Can You Turn My Black Roses Red?, [open]

[Lily Evans]

Can I ask you a question please
Promise you won't laugh at me
Honestly I'm standing here
Afraid I'll be betrayed.
As twisted as it seems, I only fear love when it's in my dreams
So let the morning light come in and let the darkness fade away

It was almost light outside on the Hogwarts Grounds, and most people were tucked in their beds, warm and in deep sleeps, dreaming of their fantasies that many people knew wouldn't come true. The sun was just about to come up, and there was a small amount of light that shone around the large property. A young woman, around the age of sixteen or so was sitting out near the Black Lake, on a large rock that was placed before the waters. When looking from the castle, the young woman looked tiny, and fragile-and even when you were up close to her she still looked small and slightly fragile. She was very short, at five foot three, and of course she was very slim and slender. Dark red hair fell down just around her shoulder in soft curls, and striking emerald green eyes stared at the waters as the sun rised slowly and steadily. Freckles spread across her small nose evenly, and ended on each cheek, right near her cheekbones. She had a rounded face, with high cheekbones and soft, light pink lips that were just the right size for any girl. At any rate, Lily Evans seemed like anyone's dream girl. Especially James Potter. It had been almost six years that she had gone to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and she remembered each year very, very well.

Can you turn my black roses red?
Can you turn my black roses red?

At the young age of ten years old, Lily Evans recieved a letter. That letter told Lily that she was indeed a witch, and was accepted to the best school of Witchcraft and Wizardry-Hogwarts. She was nervous when she got on the train to go to the school, but any muggleborn in their right mind would be. While on the train, of course, she met none other than James Potter, the trouble maker of the century. We all know what happened then. Lily loathed James at the start, and James immediately became attracted to the girl-ten years old or not.
In her second year, Lily had gotten used to the fact that she was a witch. She became that bookworm that she still continued to be. She was bothered though, by a certian messy haired boy, but that was just a continuation of what had been happening for the past year or so.
In the following years, Lily became friends with her fellow Gryffindor's (girls of course), and became more and more comfortable with the school. She became one of the smartest girls in her house, and was fairly proud of herself for that. When she turned fifteen, ah, her fifth year, James Potter kept on getting worse and worse, asking her out to Hogsmeade every weekend that they had it. She of course, was her mean old self and denied him every single time. In Lily's opinion, this Potter boy wasn't worthy of her attention. A bit mean, I know, but that's just how this feisty little lady was.

Drowning in my loneliness
How long must I hold my breath
So much emptiness inside I could fill the deepest sea
I reach to the sky as the moon looks on
One last year has come and gonne
It's time to let your love rain down on me

But now, now in her sixth year at Hogwarts, Lily began to realize that she had merely a year left in her home-away-from-home. It bothered her greatly to think that, so she usually just pushed it out of her mind. But on this morning, a Saturday morning to be specific, Lily was thinking about it. And yes, of course it got her upset, but she finally realized that she did have to think about it. No matter how much she hated it.
Lily had been the worry wart, the smart-assed girl, the clever one for five years now, and she was just starting up another year at Hogwarts. Her sixth year. Another year of yelling at Potter for being a big-headed, loathsome little jerk. Another year of studying so hard that she passed out from being over-tired. Another year of laughing, crying, smiling with friends and expressing the feelings to them that only your true friends could understand. Yet another year that would come and pass just as quickly as a breeze on the beach in the summertime.

Can you turn my black roses red?
Cuz
I'm feelin like I'll blame it on love..

"Another year to remember when I get older." Lily spoke softly, her eyes flashing as the sun fully rose and the sun spilled across the beautiful grounds of Hogwarts. Lily let out a loud sigh and placed a small pale hand on her cheek, biting her lip softly. "It's going to fly by.."
She turned her head and looked up to the large castle that was behind her. The sun had brightly flashed against the castle, making it light up beautifully. The windows all shone, the water in the lake flashed up against the walls of the castle, giving it a shimmering effect. Lily smiled slightly and tucked a curl behind her ear before yawning slightly and leaning against the rock, a content smile on her lips.

Can you turn my black roses red?
Cuz I'm feelin like I'll blame in on love
I'm feeling like I'll blame it on love..

[Marlene McKinnon]

((Song is the rights of Jonathan Larson. I wish I owned it. As well as the person who sings it. =D))

Well, one of her ideas was working. Marlene McKinnon, the self-proclaimed aspiring authoress of the year, was having writers block. And her brilliant idea was to write a song about writers block. So far:

One song. Glory. One song
Before I go, Glory
One song to leave behind,

Find one song, one last refrain, glory
From the pretty boy front man,
Who wasted opportunity.

One song, he had the world at his feet,
Glory
In the eyes of a young girl, a young girl
Find glory, beyond the cheap colored lights

One song, before the sun sets
Glory - on another empty life
Time flies - time dies,
Glory - One blaze of glory
One blaze of glory - Glory

Find, Glory, in a song that rings true
Truth like a blazing fire, an eternal flame

It was good so far...But she could do better. She'd tried the grounds before, but now she'd try them again. Walking down the stone steps, repeating the words in her head, she stopped dead on the stairs, grabbed her notebook and a quill, and scribbled down another verse

Find, one song, a song about love
Glory, from the soul of a young man
A young man

Find, the one song
Before the virus takes hold, glory
Like it sunset
One song
To redeem this empty life

Another good one. Was this a sign of her block lifting? She certainly was in the normal habit again, stopping in random places to get her work started. This song would need a guitar, that was certain, it would also need a male voice. Maybe she could fit it into a show she'd written a long time ago, that was in need of a male song. If there was a boy out there that could sing tenor, this song would be pretty much perfect for him, its range going rather high. She smiled, but was brought down a little bit by a frown. She now had to write the ending, which always drove her out of her mind. Marlie could never get endings to anything...But just "One song...Glory...One song...Before I go..." She started singing softly, now on the green grass that was the grounds of Hogwarts. Ehh....She needed help.

Well, whaddya know. Look who it is! "Hey Lils!" Marlene called, going over to sit with her friend on a rock. "How are-- Hold that thought." She cried out suddenly, grabbing her notebook and pen again. Marlene knew just how to end the song, with a nice little repeat of another verse. Lovely.

Time flies
And then no need to endure anymore
Time dies

"Sorry, Lils, I've been having this writers block for /days/ now...I'm just glad it's lifted...Or at least...I think it's lifted...God, I hope it's lifted..."

[Remus Lupin]

Remus was in the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. Not because he had behaved badly. But simply because the teacher had wanted a word about his essay. And early, mind-- though Remus *did* tend to be up early.

The teacher looked up from the lycanthrope’s essay.

“This is very good, Mr Lupin,” he said with a thin smile. Remus nodded. “In fact…” The professor flicked through the file for his year. “You could probably go into a job with a Defence Against the Dark Arts N.E.W.T. level,” he said matter-of-fact-ly.

The werewolf nodded, gripping his hands behind his back. He would love to go into a job with a N.E.W.T. in Defence Against the Dark Arts. But there was the little fault that not too many people wanted to hire a werewolf.

The professor seemed to be thinking somewhere along the same lines as his smile faltered a little.

“Shame, shame,” he said, shaking his head. “Well, we’ll see.” He put the essay back into the file. “Good morning, Mr Lupin.”


It was the beginning of the day and a light, early-morning frost was falling over the grounds, coating the grass in another a thin layer. It was cold, and when Remus breathed out his breath spiraled in front of him. He pulled his cloak a little tighter around him and his amber eyes darted around quickly, looking for any familiar faces, though not expecting to see anyone. No one got up that early.

No one, that is, who was a Marauder.

For Remus Lupin (or Moony as his friends had dubbed him), was lucky enough to belong to the little ‘gang’. He had befriended Mr Black, who was close friends with Mr Potter, and then they met Mr Pettigrew. And thus, the Marauders were born.

Even though there were many differences between the Marauders, you probably couldn’t find a closer group of friends. They didn’t know what was so close, themselves. All they knew was that they enjoyed each other, and each others company.

He ran a hand through his light brown hair. If James or Sirius were up this early, Remus would eat his would-be hat that had mysteriously disappeared and was currently being neglected after being found in Mr Padfoot’s underwear/sock drawer.

Remus started out towards the ‘Marauder’s Tree’, eyes downcast. His hand gripped the strap to his school bag, as if, if he let go, all the contents would fly endlessly into space. He didn’t spot Lily or her friend, Jennifer who was quite well-known between the Marauders, for James-Lily-Stalking-Purposes.


He finally reached the tree, leaning heavily against it and swinging the bag in front of him. The rest of the Marauders often teased him on his bag. They assumed it was attached to him. He never took it off; it went with him everywhere.

But what else would Remus Lupin do? He was nearly attached to his books. They were like the second most important thing- aside from his friends. While Sirius and James used their Transfiguration homework as an excuse to turn Snape into a pelican, Remus used it to study. When they were hanging Snape upside down in their spare time, Remus studied. While they used Potions time to force-feed a Slytherin a love potion to make them fall in love with perhaps the ugliest girl in the year, Remus studied, looking up complex concoctions. And when they used Divination to throw tea leaves at each other in the Gryffindor Common Room, Remus- you guessed it- studied.

He looked up from his bag and across the lake, which was exceptionally clear this morning, and looked like it could break into a million pieces at anyone’s touch. One of the few full moons he did remember was of the wolf jumping recklessly into the water. Perhaps it was the freezing cold he remembered most. Remus looked back into his bag, and started digging through quills, parchment, homework and books again.

He looked up again, not knowing exactly why, but doing it anyway, and his hand stopped digging around his bag, one hand clamped on a book cover, the other finding its way into his pocket to hide from the cold. Remus blinked, frowned, and then recognized the person he had just seen sitting on a rock by the Lake to be no one other then Lily Evans. James couldn’t stop shooting his mouth off about her anymore, or about Frank, who she was dating. He let go of the book, swung the bag back over his shoulder, and started out for the rock, calling Lily’s name as he went.

[Lily Evans]

Lily jumped slightly when she heard her friend's voice, but turned around and smiled anyway, brushing some hair out of her eyes and speaking up. "Oh, hey, Marly." She said. "I'm glad it's lifted. I hate seeing you with writers block." she laughed slightly and shifted her position on the rock, turning to fully face her friend.

She remembered that Marlene and herself had become friends at first sight. Of course they were timid at first, but they grew on eachother and knew everything about eachother. They talked about everything, cried with eachother, laughed with eachother and did almost everything together.

Lily's eyes traveled behind Marlene for a moment and looked at Remus. A soft smile formed on her lips, and she waved one hand to him. "Hi, Remus!" she called back, tilting her head slightly. Her curls blew to the left as the wind blew by, and she shivered slightly. "C'mere!" she raised a hand to her hair once more and brushed the curls out of her face before letting her knees go and stretching her legs out.

[Remus Lupin]

Remus saw someone else with Lily. He frowned, pondering who would be up at this time besides him and the lovely red-head, and came to no conclusion. Of course, it looked like a girl. He wasn't on best terms with girls- he either was as polite as a stranger with them, or considered them a friend. Lily was one of the few on the friend side. He understood her, yet other girls were so confusing, with so many things going on at once. As he drew level with the two girls, he recognised her as Marlene McKinnon, a fellow Gryffindor, yet completely dotty. He smiled at them; a completely friendly smile, not as if he wanted anything out of it, like some boys would smile at a girl, which plainly said, 'want to meet after class? in an empty classroom?' Remus wasn't familiar with that smile.

"Hello, Lily," he said. "Marlene. Having a nice -er- morning?" He glanced Lily again. He didn't see a book or anything in sight, yet knew that she was just as religious a reader as her was, and Remus admired that. James didn't tease her about her books as he teased Remus. Ah, well. Remus was a close friend, someone that knew that James wouldn't mean a word against himself, and he knew that.

Remus glanced out at the lake, and than looked away and at Marlene, smiling slightly as he waited for a reply from Lily.

[Lily Evans]

Lily nodded slightly, shifting her position on the rock. "Yes, thank you Remus." she said, a small smile forming on her lips. "How about you? Did you have a good night sleep?" she raised one eyebrow in question and raised one hand to scratch the piece of skin that was under her eye.

"And-I was going to tell you later, but now that you're here I'll tell you..I have that book that you wanted-but it's in my bag. I left..my bag up in the dormitories-but I'll get it when I go back up there." she told him, lifting herself up off of the rock and brushing off her skirt and shirt. She yawned slightly and covered her mouth with her petite hand. "If you want it now I can run back up there.." she shrugged slightly.