Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
3rd year
Haley looked over at Lily, who sat back in satisfaction, admiring her work. Looking back at her desk she frowned at the porcupine that lay curled in front of her. She nudged it a couple of times, but it just curled into a tighter ball.
"Well, nudging it is definitely going to work," Jenna said sarcastically. Haley narrowed her eyes and tilted her head, considering the porcupine for a few more minutes. Then she sighed and set down her wand.
"It's just no use! I can't do it," Haley announced.
"Gotcha, bugger!" Jenna cried. Haley looked over, seeing the orange, needle-less porcupine frozen on her friend's desk.
"Haley, you're not going to ever learn if you just sit there," Lily lectured from her other side, finally taking her eyes away from her perfect pincushion.
Haley rolled her eyes. "Like you would know, you changed it on your first try."
"I did not!" Lily protested. Haley raised an eyebrow and Lily looked down, "it was my second try."
"I might as well
face it: I'm a failure and I should just drop out of school."
"Oh,
stop with the dramatics," Lily said forcefully, "It's just
third year transfiguration, it's not like you can actually fail."
"Nice job, Miss Evans," McGonagall approached them. Lily smiled. "Ten points to both Evans and Lupin for being the only students yet to be successful! And Parker, please at least attempt to practice. I don't recall me saying you could have social hour now." And with that McGonagall went to criticize Peter Pettigrew's technique, which consisted of whipping his wand severely from side-to-side. Haley rolled her eyes at the retreating teacher's back and reluctantly picked up her wand.
"Don't even say it," she said to Lily without even looking at her, knowing she wore the 'I-told-you-so' look.
"Well," Lily stated primly, "it isn't social hour after all, now is it?"
"Please, it's not as if—"
"ARGH!" Haley and Lily looked over just in time to see Jenna dive forward, attempting to grab her porcupine as it walked right of her desk, catching it in midair, and toppling over the front of the desk, onto the floor, the porcupine clutched tightly in her hand.
"Miss Meyer, it would be nice if you tried staying in your seat, I can assure you it's not very hard. If Miss Parker can manage it, I'm sure you can."
"Yes, Professor," Jenna muttered, clamoring back to her seat with the porcupine. Haley frowned.
"Did she just say what I think she did?" Haley asked, horrified. Lily nodded. "I'm offended! Does she have something personal against me?"
"Well, Hales," Jenna said, brushing herself off. "You are a bit clumsy at times."
"That's putting it nicely," Lily muttered.
"I resent that. But I forgive you," Haley considered Jenna's porcupine, which was now orange and blue. "It's a good thing there were no needles on it." It began to scurry across her desk.
"Hmmm?" Jenna asked, grabbing the animal before it reached the edge of her desk, dangling it in the air in front of her.
Haley shook her head to herself and glanced around, waving her wand in the air in case McGonagall looked her way. She scanned over all her fellow third years, who attempted, in vain, to imitate Lily and Remus' actions. Her eyes stopped on James Potter, who, like herself, wasn't putting in any effort at all. In fact, he was staring right at Lily.
"That's certainly going to work," Lily cut through her thoughts, startling her. Haley turned back and saw Lily looking at her waving wand with a raised eyebrow. Haley set down her wand quickly.
"I think James Potter has a crush on you!" Haley whispered urgently.
"Don't be ridiculous," Lily replied, rolling her eyes.
"What do you mean?"
"Potter does not have a crush on me, he's too involved with himself to even notice another girl."
Jenna nodded in agreement, still concentrating on her porcupine. "Plus, a boy would have to be crazy to have a crush on Lily Evans."
Lily just huffed while Jenna resorted to poking the small animal with her wand. "Do you really think that nudging it's going to work?" Haley joked with a grin.
"I don't think you're going to turn your porcupine into a pincushion by staring at Evans," Sirius drawled with a smirk.
James looked up. "I was just thinking…I wonder if Remus could turn a porcupine into a cat or something. That's high level transfiguration."
Remus, from his other side, raised an eyebrow, 'that's what he was thinking?' he muttered.
"Are you sure you weren't thinking about Evans?" Sirius winked with a grin.
James looked horrified. "What? Why would I think about Evans?"
"Because you have a crush on her."
"A crush? On Evans? Not in a million years," James protested wide-eyed. "Why would I even want to have a crush on any girl anyway? Girls are no fun."
"Well, someone's mature," Remus put in.
"I think girls are lot's of fun," Sirius proclaimed, "especially the pretty ones."
"How does being pretty make them fun?" Remus asked.
"Because who wants to go out with an ugly girl?!" Sirius exclaimed, as though that were the worst imaginable thing.
Remus rolled his eyes. "Well, I have two very mature friends. One thinks there's something wrong with girls and the other thinks there's something wrong with the ugly girls".
"Talking to yourself, eh?" James grinned.
"I wasn't talking to myself."
"This is boring," Sirius suddenly said, and he raised his hand.
"Yes, Mr. Black?" McGonagall asked wearily.
"Well," Sirius began, "I was just thinking that maybe we could learn something more interesting, like say…learning how to become animagi. I mean, I wouldn't mind being an animagus."
McGonagall sighed. "Mr. Black, first of all, I have a hard time believing that you could become an animagus on your own if you can't even transform your porcupine into a pincushion. Second of all, you have to be of age to become an animagus, and it has to be approved and registered with the Ministry."
"What? You have to be seventeen? That's the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Wait, so when I'm seventeen I can go and become an animagus?"
"Not just anyone can become one, like I just said it has to be approved by the Ministry. Didn't you listen to anything I said when we learned about animagi for a month at the beginning of the term?" McGonagall asked in frustration.
"We learned about animagi? In this class?"
"Black! Stop chattering and start paying attention in class and practice turning your porcupine into a pincushion like the rest of your class mates!"
Sirius glared down at his porcupine, picked up his wand, gave it a wave and muttered the spell, and in front of him sat a pincushion that rivaled Lily's and Remus'.
He smiled sweetly at McGonagall. "There, Professor, how's that?"
