Chapter 3: Changes

When the Marauders entered the Gryffindor common room later that day they noticed there was a noticeable difference. They attributed it to the continuous bursts of laughter coming from the corner where the new girls sat. They couldn't hear exactly what they were saying though. Several guys were eyeing them in a wishful way, but the girls didn't seem to notice or care for that matter.

"So daaahlings what do you think of Hogwarts so far?" Jamie drawled. Lizz and Annie giggled,

"The boys, the food, uhh the boys, the grounds, hmm let me think about it, the BOYS!" Lizz said. They all laughed.

"The excellent intercultural experience we are fortunate enough to have" Annie said in a hoity- toity voice, her nose in the air. She couldn't hold it though and laughed as hard as Jamie and Lizz.

"Yah right Annie, I saw you looking at Potter. But you can't have him though he's mine!" Lizz gave Annie a devilish smirk.

"I was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

Jamie shook her head at her friends, but laughed and joined Lizzy's side.

"Was not!"

"Was to!"

"I wasn't and at least I didn't flirt with him!"

"Ok you know that was an accident! Besides, Black? Yuck, I mean he's pretty good looking, but he's a… a... lecher! It's like when that fifty year old guy hit on me in the dollar store."

"Yah, he gave you a pretty nasty once over." Jamie said.

"He did? I didn't even see! Ugh, I think I need a shower!" They collapsed into laughter again.

Sirius finally decided to take this moment to grace them with his presence. Remus and James watched with knowing and amused eyes.

"Should we stop him?" Remus looked at James

"Nah, I have a feeling this'll be better than any prank that we could play on him." They went and pretended to play a game of wizard's chess at a table nearby.

"Hello Lizz" Sirius drawled. Lizz turned in her seat to look up at him, and immediately stopped laughing. Jamie and Annie watched, but moved slightly back, just in case.

"I said to call me Lawrence, unless you're stupid enough to have forgotten?" she turned back, kinda shocked that had come out of her mouth. A snort came from a nearby table, but when Sirius turned he saw straight faces.

"No, I was just hoping we could be close enough for a first name basis?" He raised his eyebrows and slid onto the seat next to Lizz. Lizz was immediately disgusted by his lack of manners and over-inflated ego, and she immediately stood up.

"Come on guys there's no point trying to talk with guys like him around." Lizz grabbed her stuff, spun on her heel, and stalked off towards the dorm. Sirius jumped up and went after her.

"Awww, Lizz, babe, come on."

Lizz pointed her wand over her shoulder and a flash of angry red light slammed Sirius in the face. He collapsed onto the floor in a heap and was moaning. Jamie and Annie ran after Lizz already knowing what hex Sirius had earned and really didn't want to be around when Sirius got up.

"Oi, Padfoot you alright?" James said getting Sirius up from the floor.

"Uhhh…, what happened?" Sirius said fuzzily. He held his head to stop the throbbing. Then he saw James and Remus's sniggering.

"What!" yelled Sirius. James and Remus laughed along with rest of the common room as Sirius ran into the bathroom.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Told you so" James said to Remus, laughing as he heard Sirius yelling curses.

"That was a bit harsh Lizz." Annie scolded despite the fact she was smiling. They climbed the spiral stairs to their room.

"He deserved it! All he was trying to do was get under my skin, which he did, and I felt his over-inflated head needed to be punctured!" Lizz argued. She smiled when she heard Sirius's yelling. "Serves him right." Big-headed git thinking he was sooo irresistible he won't come anywhere near me, or anyone other girl for that matter, for a few weeks when the hex wears off.

"I still can't believe you did and said what you did, go Lizzy!" Jamie cheered.

They reached their room and dumped their books on their desks. Annie put a silence spell on the door and sat down on a big, cushy chair.

"Finally, we can relax." said Jamie with a sigh. She emptied her shoulder bag of the books and put them on her trunk next to the hundred others they had brought from home.

"First question, who were the four Animagi I saw last night? There was a dog, a stag, a wolf, and the rat I saw scurrying back to the castle" Annie asked.

"Yah, I mean it's illegal to be an Animagi under 18 in England, so what were those four doing running around? I thought we weren't going to have to worry about other Animagus like at Saldrons." Questioned Lizz as she crashed onto her four poster.

"One wasn't an Animagi" Jamie said as she sat down. She closed her eyes and was thinking about last night.

"Hmmm?" Annie sat up quickly. Jamie opened her eyes.

"They weren't all Animagi, the wolf… it kinda looked like me halfway through a change and last night was a full moon… any guesses?" Jamie said and rested her chin in her hand.

"A werewolf!" Lizz whispered, alarmed. "No way! They wouldn't allow a werewolf at this school!"

"Well they did, and though were going to have to be careful on the full moon; we don't have much to worry about. Werewolves are probably fine beyond that." Jamie reassured. Doesn't make it much better! I'm not a person who keeps track of the moon! She thought.

"Okay, but we still need to find out who they are, at least so we can avoid them or whatever," Annie remarked, "And we have to remember that they will probably be trying to figure out who we are too. Especially since we know one of them is a werewolf."

"We also have to remember that though legal age for Animagi in America is 16 here it's 18, so they don't have problem with doing something illegal." Lizz jumped up from her four poster and walked over to her trunk. She pulled out some green and pink polka dot socks to put on.

"Ach, there's so much more to worry about around here!" Jamie said. Without really meaning to, she stared at some random point on the wall and her eyes glazed over a bit. They knew she had fallen deep into thought, again.

Annie picked up a very worn copy of Pride and Prejudice and opened to her favorite part. Lizz finished putting on her socks and glanced at her watch

"Jamie… Jamie"

"JAMIE!" they yelled together.

"Huh?... What?" Jamie woke from her meditative state.

"Don't you have a prefect meeting or something in like five minutes?" Jamie jumped up and looked at her watch, there was a little hand that kept time, with "almost late" printed in small letters on the face.

"Dang it! And I don't know where it is! I'll just have to ask around. Shoot!" Jamie grumbled as she grabbed her almost empty bag and headed towards the door.

"Annie, why don't you fly around and see if you can spot those Animagi and Lizzy prowl around the Forbidden Forest. Be careful they don't see or smell you!" Jamie broke the silence spell, opened the door, and disappeared from sight. She left her bemused friends behind shaking their heads.

"She always does this, you'd think she'd learn." Lizz picked up her Charms homework and got to work, leaving Annie to the debonair Mr. Darcy.

Jamie ran down the staircase, and shoved her hair out of her eyes and thought about pulling her hair back for the millionth time. Halfway down the staircase, the stairs suddenly went flat and turned into a slide. Jamie slammed on her butt and sped down to an even more surprised Remus. They ended up in a heap on the floor with a resounding THUMP. Remus caught a scent, kind of like tangerines, that seemed very familiar. Jamie was sprawled on top of him and moaning softly, but Remus didn't move, no idiot (guy) would move when in certain positions...

"You okay?" he managed to say.

"Yah, what the heck happened?" Jamie looked like she was blushing, but she always had red cheeks so it's hard to tell.

Remus turned a little red himself and ran a hand through his dark brown hair, unnoticed by Jamie, who had untangled herself and was brushing off her robes.

"I… Uh… well it's time for the prefect meeting and I remembered you didn't know your way around so I came to ask you if you wanted to come with me. But I was stupid enough to forget about the enchanted stairs that keep guys from going in the girls dormitories." Remus said quickly with a hung head. This wasn't going the way he had planned at all, and he was feeling pretty dumb.

"Sorry Bilden." He handed her her bag, which had landed a couple feet away.

"Call me Jamie, and it's cool. That was pretty fun anyway." Jamie laughed despite the bruise on her bum. Remus perked up at her smile. Jamie quieted as she put her bag over her shoulder again. She turned back to the now smiling Remus.

"Will you escort me then, good Sir, to the prefect meeting that we are sure to be late to?" Jamie frowned at her watch. It was 2 minutes till the meeting started, they would definitely be late.

"We won't be, I know a couple little shortcuts" Remus grinned as he took Jamie's arm and led her out of the common room.