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Play the Game
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Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from JK Rowling's world.
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AN: Getting the ball rolling again... sorry about the huge delay!
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2. Compromised Attire
At the end of shitty day one came the even shittier evening of day one. After the classes - what I'd presumed was the hard part - were over, I was forced to meet with a rather old man named Albert Dumbledore, whose licorice snaps decided to snack on my left hand during the meeting, eliciting from me a loud shriek. Anyways, that wasn't even the worst part of the night, believe it or not. Albert introduced me to... wait. No. Albus. Albus Dumbledore. Shit. I should probably remember that for next time. Okay, so Albus introduced me formally to my Transfiguration professor, Professor McGonagall. Tall, narrow lady ,with a long face and glasses, that (I think) enjoys being a cat more than being human. She gave me a small bag and told me to put my things in it, so I surrendered Anouk and Madonna, with my underwear well concealed in their folds.
"Supper begins at 8. Be in your uniform and - Miss Marsh? Look me in the eye when I'm talking to you. Yes, much better. Please show up this time - we will be sorting you into your house tonight, since you were absent yesterday evening. In the meantime, I will take these things with me and you will have them back once you've been sorted. Find your luggage and change, now, we can't have you wandering around in those clothes."
"But-"
"Miss Marsh, you will learn not to contradict your professors here at Hogwarts. No good can come of it."
"Yes, Professor."
"Go and change now, it's fifteen to. Goodbye."
"Righ-" Too late. She was a cat again. And I had no clothing. And - my wand! Yes, I'd nearly forgotten about it... But, all the same, I couldn't use it. I didn't know how. And I didn't want to, anyway.
Walking down the hallway, I spied the library. I tore into it without thinking, ran to a shelf a rather dark part of the library and, looking carefully, I found a book entitled "Illusions A-Z." I pulled it out, and examined the rotting cover. In fine gold lettering at the bottom, it said, "WARNING: THIS BOOK IS NEITHER M ISTRY APPRO D NOR SHOULD Y USE ANY OF THESE ILLUSIONS UN ESS YOUR CIRCUM ANCE IS DIRE. THE AUTHOR OF THIS COMP LATION OF SPELLS IN NO WAY END RSE THEIR USE. ALL SPELL HAVE C NS QU C S."
Some of the lettering had worn away. I flipped to C... Clothing... Clothing... Clothing... Aha! There it was, Clothing. Illusions possible: One that the wizard uses on himself to make others see him wearing what they want to see him wearing, another that a wizard can use on another wizard to make him think that his clothing is suddenly made of spiders and cockroaches and such, and a final one that a wizard can use on himself to make himself look like he's of the opposite sex. How the last one was in the clothing section, I have no idea. Maybe it just made you look like you were dressed in drag. Hmmm... I wish you could use that one on other wizards. I settled for the first - It would ensure that McGonagall saw me in my uniform, as she'd requested. Despite some minor misgivings, and seeing as I wasn't comfortable borrowing anybody's clothing after the impression I'd made that morning, I recited the words and touched the ballet flat on my left foot with the tip of my wand. "Aspicio meus induviae." I looked at my tan arms and saw no difference in my clothing, so there was no way to tell if the spell had worked.
I walked into the dining hall, my head held high. I knew how to act as if there was nothing wrong, even though I was inwardly panicking about the fact that the spell could easily have failed - or worse, backfired. As I walked towards McGonagall, who was motioning for me to join her, I could swear that I heard a whistle or two coming from the Gryffindor table... the same four boys from History Of Magic.
"What a lovely surprise! You managed to come on time. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure if it would take you longer than fifteen minutes to change, but your uniform is in pristine condition. You look marvelous. Ten points to whichever house you're sorted into."
My, was she in a good mood! Who knew a pristine uniform could work such wonders on her attitude...
"Attention, students." It was Alber- Albus, ALBUS! It was Albus Dumbledore, calling attention to McGonagall and I. "Students, please welcome Miss Katherine Marsh. She came in a little bit - ah - late, so we will be sorting her into her house today." There was snickering to be heard among the boys and whispering among the girls.
If there's one thing every teenage girl - every girl in general, for that matter - should remind herself everyday, it's that guys only have one thing on their mind. No matter how sweet a guy may seem, there's probably something perverted going on deep down inside. This, of course, I realized the hard way.
WHAT WAS I THINKING?! MAKE PEOPLE SEE ME WEARING WHATEVER THEY WANT TO SEE ME WEARING!?! For all I know, half of the student body - I shuddered. Ah, Fuck.
I sat down in a chair, in front of the whole student body, and I even saw the sorting hat raise his eyebrow folds at me as he was being put on my head. Great, even the HAT is perverted.
I heard a voice in my head. I heard that... And all I could think back was, Suck it, stupid hat.
"GRYFFINDOR!"
WHAT?! After that conversation, I'm surprised I'm even being sorted, but GRYFFINDOR? As in, for the noble, the chivalrous, the brave? And the hat answered back, before being taken off of my head, Though you do have a dirty mouth, Miss Marsh, I think even you will be surprised by what's going on in your head.
And that's supposed to mean... what exactly?
"Go over and sit by James Potter. The one with the dark brown hair, sitting at the end of the table," she motioned to the back of the room, "He will show you around after supper. Come to my office before, though, to pick up your clothes and drop them off in your room."
I walked towards where she had been pointing and was lead straight to the two boys who'd been whistling earlier. And one of them turned out to be James. At a moment's glance, it was clear that the one with black hair was the best looking. Though, James and a more timid-looking kid were close behind him. And the fourth one was thin, with golden brown hair. He winked at me as I sat down, and I inconspicuously gave him the finger. I don't think he noticed.
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After having finished eating and having learned the names of the other boys (Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew), I said goodbye and took a last, fleeting glance at Sirius, who (I think) had been staring at me all dinner. He gave me a weird vibe... then again, he'd give anyone a weird vibe after being introduced as,
"This is Sirius," and then, in a whisper, "He'll shag anything that moves. So try not to move too much."
He was still looking at me, so we made brief eye contact and he smirked a little. If I'm not mistaken, he was giving me the "I know you like me" look.
I kept walking.
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I brought my clothes to my room and went to meet James in front of the boys' dorms. Only, he wasn't there. As the fire in the common room began to crackle down, the glowing embers casting a frail glow towards the burgundy couch on which I was lounging, I noticed that I was no longer alone. In the corner of the room, a shadow walked boyishly towards me and by the time I could make out the distinct porcelain skin and wide grey-blue eyes of Sirius Black, he was leaning towards me on the couch and I could feel his breath traveling down my neck. A vague tingly feeling travelled slowly down my spine.
"James fell asleep. It's almost twelve, you know?"
Had I really been waiting that long? I must've arrived at - what, eleven? I have to admit, it took me a while to find my room and rearrange all of the furniture. But had I really been waiting for almost an hour?
"Hm? Oh, wow... it's late. Why are you awake..." I trailed off. His eyes were a bit glazed, and he came even closer, until I was leaning back against the arm of the couch and his hands were on either side of me, his body next to - on top of, I daresay - mine. "Sirius..." I was scared. Okay, scared isn't even the proper term - I was terrified. I'd already bragged to my roommates, while re-arranging my furniture, about my amazing encounters with good-looking guys. I'd gone into detail about the gorgeous boyfriends I'd had back home. And, truth be told? My stories were full of shit. I'd never kissed a guy before, even. Which is why, just then, when I had no idea what I was doing, I knew that I couldn't screw this one up. I knew that if I didn't know what I was doing during this, uh, encounter, it would be all over school the next day. And my reputation would be ruined for good. I had to find a way to snag Sirius Black, but it was too early.
I needed some experience first.
I leaned in, so our noses were almost touching, and he was looking at my lips. He looked back up at me eyes, then down to my lips again, and I smiled. I put one finger on his slightly parted lips and looked at them. He looked at me, surprised, the glazed look in his eye disappearing, and pulled away. "What?"
"I'm not that kind of girl," I said, while squirming from underneath him, "You're going to have to try harder than that." I stood right beside the sofa. He turned around to watch me go, leaning back on the couch, with his hands behind his head. He raised his eyebrows at me, and smirked. I leaned in and pushed back his hair, but he grabbed my hand as I was about to go.
"Kate," he murmured, "Do me a favor?"
"Depends."
"Next time you decide to leave your room in such... compromised attire, warn me first?"
"Ah-um... Hey Sirius? Before I go, can you tell me what exactly I'm wearing?"
"As if you don't know. As much as my mind would love to let me describe to you in detail what you're wearing, I'll keep it simple."
"I haven't got all night."
"You're half-naked. And the lace doesn't help the situation."
At least the spell worked.
"Wait, what?"
"Night, Marsh."
Thank God - you know, I really need to stop saying that. I think I'll go with "Thank Merlin" from now on - that the spell was decent enough not to include nudity as an option for attire.
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