A/n: Cheering Charms are actually for 3rd years, not 6th, but I wanted it to be after they became animagi so I could have that funny bit about Peter. Creative License. Give me a break.
ALSO: I updated with a few minor (hopefully improving) tweaks here, so no need to re-read unless you want to.
Disclaimer: NO, for the last time, I DON'T own this! It belongs to the amazing and fabulous J.K.Rowling. I probably don't even own the plot, because I'm sure other people have done it before.
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"Good afternoon class!" Professor Flitwick shouted from his perch of thick books to his 6th year charms class.
"Good afternoon Professor Flitwick!" mumbled the chorus of vastly different voices from the desks in the classroom.
Not everyone greeted the Charms professor. As a matter of fact, five people's voices were absent from the afternoon greeting. The professor didn't notice this, of course; he was too busy writing the directions for Cheering Charms on the chalkboard at the front of the class.
Now, you would think that all five of these voices that were mysteriously missing would be coming from the very back row, and likely in a dark corner unnoticed by all except for the spiders whose webs lie there, in wait for them to come back from their scuttle around the castle.
In thinking this, you would not be entirely correct. Four of the students were situated in such a corner. What about the fifth, you ask? The student who the fifth voice belongs to? I did say there were five, didn't I?
Yes, I did.
The fifth person happens to be a girl, a straight-O student, and have startling hair found irresistibly hypnotizing by male students first though fifth year. This girl was sitting in the front row, and being pelted with scraps of parchment, each one a note addressed to the same person, Lily Evans, and each was signed in rather untidy scrawl from one James Potter.
Who is James Potter, you ask?
Here we draw our attention back to that corner, with the four students in it.
One of these four students was rather short and pudgy. He had rather light brown hair and was very absorbed in doodling on his paper. He was drawing a rat, you see, with a medal. This rat was standing tall and proud and was looking down on a smooth brown stag and a black shaggy dog, which were looking up at him with admiration. There was a dark, shadowy figure in the background, which also seemed to be admiring the rat. His doodle was a very talented one, although somewhat peculiar.
Another of the students was flipping through his charms book, occasionally glancing up at the professor, looking rather bored a tad bit sickly, his mousy brown hair tumbling into his gray-blue eyes.
A third student was giggling, yes giggling, into his hand, eyes darting between the student beside him and the annoyed red-head in the front row.
The fourth student is who we call James Potter. He had jet black hair and warm chocolaty brown eyes, and was writing notes, all of which had either a cheesy pick-up line (most of which involving the word "charm") a request for a date, or both. He would cast a spell on them to fling themselves across the room and directly at the fiery head of the girl in the front row, much to her annoyance.
No one else seemed to notice this, and if they did they kept it to themselves. After all, they may have thought, today is the perfect day for cheering charms.
"Cheering Charms, class, are not highly complicated. It's a rather simple incantation, and a rather simple wand movement. Do it with me," Professor Flitwick said, demonstrating the correct wand motions. Soon the whole class was doing it with him, even the boys in the corner. Cheering charms, after all, were rather useful things to know.
"Good! Now; Everyone Partner up…Mr. Pettigrew, and Mr. Potter…Miss Thornton, and Mr. Lupin…. Miss Johnson and Mr. Longbottom… and Miss Evans, and Mr. Black." After assigning partners, Professor Flitwick sat back down on the booster seat made out of a pile of books on his stool at the front of the class.
The giggling student, fondly known as Sirius Black, sauntered across the classroom towards Lily, still giggling into his hand.
"Hello…Lily-flower…so nice…to see to you…" he said though gasps of breath.
"Wish I could say the same. Come on, cheering charms. I'll go first, since I doubt you are able to read the board," Lily said briskly, whipping her wand out in a very businesslike manner.
The boy's giggles came to an abrupt halt.
"Why so cold, Evans?"
"Cold? Me? Never. You must be imagining things."
"I doubt it. Oh well, that's nothing a good cheering charm can't fix!" Black said, grinning broadly, grabbing his wand out of his back pocket and casting the spell before Lily could protest.
There was a look of surprise on Lily's face as the spell hit her square in the chest.
Now, not many would think it of the boy who sits in the back row and causes mischief every chance he gets, even more than his fellow marauders, but Sirius Black is very good at powerfully strong spell work. Though we don't know whether this was intentional or not, Sirius Black cast the most powerful Cheering Charm in Hogwarts history.
Now, I must do some explaining before we carry on. Extremely powerful spells, while having the same general effect as normal spells, last much longer and are much stronger.
Thus, this is the best mood Lily Evans has ever been in, even more than when she got her Hogwarts letter. In fact, this mood was even better than the mood she was in the first time she ate a blueberry muffin. Lily Evens loves blueberry muffins. She would eat them every day if she could, but the house elves only served them for breakfast once a month.
Stupid house elves.
Anyway, back to the point. Lily Evans was happier than she'd ever been in her life. She was also nicer than she'd ever been in her life. In fact, just after the spell had been cast, the redhead grabbed Sirius by the shoulders, kissed him firmly on the cheek, and hugged him before skipping around madly, hugging every single person in the class.
Except James Potter.
Now, James wondered about this, as I'm sure you would have too. The girl of his dreams madly skipped around the classroom, displaying her rather nice legs in the process, and hugged everybody except him! She even hugged Flitwick, for heaven's sake! And he smells like socks!
James stalked out of the class angrily. His dramatic exit was somewhat less dignified than he would've liked, mostly because he realized he left his books inside just as the bell rang, and had to push through the exiting crowd to get back inside.
So, James was late for lunch, and he just knew that Sirius would eat all the pie. Just great. Another negative on his list: Peter is terrible at cheering charms, so James was in a terrible mood. Peter's just terrible at charms, actually.
Lily was still in the room, humming merrily as she cleaned off the blackboard. James glared at her. Yes, she was the love of his life, but she had completely ignored him in her mad hugging rampage.
"Don't think I've forgotten about you." Lily said from the front of the class.
Before James could register what was happening, Lily's lips were on top of his, and out of pure shock he pushed her away.
Lily's lips playfully pouted. In that moment, even though James knew Lily (and by extension himself) would likely regret this later, he decided to take a risk.
"Go to Hogsmeade with me?" he mumbled, without the usual cockiness and with perhaps a touch of guilt.
"Mmm. 'Course," Lily mumbled back. She gave an odd little squeal and then ran off to the Great Hall where she watched James animatedly relaying the news to Sirius, who didn't seem to believe him.
Hours later in the Gryffindor common room, the spell wore off, and Lily screamed. She couldn't believe she had agreed to go with him, the prat, he had taken advantage of her. Cheering charms seemed to have the ability to make her loose her sense like firewhisky. But she was too polite to back out now. Though she never admitted it, she actually turned out to enjoy her date with James. But that's another story, for another time.
And though Lily didn't know it at the time, while she screamed her head off, James Potter was laying on his bed in the boys' dormitory on the floor above, staring at the ceiling, muttering to himself, "I love cheering charms."
"I think he's going bonkers, mate, honestly, talking to himself…" said a very worried Remus Lupin.
"He is bonkers, Remmy old pal. He's in love."
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A/N:
Too long? Too short? Too stupid? Let me know! Review if you have any corrective criticism, or if you love me, it would be much appreciated!
THANK YOU'S:
Thank you so much Kat Carter for the criticism—I tried to fix it, but it probably still isn't all that great.
Also, thanks to my other FABULOUS reviewers, who make me smile
Also, I'm SO sorry for the cheese filled last few paragraphs. Actually, please accept my sincerest apologies for the insane cheesiness of the whole story. I was hoping for more of a fluffy-marshmallow-feel than cheese. And what do I get? A marshmallow covered in cheese. Grross. Let me know if you have any ideas to make it better!!!