"Shhh! There he is again, Minty!"
"I see him. Shall you ask him, or shall I?"
"I'd better. Head Girl, you know. I can say… Oh! That I have to know the names of everyone who plans to stay over Christmas!"
"Ooh, that's good, to be sure, dear. Go now, he's getting away!"
"What are you two up to?"
"AAAAAARRRRRGGGHH!" Startled, Lily and Minty leapt up from the log they were sitting on, and turned to glare at Alice. By the lake, not fifty meters away, Tark Pendragon looked at them oddly, and resumed his stroll.
"I'm going then. He knows we're here now, anyway, THANK YOU, ALICE."
"Sure and you have to give us away, trying to improve your chances Murphy?"
"No, Minty, I didn't even see Tark! I was trying to figure out why the two of you were sitting down here with that paper held up in front of your faces."
"Is it so odd to be getting some sun on a lovely afternoon, then?"
"It is when there's a half-meter of snow on the ground! You have no idea how odd you do look. What's she asking him, anyway?"
"We want to know whether or not he's staying over the holidays. She plans to stay, herself, and then work on him in her free time."
"Oh. That's hardly fair! But I'm not about to miss seeing Frank to stay here for this silly bet. Are you staying?"
"I'm not. Me mam's Scottish, don't ya know, and is takin' me and the other girls to me granny's in Edinburgh for Hogmanay. It's the best time of the whole year – wouldn't miss it."
Lily returned from her quick conversation with Tark Pendragon, eyes glowing with excitement. "He's staying! Now I just have to convince Potter to stay. I'll see you two later."
"Wait!" Alice called after Lily's retreating figure. "Why do you need Potter to stay?"
"It's all part of the plan!"
"Come on then, we're after bein' late for Charms." Alice and Minty shook their heads and traced Lily's path up to the castle, Minty muttering all the time about "sodding Evans" and "bloody plan".
Nearly invisible in the deep snow, a white rat scurried off towards the castle as well.
"She's staying."
"Which one?" The three boys turned from the window in their dormitory to address their flush-faced friend, who had just transformed from his rat animagus form into a plump, friendly-looking seventh year boy.
"Evans." Peter sat down on his bed and grabbed a packet of crisps and a soda from the bedside table.
"What else did you hear?" James and Sirius joined Peter on his bed. Sirius grabbed the bag of crisps from him and started eating. Remus sat down on his own bed, right next to Peter's.
"Greenwitch and Evans sat down there for a while, watching Tark Pendragon walk around the lake. They thought that they were being sly, but I saw him look up at them a couple of times."
"Why were they looking at Pendragon?" James spat, his face dark.
"I don't know," Peter shrugged. "They wanted to find out if he was staying over the hols. Evans went down to talk to him, after Alice came up. Alice and Greenwitch were talking; neither one of them is staying over. Then Evans came back up, said that he is staying and now she has to get Potter to stay, and ran up the hill. Alice yelled after her, asked her why, and Evans said it's 'all part of the plan.' Then Alice and Greenwitch left, so I did, too. They had to go to Charms."
"Bollocks!" Remus exclaimed. He grabbed his satchel from its perch on his footlocker and dashed out the door.
"I hope he remembers to spy on them for us," Sirius remarked, still munching Peter's crisps.
"What's Lily up to?" James said, getting up from the bed and heading slowly out the door.
"Hey, you tosser, you've finished off my crisps!"
"The Protean Charm gets its name from the Greek God Proteus, a sea god who was a shape-shifter. It's a complex charm, that when used on one object in a group of objects, will change all the other objects the same way. It's very tricky, so we'll be using the rest of the period for practice. Split into groups of three, and gather by a tree."
The Charms classroom seemed even more crowded than usual, as half a dozen Christmas trees, fully decorated with blinking glass bulbs, filled the corners and alcoves. The students gathered into their groups, awaiting further instruction.
"Your tree will have many different-coloured bulbs on it, blinking in different ways and at different rates of speed. You need to get each bulb to blink the same as all the others, in the same colour, by the end of the period for full marks. Remember, the spell is "Pro-te-us", emphasis on the first syllable, and a steady hand. Good luck!" Flitwick hopped down from the desk he was standing on and went to sit at his own, while his N.E.W.T. level students glanced despairingly at one another.
"I wish Lily were here," Alice said, as she looked hopelessly at the fifteen-foot tree before her with its mocking, blinking bulbs.
"You say that every class, Murphy. Is it my fault she took her Charms N.E.W.T. a year early? The girl's unnatural, like!" Minty swung her wand in preparation for the charm, breaking one of the bulbs in the process. With a quick "reparo" and a sheepish grin for her Charms professor, she turned back to Alice. "This is hopeless, I think."
"Don't give up hope, ladies," said Remus Lupin, the third member of their group. "Pro-te-us!" Half the bulbs on the tree stopped blinking. The other half started a low whistling sound. "Oh dear. That wasn't supposed to happen."
"I think you had the accent wrong," Alice said, "But I'm not about to try and fix it. I'd just get them all whistling, and it's annoying enough as it is."
"Sorry," said Remus, and cast a silencio on the entire tree and, accidentally, Minty. She began screaming at him until she was red in the face, but as Alice and Remus were intent on their conversation, neither really noticed. "So I heard you girls at breakfast yesterday. What kind of bet do you have?"
"Oh, we're not really – Oh, Minty! Sorry love!" Alice turned around at the tap on her shoulder to find her roommate glaring at her, arms crossed, mouthing 'fix this now, Murphy'. "Audio."
"Sorry, Greenwitch," Remus said sheepishly. "Only I'm a bit off today, having been late and all. It's got me a bit confunded, like."
"Jaysus, Lupin. You're some yoke." But she smiled, and went back to studying the tree. "Maybe you need to find somethin' in common with each of the bulbs," she continued, examining two of the bulbs closely.
"So anyway, your bet – does it have something to do with Tark Pendragon? I've heard around you've been stalking him."
"Who told you that?" Minty whipped around, a guilty flush on her face.
"You just did," Remus smirked. "Ow, down, girl! Quit hitting me!"
"Alright Lupin, but you're not to tell those tosser friends of yours. We don't want word getting out. We're after a little fun, and have a wee wager as to whom of the three of us Tark Pendragon will ask out first."
"That's hilarious! But what do James and Sirius have to do with it? Lily's making James awfully nervous, and Sirius is a wreck after your, um, rendezvous yesterday."
"Don't mention that eejit to me!"
"We don't know what Lily's doing with James, and that's a promise, Remus. Only it's lucky he doesn't like her any more, because I have a suspicion she's using him for bait."
Remus snorted at that, and Alice looked a little worried. She then turned to Minty just as Minty attempted the charm again.
"Pro-te-us!"
"Minty, you've done it!" The three of them looked at the tree, glorious in its red bulbs flashing gold every few seconds, and smiled as Professor Flitwick came rushing over.
"Oh, well done, Miss Greenwitch! Full marks for your group!"
"I told you we didn't need Lily, Alice!"
"She's using me as bait."
"That's just what Alice suspects."
"She's using me as bait."
"It's possible."
"She's using me as bait!"
"Damn, Prongs, give it a rest, why don'tcha?" Sirius was lying on his back, playing with James' snitch. The four boys were hanging out in their dorm, something they had been doing a lot these days, as sitting in the common room with the girls nearby made them inexplicably nervous.
"We don't know for sure, James," Remus said patiently, from his bed on the other side of the room. "I'm just telling you to watch your back. And from what Alice said, Lily thinks that you don't like her anymore, so she's probably thinking that it won't hurt your feelings, if that is indeed what she's trying to do."
"Well, am I just supposed to sit here and take this? She's been so, flirty, and nice, and, AARGHH! It's not bloody fair!"
"Make her jealous."
"What, Pete?"
"Go along with it, at first, like. Remember, she doesn't know you know. Play dumb, pretend you're just flirting with her and having fun, and when she's sure of your part and about to go after Pendragon, get yourself another girl. She'll go nuts, and it will throw a wrench in her plans."
"Oooh. That's good, Pete! Come on, Remus, we're going hunting."
"Why Remus?" Sirius asked with a scowl.
" 'Cause I'd hate to see the girl that you would pick to make Lily jealous. She has to be a contender, you know? Smart, pretty, nice. No fast girls, or Lily will just give me up for a lost cause." James and Remus left the room, and Sirius propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at Peter, who was sitting on his bed.
"Alright, Master Guru of Love, what about me?"
"What about you?"
"Well, you fixed Prongs' problem! Why don't you fix mine! I made out with Minty Greenwitch for an hour yesterday and now she looks at me like I'm evil incarnate."
"Oohhkkaaayy," Peter said slowly, shaking his head a bit at the fact that Sirius Black was asking him for love advice. "How did you act with her?"
"Well, she's tough, right. Strong and fierce. So I acted tough, too. It was kind of like street fighting, only with tongues. Glorious," reminisced Sirius happily, before he scowled. "Or so I thought."
Peter looked green at the mental image Sirius had just given him. "I think, Padfoot, that you should have tried the opposite approach. As tough as Greenwitch is, she thinks she's a very feminine lady. She told me last week her family calls her 'Miss Prissy'! Can you imagine what her sisters must be like?" Both boys shuddered, imagining that.
"Well, what the hell. It can't hurt to try, right? I guess I'd better go find her and attempt to redeem myself. Are you coming downstairs?"
"I told Prongs earlier I'd follow Lily to the prefect's meeting, since it's her turn to attend. Pendragon will be there and James wants to know what's going on with them."
"What are you getting out of this?"
"His Daisy Pennifold Famous Wizard Card. The rarest one, you know. It will complete my collection, and I can move on to other candy. I'm so sick of chocolate," muttering, Peter transformed into his animagi form and scuttled off into a hole in the wall by his bed.
"Well, here goes nothing." An unusually subdued Sirius pushed his hair back from his face, popped a breath mint, and uncertainly left the room.
"—Meeting adjourned! Happy Holidays, everyone. Err, Pendragon, can you stay after and help me clean up?"
"Sure, Evans." With a slight flip of the head, Tark Pendragon tossed his soft brown locks out of his eyes, and smiled over the crowd of prefects hustling out of the room as he walked over to where Lily was standing.
"So why are you staying here over the holidays, Evans?"
"Oh, my sister has this new great zeppelin of a boyfriend, and he's all muggle, so she doesn't want me around to muck things up for her. If I'm lucky, the mammoth will marry Petunia, and I won't have to deal with either one of them again. But enough about me. Why are you staying?"
"My parents are off for a second honeymoon to Australia, and there's nothing more depressing than spending the holidays alone." With a charming grin and a twinkling eye, Tark handed Lily the papers he had gathered together from her desk. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Pendragon."
"Call me Tark, and I'll call you Lily, how about it?" Lily grinned, and tossed her hair the slightest little bit.
"Sounds good, Tark. Do you want to come down to the kitchens and get a bite with me?"
"I'd love to, but I promised my cousin Nimue I'd help her pack to go home. Some other time?" He looked sincerely sorry, but Lily wasn't too disappointed. She wanted to be sure of Potter before she went too far with Pendragon.
"I'll hold you to it, Tark! See you next week on rounds."
As she exited the room, red hair floating about her and glinting in the candlelight, the little rat in the corner of the room couldn't help but notice the tall brown-haired boy staring at her with a slightly dreamy look before leaving himself. Shaking his little head, he scratched his nose with one claw, turned to his hole, and started up the weaving network of tiny passages to return to his friends.
"Come on, Minty, one more chance! I promise I'll be everything that you could possibly hope for." After a half an hour of flattery, begging, and persuasion, Minty was still unmoved. Sirius was beginning to give up hope.
"And could you get any more full of yerself, boy? You tossed me around like a bleedin' Quaffle last time!"
"Please, love, I'm so sorry! You leave day after next for the holidays. Just once more, and I promise if you don't like it I'll never bother you again."
"Alright, Black, alright! Just you meet me down the Quidditch Pitch after practice tomorrow, and you've cleaned up an' all. Sure and I'd better not be wastin' my time."
"You won't be." Confidence returned, Sirius kissed a scowling Minty on her forehead and swaggered up the stairs to his dormitory. "Pete, you back yet? I need help!"
Chapter Three: Lily and Tark attempt holiday romance, the bait finds bait, Sirius attempts to salvage his reputation, and love at first sight occurs – in a most unexpected quarter.
A/N: The first sign that Peter will turn evil one day. Sick of chocolate? You just know there's something wrong there.