Chapter One

Surprises and Some Cupcakes

Scorpion's Point of View

She practically flew through the Labyrinth, winding her way expertly through the numerous corridors.

"It's four o'clock and it's a beautiful day! I know everything'll be okay! The birds are singing and the sun is bright! Everything's gonna be all right! I am glad to see the big, bright sun! Today's gonna be a lot of fun! Do do do do do do do. Da da da da da da da da. It's four o'clock and it's a beautiful day!" She was singing to herself as she ran. She swung a door open and jumped out into the pleasant light and smells of the Hogwarts kitchen on a saturday morning. The house elves were no longer scared by a random piece of the wall swinging forward. They knew, by now, that it would always be Scorpion.

"What will you be making today, miss Scorpion?" One of the little elves squeaked.

"Pancakes, cupcakes, and milkshakes." She replied brightly. The elves all scurried around, helping her find the ingredients. They had long since given up on trying to cook them for her, she made sure they knew that she really enjoyed cooking. She got to work, mixing flour, baking powder, milk, eggs, salt, sugar, butter, and blueberries in a large bowl. The elves helped too. She always thought it was so cute, the way they held bags of flour over their heads or had to mix a bowl of dough like they were stirring a cauldron. When she had everything backing, frying, or ready to be poured into glasses she talked to the elves, stopping every once and awhile to flip a pancake over.

The elves brought her ingredients for home made frosting, whipped cream, fresh fruit, and treacle while she took the cupcakes out of the oven.

"Cheers!" She thanked them brightly. She stacked three pancakes on each plate and began decorating them with fruits and whipped cream, then drizzled some treacle over the whole thing, putting extra on James's, because she knew he loved treacle. She made enough cupcakes to give each of her friends one of the three different kind she made. Red velvet with buttermilk frosting and a chocolate rose on top, pumpkin spice with chocolate cream cheese frosting and two half-wafer straws stuck into the frosting so they looked like bunny ears but on the left side, and chocolate with caramel buttermilk frosting and a salted carmel on top. She decided on making a different kind of milkshake for everyone. Lily got french vanilla strawberry swirl with rainbow sprinkles on the whipped cream, Remus got chocolate with cold fudge, caramel sauce, and Honeydukes chocolate bar shavings on top- Remus really liked chocolate-, Sirius got strawberry with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate-covered marshmallows, and a cherry- which happened to be Scorpion's favorite combination too-, Peter got salted carmel and chocolate with nothing on top but whipped cream and a cookie straw, James got chocolate and peanut butter with treacle and chocolate sauce drizzled over it, and Severus- who liked things much more simple- got plain vanilla with a cherry.

Scorpion was extremely proud of her creations, but she was also kind of bored now that they were done. What else did she have to do until they were all awake and she could give the treats to them? She still had a lot of stuff left over. She accidentally made too many cupcakes, and she had many candies she hadn't used, among which were lemon drops and crystalized pineapple. Inspiration struck. Scorpion prided herself on knowing things, especially when it came to people's sweet preferences. She happened to know that Headmaster Dumbledore favored lemon drops over all other sweets and that Potions Master Slughorn enjoyed crystalized pineapple above others. She took out four more plates and arranged three cupcakes on each of them, then she started to mix together more cupcake batter, just regular old vanilla. She placed a heating charm on the plates so the cupcakes and pancakes would stay warm and placed a cooling charm over the milkshakes so they wouldn't melt. She chatted with the elves about her ideas for stories and about these silly little songs she would make up until the cakes were done baking. She gave one of them lemon jelly filling and plain buttermilk frosting topped with lemon drops for professor Dumbledore. She gave another cherry pie filling in the center and chocolate frosting, then dropped a cherry on top for Professor Flitwick. Another was strawberry cream filling with cream cheese frosting and a mini strawberry macaroon on top for professor . The last one she filled with plain vanilla cream and topped with plain buttermilk frosting. She stuck small pieces of crystalized pineapple into the frosting in the pattern of a rose blossom at the top to make up for how plain it was, then sprinkled a bit of lemon zest over it for good measure. She whipped up four strawberry milkshakes and added one to each of the platters.

Now all she had to do was the delivery run. It was eight o'clock so all of her friends were awake, and the teachers were, surely. She delivered to the professors first, using the Labyrinth's secret entrances into their offices to place the plates on their desks without them even knowing she was there. She went back to the kitchen and picked up the rest of the plates. Balancing them on her arms, which were outstretched like wings and on her head she ran through the Labyrinth, sneaking into the Great Hall stealthily.

Sirius's Point of View

He was watching the doors of the Great Hall, waiting for Scorpion to come through. Today was the day he was going to do it. He was going to ask her to be his girlfriend today. He was going to do it. He saw a flash of yellow, white, and black in the corner of his eye and looked over his shoulder. Scorpion was walking between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff table, balancing cupcakes, pancakes, and milkshakes on her arms and head. Severus prodded Peter and pointed at her. Peter smiled and laughed. Scorpion had found out that there was absolutely no rule that you had to sit with your house at meal times, it was just assumed to be a rule, and most people didn't have friends from other houses anyway. Scorpion did a fancy sort of spinning movement. The plates went soaring gracefully through the air landing on the table perfectly each obviously delivered to a specific person. How had she done that? Peter clapped and Sirius found himself subconsciously following his lead. Soon the entire Gryffindor table and the Hufflepuffs were applauding Scorpion. She curtseyed, dropped down right beside Sirius with a milkshake in both of her hands, and began sipping it with a grin.

"Cheers, Scorpion!" James called, tucking into his pancakes. The rest of them gave their thanks and started eating. Maybe now wasn't the time to ask her after all. He bit into one of the cupcakes just as Peter asked;

"So what's the occasion?" Everyone looked at him.

"I dunno." Scorpion said. She looked over at Severus.

"We're meeting Remus's girlfriend today." Severus shrugged. Now everyone was looking at him. "I figured you knew about it. He started dating her the week after the whole Cougar Cavern thing."

"What?" Sirius blurted. Remus got his first girlfriend before him? No way he was going to let that broomstick fly.

"Why would you tell Severus and not us?" James demanded.

"James, you git. Severus is psychic. Remus didn't tell him anything." Lily said, shaking her head.

"Oh right." James said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. Professor Dumbledore came walking into the great hall with a milkshake. Sirius looked over to Scorpion who was beaming.

"I know your girlfriend, Remus." She said, chewing on her straw, looking up at the blues slightly cloudy ceiling. "She and I met each other at the academy, we've been pen pals since I left. I graduated six years early you know. Every letter she mentions you at least twice, so image her surprise when I told her I got to school with you now. I think she's almost jealous." Sirius snorted, but that was mainly so he didn't have to say anything. What she just said made him realize that he'd have to ask Scorpion out soon. She was practically perfect. He was sure the only reason she didn't have a boyfriend already was because people probably viewed her as out of their league and were afraid to try for her.

"Soooo?" Lily prompted Remus.

"So what, Lily?" Remus asked.

"What's she like?" Asked James.

"What's her name?" Asked Peter.

"Is she cute?" Sirius joined in.

"She's smart, strong, and funny, her name is Kumi Lee, and I think she's above cute." Remus replied.

"Aw." They all said, besides Severus. He just face-palmed and said;

"I need new friends."

"Good luck with that, Severus." James smirked. There was a loud cracking sound, and James's head disappeared behind the table. "Ow."

"Well would you look at that." Severus drawled in sarcasm. "The bench broke. How odd." Just about everyone who saw that started laughing. After a second, James joined in, so Sirius did too.

A gust of wind pushed the clouds away from the ceiling so that nothing was visible but the clear blue sky, until a torrent of cherry blossoms obscured it. Wait, what? Cherry blossoms? Cherry trees didn't grow anywhere near Hogwarts. The flowers started to swirl into a funnel shape, picking up speed until it looked like a pink, delicate tornado, which touched down on the seat next to Remus, who practically threw himself backwards in shock. Sirius had to grip the bench to stop himself from doing the same thing. James had shot to his feet. A lot of younger students were screaming. Only Peter and Scorpion were acting as though this were a normal occurrence.

"Kumi's here." Scorpion announced brightly, plucking a blossom from the air and sticking it in her elegantly done side braid. The flower tornado slowly started to form into the shape of a girl. Seconds later, the figure, fully formed, shook the blossoms off of her self and they melted away into nothing.

The girl was tall and slim with brown skin and shiny, golden, curly hair that fell halfway to her hips. Her eyes were only a few shades darker than her skin, and her delighted grin showed perfect, pearly white teeth. She was wearing a hogwarts uniform, but there was no crest on her vest yet, and her tie was black. She also had on strap spike heels of black and had a tattoo on her right foot, but it was hard to make out through the shoes. Remus was right. She was above cute, but still, she had nothing on Scorpion in Sirius's opinion.

"Hi, Kumi." Remus said, straightening his robes and smiling at her.

"Hello, Remus." She was from somewhere in Asia, Sirius could tell by her voice. She jumped down gracefully, sitting right next to Remus, and giving him a quick kiss. Someone wolf-whistled and everyone laughed, including Remus and Kumi.

"Ah, you must be miss Lee." Dumbledore said brightly. "If you would so kindly join me up here, we will be sorting you into your house." Kumi stood and walked toward Dumbledore. Her posture was perfect and she walked like a model.

"How does someone as shabby and lame as Lupin get a girl that hot?" A Slytherin asked loudly. This seemed to have offended Severus in some way because, suddenly and inexplicably, the part of the bench the Slytherin was sitting on crashed to the ground just like it had done with James.

"Twice in one day, these old benches just must need replacing." The entirety of the Gryffindor table and many students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw laughed at this, but Sirius, James, Lily, Remus, Peter, and Scorpion laughed the hardest, because they actually knew why the benches were breaking.

The laughter died as Kumi sat on the stool, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knees. placed the sorting hat upon her head and, within seconds, the hat shouted;

"Gryffindor!" An all mighty roar rose up from around Sirius who was contributing to it a lot. Two out of Three ninjas, that was a huge score. Of course, the other students didn't know what was so great about it. They were probably all just thinking:

"Woah, that girl can turn into a flower tornado, she's super cool." Kumi walked straight back to the table and sat back down next to Remus.