped your necks! I,” she sighed, coming to terms with the fact that the five young wizards and witch in front of her might die very young indeed. But they most certainly wouldn’t die while they were still in her school. “You have to be more careful. All of you.
“Two nights detention for mr. Black and Ms. Evans, One night for the rest of you. And Mr. Pettigrew,” she said as they all walked to the door. “Hang Jeffrey back up, will you?”