Disclaimer: Anything recognizable belongs J.K. Rowling.
A/N: This is my first attempt at a full length fan fiction so constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Running water has always helped her focus; the hotter the better. Others found it rather strange that her favourite place to think was in the shower. Most people usually used the library, their beds, or maybe outside underneath their favourite tree. But Lily Evans preferred the privacy of the shower with near-scathing water softly beating her back. She often lost track of time hence why she was always last in line for the bathroom in the mornings. This one was no exception.
Nearly breaching her twenty minute time limit, she turned off the water. Lily stepped out reluctantly and gooseflesh slid down her skin. Shivering, she quickly wrapped herself in her fuzzy green towel and shut the mirror cabinet which one of the other girls must have forgotten to close. She swiped the condensation from the mirror to look at herself. Her reflection showed a plain but pretty heart shaped face with stunning almond shaped emerald eyes and a pointed little nose. Her mouth was small but her lips were full. Soft freckles sprinkled across her cheeks, a feature she's always secretly disliked. The two spots of colour high on her cheeks contrasted her otherwise pale porcelain skin. But her favourite part of herself was her hair. Reaching up again, she wiped the mirror once more to include her hair in her reflection and nearly dropped her towel at the sight.
She screamed. Not just the little 'Ahhh' that people fake at surprise parties but the earsplitting scream of terror made famous by horror films. The mirror quivered. Still sopping wet, the cry echoed behind her as she scrambled through the room and down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room. She made a beeline for a particular group of young men, roughly bypassing several shocked schoolmates. She was literally steaming with rage.
"POTTER!" She yelled. The young man raised his eyes from the Quidditch Weekly on his lap. He looked at her through thick framed glasses that sat on the bridge of his angled nose. His hazel eyes twinkled mischievously. James Potter was what he thought to be every girl's dream, and most girls heartily agreed. He was lean, muscled, and handsome, and he knew it. The man sat in his chair like a king on his throne. He ran a large calloused hand through his messy dark hair and grinned.
"I know you did it! I know you did it, Potter, you bloody nitwit!" Lily hissed at him, her words seething.
James slowly closed his magazine. He put on a mask of pure innocence and asked, "Whatever do you mean?"
As intended, this made Lily boil in her irritation. She stomped her way over to James so close that the drops from her moist hair dampened the pages on his lap. "What do I mean? What do I mean?" She tugged at the end of a strand of her hair. Her usual beautiful auburn locks were now a blinding array of colours. As if dipped in dreadful rainbow paint, her hair was a poppy red near her left ear and ended in a neon green at the tips with every other colour in between. She made a very unladylike growl and added, "Does this look normal to you? Does my hair look like every day?"
James took this as an invitation to ogle. His eyes roamed over her face and hair before drifting down her body. Lily followed his gaze and blushed crimson. In her haste, she had forgot to get dressed and was now clad only in a towel. A wet towel. James let out an appreciative whistle as he watched the steam roll of her skin. She flicked his forehead and he yelped.
From across the room, another girl rose from her seat and closed the book that she clearly couldn't continue with all this commotion. She was tall and slender with the figure of a model and the glamour of a Veela. She ran a slender, bronzed hand through her short ice-blond hair before saying, "Relax Lils, you can just change it back."
Sirius Black, a tall lean boy with jet black hair snickered next to James. He nudged his hazel-eyed friend, hinting at something more.
"I can't Shay." She made a note to glare at the raven haired boy. "Don't you think I might have already thought of that? They didn't use magic, at least not through a spell. Otherwise my shampoo would have washed it out. I learned from the last time." She growled at the recollection. "I'm assuming that's why Black is rolling on the floor laughing his ass off."
"We—hehe—did—hehe—no such thing," Sirius said in between his fit of laughter. Shay rolled her eyes at his immaturity.
"Come on, I'll fix it for you." Shay shot a look at James who shrugged with a playful smile, and motioned for Lily to follow her up the staircase. She was at the first step when she turned around to see Lily glaring daggers at her arch nemesis.
"You'd better learn to sleep with your eyes open, Potter," she hissed with venom in her voice, "because I swear I'm going to make you regret this."
"Are you serious? I have to stay like this?" The two girls were walking through the halls towards the Great Hall, one of whom was shielding her rainbow hair from the pointing, giggling students. She leered at a certain third year who was laughing particularly loudly. To Shay, she said, "I can't. I won't. I'll just skip breakfast. It's social suicide if I walk in there."
Shay glared at the third year, brusquely making them shut up and look away. She turned her attention back to Lily. "You've been through worse. The Marauders have turned you green and gave you boils and changed your clothes without you knowing and—"
"Thank you Shay. I'm totally aware of what I've been put through before and I don't think I need a reminder. Besides, that doesn't make my present predicament any better." Lily shielded her hair from the rest of the students as they reached the doors.
"I promise that right after our classes, the potion should be done. You'll just use it like shampoo and it'll wash away. At least I think so." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "This is the first time it has ever been used on anyone…"
"Shay!" Her face was shocked and serious.
"I'm kidding." Shay smiled at her, clearly amused at her friend's reaction. "Actually I'm not." Lily glared at her. "It's okay, I just threw a bunch of things together but I'm quite positive it'll work."
Shay gave Lily a sheepish smile before pushing her into the Great Hall. A wave of noise smothered the pair, the voices of all the students in the morning right before their first classes and rushing last-minute to finish their work. Either that or they were stuffing their faces with the stacks of food that piled atop the four long, mahogany tables, fueling themselves for the long day ahead of them. However, the moment the pair of girls stepped foot into the hall, everyone fell silent for a moment, their heads turning to see the miserable attempt at art that was Lily's hair. The sound of a quill dropping could probably be heard. The silence was shattered by a robust laughter and was echoed by the rest of student population.
Lily gave out a whimper and made a futile attempt at shielding her hair from the eyes of the snickering students. Shay rolled her eyes and guided the sullen girl towards one of the few people who weren't laughing. The girl waved at the pair, beckoning them to sit next to her. Shay returned it and led Lily to her spot at the table. She glared at everyone who was the slightest bit amused, automatically causing them to shrink away in fear or shame; either one worked in this case.
"Lily! Shay! Why is everyone laugh―oh…er… wow…your hair." Obviously shocked, she looked at Shay with her curious blue eyes for an answer. Shay simply looked towards the three boys who were grinning from ear to ear on the other side of the table. "Marauders again, huh?"
"Yeah, who else would be responsible, Julia? ARGH! I just wish I would go over there and smack that smirk of Potter's face." Lily was seething.
"What about the mutt?" Shay added, pointing at the raven haired boy who sat next to James. "He's not any better."
Without turning her attention away from her attempt to murder James with the intensity of her glare, she responded, "I don't care about Black, I know that it wasn't his idea. This has Potter written all over it."
The girl named Julia pulled the angry pair down to sit next to her. Obviously not in the mood for arguing against them on the subject of the Marauders, she decided to divert their attention. Julia held her hand out, palm facing out so she had a clear view of her nails. She bit her lip and her face moulded into a pensive expression. "Lily, give me an idea of how I should design my nails."
The random turn of conversation brought Lily out of her rant. "Um…blossoms." Julia scrunched her face into a look of pure concentration and suddenly, a peach blossom bloomed from the edge of each of her nails and a thin white line coated each tip. She opened her eyes and smiled in satisfactory. With their previous conversation forgotten, Lily relished in a familiar feeling of amazement. She was still mesmerized every time Julia did that. You see, Julia was a metamorphmagus.
"I bet every girl wished that they could do that," Shay commented. "It would save them galleons not buying lipstick, nail polish, and other beauty products."
"Well I guess that's only one of the perks," Julia said smiling. She turned to her other friend. "So did you get a response from that job?" she asked knowing that she already did but looking for something that would cheer her friend up. Lily has been looking for a job for the last two months.
Lily lifted her head from its previous position on the table. "Yeah. It's at that new lounge at Hogsmeade. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, I just signed up for anything really. It's new so it was looking for employees. But I'm supposed to be there for some meeting the day before opening night."
Shay looked at her suspiciously. "You're not talking about The Griffon by any chance, are you?"
"Yeah, actually, you know it too? It's opening this Friday."
Shay looked away from her, her eyes shifty. "I got a job there too, as the headliner for the evenings." The other girls nodded. Shay, growing uncomfortable, changed the subject. "Okay, I don't know about you but I'm starving."
The others nodded in agreement and began to shove food onto their plates. Lily accidentally knocked some syrup onto her neighbour's plate.
"Watch it, rainbow head." The boy snickered at his own joke, his young friends joining in on the laughter. Lily looked at him angrily yet refused to retort. Shay on the other hand was not so well mannered. She grabbed the boy's hair and dunked his face into the porridge in front of him. The hot cereal dripped off the boy's face as he rose to glare at the light haired girl. She raised an eyebrow at him, daring him to do something. Afraid, he and his friends scampered off.
Turning to the other girls who were shaking their heads in disappointment, she said, "What? He asked for it. The privilege of insulting Lily Evans lies with just me, Julia Rhodes, and apparently a certain James Potter." Shay giggled as she ducked the flying biscuit sent her way.
After their eventful day the girls made their way back to their dorms. All of them, especially Lily, were tired of the constant jabs and jokes that were made about her hair. People would constantly call Lily 'rainbow head', 'clown wannabe', and other things such as―
"Oh look! The maniacal mud blood has finally showed her true colours," a voice sneered from behind them. Lily looked at them and let out an exasperated sigh. There were only a few people whom she loathed more than James Potter and they were inconveniently walking towards the girls. Shay scowled.
Snape, Malfoy, Avery, and Malciber were strutting towards them. Malfoy stuck his pointed chin high in the air, attempting to look down on the girls. "Mudbloods, half-bloods, and blood traitors… my father always thought that Dumbledore was insane for letting filth such as yourselves into this school. You're not even worthy of wiping the grim off my shoes much less breath the same air as us well bred individuals." He smirked at them.
Shay tensed and her amber eyes narrowed into slits. "You are a nasty little bugger, you know that? If anyone doesn't deserve to be here, it's you and your spineless idiots. I bet even a muggle born midget could kick your sorry ass."
Lily grabbed Shay's flexed arm and turned her to face her. "You're taking the bait. He's just goading you. Just ignore him, Shay. He's not worth it." She lowered her voice. "And it's not nice to call the first years midgets."
"So the mudblood is too afraid to fight us," taunting her, Malfoy turned to his friends. "She and her filthy little friends know that they'll lose in a duel against their superiors," he elongated his last word into a slow provoking drawl. He crossed his arms over his chest and stood smirking at the girls.
With each word, Lily's resolve weakened until she whipped out her wand. She fisted the front of Malfoy's shirt, pointed the tip at his neck and hissed, "Not so tough now, are you?" His facial expression changed from arrogance to slight panic. The other Slytherins took out their wands, as did the girls. They faced each other, wand arms outstretched and ready.
Lily looked around. If everyone used their wands, they could all cause a lot of damage, she thought. Worse of all, as Head Girl, the blame would rest on her shoulders as she chose to resolve the matter through violence. Instead, she said, "Let's see how well you can do without your wands." She let go of his shirt and shoved him back forcefully. "We'll do this the old fashioned way." Malfoy scrunched up his face in confusion but then grinned confidently.
He tutted and rolled up his sleeve. "So unsophisticated. But I suppose I can't expect any more from a lowly mudblood," he sneered. "No matter. We'll just prove how we're superior in more ways than one."
He looked at his fellow Slytherins and gave them a silent signal. The boys lowered their wands and tucked them in their pockets. Julia and Shay looked at Lily. She grinned.
"Okay then." She lowered her wand. She stepped back from Malfoy and next to her friends who pocketed their wands just as she did. "Bring it on."
The boys grinned. The biggest one, Malciber, lunged at Julia. Malfoy smirked anticipating the welcomed sound of fist hitting flesh, clearly void of any reservations about not hitting girls. However, he was sorely disappointed. His ears were met with a scream but it was not uttered by any of the girls. Malciber's fist was caught in a fur covered hand, a paw rather. Fearfully, he lifted his head to be faced with a set of open jaws. And they roared. Grabbing his fist, it threw him effortlessly to the floor as if he weighed no more than a quill.
Malciber gave another scream and scrambled away from the beast. Snape took a step back and pulled out his wand.
The girls laughed as the beast transformed; its fur bristled as it sank back into creamy smooth skin and its claws disappeared. Its jaws shortened and eventually, Julia was left in its place with a proud grin plastered across her face. She patronized him with a wink, clawed the air and gave a little snarl.
The boys took out their wands. Malfoy growled at the girls and let out a spell. "Crucio!"
His spell streaked towards the Gryffindors. Lily's expression grew into one of concentration and waved her hands towards the surrounding set of armours that lined the walls of the hall. To a stranger who didn't know who Lily was, it would have looked to them as if she were trying to usher the armours to move in front of her by sheer power of will. However, to the people who did know her would recognize that that was exactly what she was doing.
In a fraction of a second, the closest full-plated medieval armour glided through the air and took the full force of the curse. Malfoy's eyes were as large as saucers. Before he could recover, four more of them raced towards the group of stunned Slytherins. Their arms were outstretched and grabbed the boys, encaging them against their cool metal chests.
There was one exception, however. Before one particular armour was able to reach Severus Snape, he whipped out his wand and yelled, "REDUCTO!"
The armour stopped short of reaching the boy and shattered into pieces from the inside out. He looked at the destroyed clumps of metal, his chest heaving. Then he turned to face the girls, furious. The pointed his wand at Shay. "Sectumsempra!"
Again, Lily summoned the armours to shield her from the spell. The dark magic split the unfortunate armour in half from the shoulder to the hip and both halves dropped like a rock. Momentarily relieved that her friend wasn't hit, Lily let her arms drop to her sides. Little did she know, the sly slippery Slytherin followed up behind his spell. As the armour dropped, it revealed Snape in the midst of reciting a spell right behind it.
"Stupi-" He was interrupted as his wand flew out of his hand and landed in Julia's grip. He mentally scolded himself for overlooking their ability to use non-verbal spells. He backed away and tried to make an escape.
He didn't make it very far. In his sudden rush for escape, he tripped. Prepared to hit the ground he was surprised when the front of his shirt was holding him up, preventing him from hitting the floor. Hovering inches above his own face was Shay, her fist clenched around his collar.
"Let go of me, you leech!" he hissed at her face. Her eyes narrowed but she grinned. He watched in horror as her golden eyes suddenly turned pitch black, the whites of her eyes no longer visible. She gave a frightening smile that revealed two pairs of razor-sharp canine teeth: fangs. He struggled in her hold, trying to pry himself from her hands. His legs kicked furiously and his grimy hands perspired against Shays iron grip.
He trembled in fear, his body tense and a bead of sweat made its way from his brow to his chin.
"G-get away from m-me, you filthy bl-blood sucker or else…" he stuttered, his voice broken. She grinned at his frail attempt at a threat and lowered her lips towards his throat. He was shivering, his hands clawed at hers in an attempt to get her to release him. He could feel her hot breath on his neck when a voice interrupted.
"Shay, that's enough," Julia said. "Look at him. He's about to wet himself."
Shay's grip went slack. The Slytherin dropped to the floor with a thud and he scrambled to get back up. He ran past the suits of armour that were holding his friends captive.
"Why do you have to ruin my fun?" Shay turned to look at her friends, her eyes amber once more and teased, "I was just getting started."
"Oh, don't whine Shady. You should be above toying with your fellow students," Lily scolded her but the slight upturn of her lips gave away her amusement. Looking back at the rest of the Slytherins, she snapped her fingers and the armours' grip went loose. The boys dropped to the floor. Avery and Malciber fled, not wanting to find out what else the girls were capable of. Malfoy stayed in an attempt at saving his bruised pride. He raised his wand, his arm shaking. Shay looked at him. Her eyes began to shroud in black once more and she gave him that horrifying grin. He trembled under her gaze and stumbled backwards.
"Mudbloods and blood traitors, you filthy little vermin," he spat, determined to have the last word before quickly stalking away.
"Well that was fun…" Julia smiled. She combed her fingers through her straight black hair. She turned to Shay. "You're occasionally quite terrifying, do you know that?"
"Yup and proud of it!" Shay offered a huge smile and walked closer back to her friends.
Lily shivered. "I'm just glad that we're not on the receiving side of that glare."
"I'll take that as a term of endearment since you two are freaks too. With wandless magic, shape shifting, and my occasionally horrifying tendencies, we are the greatest, albeit strangest, witches to grace the halls of Hogwarts."
Blushing, Lily smiled at her friends. They turned to go back to the Gryffindor tower, Lily relieved to finally get her hair back to its original colour. She was about to mention the situation concerning her hair when the girls suddenly heard a hollow crash followed by a thud behind them.
The girls turned around. They saw the wreckage that was left over from their demonstration of power with the Slytherins. Suits of armour were scattered across the hall. Shards of metal littered the floor and there was the one that was split in half. They walked towards the source of the noise. Behind one of the six foot tall armours was a young, short, brunette girl. She lay on the floor unconscious with a growing bruise on her forehead. Her books and bag lay scattered around her. Just by looking at her, it was obvious she ran into the metal suit without watching where she was going.
Shay looked at Lily with a humorous grin and said, "I think you just knocked out a midget."
A/N: Thank you for reading. Please leave a review! I understand that some details do not follow those provided by J.K. Rowling's novels. In this story, metamorphmagus is equivalent to shapeshifter, exactly like Mystique's power in X-Men. The idea behind Shay's vampire is taken from several sources and folktales.