Chapter Two:
A Winged Man

At breakfast the next grey morning, Professor Slughorn turned to Professor Dumbledore and said conversationally, "Poor Miss Garland appears to be attracting a bit of attention this morning."

Dumbledore took a sip of his creamy, sweetened tea and glanced over the top of his half-moon spectacles at the Potions professor. "Indeed?"

Slughorn waved his spoon in the direction of the Gryffindor table where Holly sat, flanked by Remus and Lily. "I'll wager," he said, swallowing a mouthful of sticky porridge, "I'll wager you ten galleons that Mr Lupin will confess his love for her before Christmas."

"While I do not think the romances of the young hearts in our charge is any of our business," Dumbledore smiled wryly, "I'll take that action."

The first week of classes passed in something of an overcast daze. The good weather that had seen in the school year was left shivering in the mud as the mountains were blanketed with relentless rains. It made everybody restless and delayed any solid routine-building the students had hoped to do as many of the outdoor classes had to be held inside.

The rest of September was equally hit-and-miss weather wise, and students had taken to mistrusting sunny skies and sticking to sheltered walkways at all times, as sudden downpours seemed to materialise at the most inopportune times.

Relief came at the end of the month in the form of small gold-trimmed envelopes, addressed in a looping, calligraphic hand to all the best, brightest, and especially well-connected students who had made Professor Slughorn's exclusive list. The buzz the Slug Club invitations had ignited was made exponentially louder once word got out that the party was themed.

"Disguise," Lily announced to their small corner of the common room. She, Holly, and their other roommate Alice, had used their seventh-year status to commandeer the last remaining armchairs by the window. It was Saturday, and properly storming outside, so the common room was full to bursting.

"Like a masquerade?" Holly asked, curled up on the plush red two-seater beside Lily, her Charms textbook open in her lap.

Lily shrugged. "I think so," she said, flipping the invitation over to check the back. It was blank. "The whole idea seems to be to make yourself as unrecognisable as possible. It's a week before Halloween, so I guess that's why it's themed."

"Are you going to transfigure yourself?" Alice asked from where she lay sprawled out on the rug.

Holly sat up eagerly. "Oh, do Lily! You're so talented at that kind of magic."

Lily's eyes lit up with inspiration. "If you come as my plus one, Holly, I'll do a switching spell and we can be each other's disguise," she said.

Holly looked delighted. "Really?" She closed her book and hugged it. "I've never been to a Slug Club party before."

Lily grinned and opened her mouth to speak when Alice cut her off.

"Incoming," she whispered urgently, propping herself up on her elbows.

Lily and Holly looked up just as Sirius Black collapsed onto the couch between them, forcing them apart. Holly quickly shifted her legs out of the way and found herself squished between the cushioned arm and the furnace that was Sirius. He took up so much room it was nearly impossible not to touch him.

"Get your own, Potter," Lily growled, snatching her Slug Club invitation away from James' outstretched hand. He gave her a roguish grin.

"You mean, like this one?" He flashed a small envelope trimmed in gold. If Holly didn't know her any better, she might have said Lily's expression was mildly impressed.

"I'd treasure that, if I were you," Lily said tartly after watching him wave it smugly in her face. "One-of-a-kinds are pretty valuable."

"Your faith in me is staggering, petal," James sighed. Lily cocked an eyebrow dangerously at the new pet name. James visibly recoiled and then laughed it off.

"Are you going to dress up?" Holly asked, straightening up to lean around Sirius. Her long, dark hair was still a bit damp, and the fruity smell of her shampoo accosted Sirius' nostrils when it brushed up against his arm.

"Does he need to?" Lily cut in. "He already looks like a clown." Everyone except James snorted in laughter. He scowled down at Alice, pointing in dismay at Lily.

"Can you believe this, Al? So uncalled for," he shook his head as Alice's face turned plum-purple with the effort of corralling her mirth. "But yes, we're going to dress up," James replied.

"We?" Alice asked, sobering up. "You're taking a date?" They turned to him in surprise.

"Indeed, I am; it's my turn to walk the dog," he said, grinning at Sirius, who barked a laugh and shook his long black hair out of his eyes.

"You look disappointed, Evans," Sirius grinned, waggling his eyebrows at her. She immediately sat up, brimming with indignation.

"I think you mean relieved," she corrected him, flipping her thick red hair over her shoulder. "I'd rather hear the Fat Lady sing than James ask me on another date."

Sirius nodded, unconvinced, and then glanced playfully at Holly, who was trying to hide her spreading grin behind a slender hand.

"Is Remus going too? He went to one last year, if I recall correctly," Lily mused.

"He's said he'll bring Peter, too," Sirius confirmed.

"Oh, great. All four of you are going."

James looked at his watch. "Speaking of," he said, straightening up with a shadow of a grin. "We've got places to be, don't we, Snuffles? C'mon then. C'mere boy," he whistled at Sirius as he made for the portrait hole. When Sirius glared at him and made no move to get up, James crouched forward and patted his knees. "C'mon!"

Sirius flipped him off but hauled his ass out of the chair anyway. "Atta boy!" James cried, ducking to avoid being clipped around the ear by his mate. Sirius threw a grin over his shoulder at the girls as they disappeared into the throng of students. Holly's knee was still burning where Sirius had placed his hand to push himself off the couch.

After they'd been sufficiently swallowed by the crowd, Alice turned to Lily and Holly with her lips pursed in confusion. "What's up with all the dog jokes?"

Lily tore her glare away from the portrait hole they'd just disappeared through to look at Alice, completely deadpan. "My current theory is that James is Sirius' bitch, and they like to do role reversals in public so that Sirius has something to punish later on."

There was a beat of silence as they stared at Lily, quietly processing her words.

Then Holly couldn't help herself: she snorted. She covered her mouth, eyes widening in embarrassment, and the other two burst into peals of laughter.

Lily spent the next three weeks cornering Holly at random times to practice switching spells in preparation for Slughorn's party. She'd started small, on inanimate things like textbooks and inkpots, but by the time Saturday night rolled around, they'd had matching heterochromia three times, blotchy skin, and spliced hair for a full afternoon. Lily was now confident she could switch just about anything perfectly after her weeks of trial-and-error, and when she stepped back from Holly, she was proved right.

"Wow!" Holly grinned, staring up at her own hazel eyes, perfectly replicated in Lily's porcelain face. The contrast between Lily's fair, freckled complexion and Holly's loose dark brown curls which now fell over her shoulders was stark but pleasant. She turned excitedly to the mirror and found that having big, green, almond-shaped eyes was actually rather disconcerting. She swept a section of thick red hair back from her face, freckle-less and much tanner than Lily's; it wasn't a bad combination, just a strange one, Holly thought.

Lily was beaming with her success. They had decided to keep the switch simple, focussing on their hair and eyes. Set in amongst foreign features, the switch was just bewildering enough to be fun. They pulled on their matching halter-neck dresses and just as they were about to leave for the party, Holly squeaked and ran back to her bed.

"I almost forgot!" she cried, wrenching open a drawer.

"Come on, Holly," Lily hurried her, looking at her wristwatch. Holly bounced back to her feet, straight red hair tumbling down her shoulders. She held up two flowery wreaths in triumph. Lily squinted at them. "What are those?"

"I made us flower crowns! Look," Holly said, setting one with dark, glossy green leaves and red berries on her head. "This one is made of holly, and I made one for you out of lily of the valley."

Lily took the small wreath and inspected it; it had small, white bell-shaped flowers intertwined with pale green vines. She grinned as she put it on and inspected her reflection.

"I couldn't get a hold of any actual lilies," Holly fretted. "I hope you don't mind."

"I love them," Lily said sincerely. "Now let's go," and she grabbed Holly's arm and pulled her out of the dormitory.

Despite Lily's pushing, they were some of the first guests to arrive at Slughorn's party. They were welcomed warmly by the potions professor, who was wearing long, magenta robes with tiny little gold suns brocaded on it, paired with a ridiculously long silver beard and a beaming smile.

"What an ingenious costume idea," he praised them, puffing up his chest as he inspected their faces. "Really something, girls."

Lily and Holly shared pleased smiles. "Now, Miss Evans!" He turned to Holly, and she laughed, turning him gently to face Lily instead. "Ah." His face reddened a little, but he just kept smiling. Holly thought he might already have had one too many glasses of port. "Miss Evans, did I tell you?"

"Tell me what, professor?" Lily asked, accepting her fate and a glass of butterbeer from a passing tray. She and Holly locked eyes, and Holly took the chance to slip away.

Holly found her way to a small grazing table made up entirely of sweets, apparently in the spirit of Halloween, and nibbled on a miniature cauldron cake that had a cartoonish ghost outlined in icing sugar on the top. She stayed hovering by the table as the room began to fill, feeling very out of place without Lily by her side. Her costume didn't feel like much of a costume without the other half of it; she just felt like she'd put on a pretty dress and a flower crown.

"Lily!" Whoever kept shouting Lily's name was getting very frustrated. Holly turned around, hoping to maybe help get her friend's attention, when her arm was grabbed and suddenly dropped. Remus stood in front of her, his face the definition of bamboozled. He was wearing a bloodstained toga and a wreath of laurel about his ears, and as she watched he scratched his neck and then recognised her. "Holly?"

She grinned. "Hey, Remus."

"Woah, that is really trippy," he said, looking her over again.

Holly laughed. She felt a lot better about her and Lily's costume now, and less like they needed to cling together for the whole evening for other people to 'get' it. "And you're… Julius Caesar?" She guessed, cocking her head to one side.

Remus repressed a sigh; he, apparently, had just experienced the exact opposite feeling to Holly's. "Actually, I'm Remus."

Holly frowned a little. "I know," she said slowly, "I mean… your costume?"

Remus grimaced. "So do I."

She stared at him harder. Her green eyes raked over the bloodstained toga. She looked back up to his pursed lips and then felt a lightbulb practically explode within her brain. "Oh!" Holly was laughing. "Remus, brother of Romulus? As in, one of the founders of Rome?"

"Yes! I knew other people would get it," Remus said, pumping a fist victoriously. "It was a bone of contention between James and me," he explained in response to Holly's mystified expression. "He said no one would get the reference… but it was basically the easiest costume I could think of. This," he pulled at his toga, "is a bedsheet." Holly had never seen someone usually so sensible grin quite so mischievously before.

"I think it's very clever," she grinned back. "Oh," she said, suddenly remembering. "What did you want Lily for?"

"What? Oh. Actually, I was looking for you, and I was going to ask Lily where you were, but then it was you."

"What a happy coincidence!" Holly laughed. "So why were you seeking me out?"

He grabbed a pumpkin pasty from the sweets spread, then offered her his arm. "Let's go for a walk."

"Sure." Holly smiled and slipped her arm through his.

At the door, heads were being turned by the three newest arrivals. Slughorn paused his riveting conversation with Lily to gawk, and Lily had to drink deeply from her butterbeer to prevent herself from exploding with laughter.

James Potter was wearing a wide, pink silk evening gown, complete with what appeared to be a corset, several petticoats, and a crinoline. He'd painted his face white, his lips hot pink, and had drawn on a chunky black heart just under his left eye. His untameable black hair was engulfed by a tall, powdered wig that wobbled when he walked. With a flourish, he violently flicked open a silk fan and fluttered it incessantly in front of his face.

Just behind him, grinning like a very out of character fool, was Sirius Black, whose hair had been greased until it was limp and stringy, and his nose magically 'enhanced' so that it was now undeniably hooked. He was wearing his school uniform and a green tie that was tied so tight around his throat that it was crinkling the collar of his shirt. On the opposite side of the room, a disguise-less Severus Snape stared at them with his lip curled in the beginnings of a snarl.

Bringing up the rear of the group was Peter, though without the presence of his friends you would be hard done by to recognise him; he wore a jet-black cowl and carried a scythe, and where his face should have been, there was nothing but a void.

"Professor," James said in a very high-pitched voice, bobbing a curtsy and fluttering his fan in front of his nose. Professor Slughorn smiled widely at them as if he'd suddenly realised why he'd never invited Potter to a Slug Club meeting before. "They say imitation is the best form of flattery, but I'm sure Dumbledore never looked so good!"

"I'm not Dumbledore," Slughorn said, his brow creasing. "I'm Merlin." He sounded a little crestfallen as he looked down at his beard and sun-spotted robes.

Lily covered her mouth and took a mental photograph of James' mortified expression before slipping backwards into the crowd in search of Holly.

James made a series of bumbling apologies and then hurried off with Sirius in tow. They spent the next half hour ghosting Severus until Peter recruited James' help over at the buffet.

The fact that Sirius had not only chosen to dress up as Snape, but had done a particularly accurate caricature of him, made the Slytherin seventh-year's blood boil. As he watched the arrogant Gryffindor sidle up to yet another unsuspecting group and drawl out a monotonous string of self-deprecating nonsense, he knew he had to do something.

Snape scowled as the group laughed heartily at Sirius' antics. He glanced about the room, searching for inspiration, when his eyes alighted on the perfect fodder.

Sirius jumped back in mock surprise when Snape appeared at his shoulder. "Are you copying me?" he said in his best nasal drawl.

Snape rolled his eyes. Sirius rolled his eyes. Snape scowled at him. Sirius scowled at Snape. Snape's face started to turn red when he remembered why he'd come over here in the first place.

"I'd be careful, if I were you, Black," Severus drawled lazily, suddenly very conscious of how good an imitation Black's mocking tone had been. "It looks to me like your little wolf-friend is sniffing out a new mate. You might end up friendless after all."

Sirius smirked, but it didn't reach his eyes. He glanced over to where Remus and Holly stood, laughing, secluded in a corner out of the way.

"What a shame it will be to see the pack drawn and quartered," Snape jeered.

Sirius laughed, but there was no mirth in it. "It really is hard to identify friendships when you don't have any yourself, eh, Snivellus?"

Snape's eyes narrowed darkly. "Friends? Well, that certainly explains why they haven't even spoken to another person since they got here. Friends indeed." Snape turned on his heel and strode away.

Sirius' jaw clenched. He stared at Holly and Remus, his stomach flipping as he watched her giggle and place a slender hand on his arm. He wasn't sure what this feeling was, but it had lodged itself in his throat and he did not like it.