Wow, ok so it's definitely been a while... I would blame this on a busy schedule but really I'm just a bit lazy. So still not a lot of plot yet but it is coming so you'll just have to bear with me. I have a few other fics in mind that have pretty big plots so this one is a nice little break from the doom, gloom and oh-so-much angst of the others.


'Marley get your butt out of bed right now! Some of us actually want to eat breakfast this morning!' Lily was storming about the room, grabbing various items and shoving them roughly in her already-overflowing bag.

'Calm down, Lils,' Alice mumbled sleepily from her bed. 'We've got loads of time. Breakfast doesn't end for another thirty minutes.'

'Well I want to get food before bloody Potter scoffs the lot,' huffed Lily. 'Besides, it's the first day back and it wouldn't hurt to be early for once. Not after last year when someone' - Lily glared accusingly across the room at the lump that was Renna - 'made us ten minutes late for our first lesson.' A large snore erupted from Renna's bed which I took to be her response.

Stiffling my laughter I turned back to the mirror. The sight that greeted me was not a pretty one. My usually limp dirty-blond hair had decided to try something new this morning and was sticking up all over the place. But the disorderly matt on top of my head was not what was bothering me. You see, sitting right between my two brown eyes was one of the hugest, most sickeningly red spots I had ever seen in my life. It even had a creamy white head that looked just about ready to burst to top it all off.

'Oh. My. God,' I squealed, bringing my hand up to cover the monster that had taken over my head. This turned out to be a bad idea as the bloody thing really hurt!

'What? What?' Josie jumped up from her bed looking startled.

'Oh Jesus Christ,' whispered Renna. 'Look at your face!' All eyes immediately turned on me. Just fantastic.

'It's only a spot. Don't be so dramatic, Renna,' said Lily, in an obvious attempt to make the gargantuan spot on my face seem menial, though the look in her eyes told the truth. Not only did I have an obstruction on my face that would have made even the boldest of children cry, but to top it all off I managed to get it on my first morning at a brand new school. I swear, I should have been born on Friday 13th with the luck my life threw at me...

Renna covered her face in her hands to try and disguise her laughter. 'Oh stop it, you,' sighed Alice at Renna. 'I remember perfectly well the time Sammy Thompson in the year above gave you pimples that covered your entire face for a week! You definitely weren't laughing then!'

That shut Renna up as a frown marred her pretty face. 'Oh yeah... I'd forgotten about that. I still have to get that troll back.'

'Well, there's nothing that can be done about it now. We still have to get down for breakfast. You know what the first morning's like - it's hectic!' Lily continued her frazzled stomping around the room as she attempted to find her belongings. Josie gave me a sympathetic look before continuing dressing for school.

I stared hopelessly at myself in the mirror. This was just bloody perfect. 'For God's sake! If you're going to do the kicked puppy look I suppose I could try finding my pimple vanishing cream.' Renna had never looked more beautiful to me.

'What! You're only mentioning this now?'Lily turned her furious gaze to Renna. 'You can be really evil sometimes, did you know that? Leaving poor Sarah worrying like that when you had a solution the whole time!'

'Hey, at least I can help her!' Renna put her hands up in defense 'You're too worried about getting down for freaking breakfast in time!' I could sense the beginnings of a heated row as the two continued to bicker back and forth.

'You know, you would think the two hated each other, but they're actually really good friends,' Josie whispered in my ear, watching the scene with amusement.

'Shut up, you two,' snapped Alice coming out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head. 'Renna go and get this miracle cream you claim to have, and for crying out loud, Lily, we've got loads of time left. We're not going to miss breakfast!' Lily flushed and Renna stuck her tongue out at her before jumping up and rummaging through her makeup bag.

An assortment of lipsticks and mascaras came flying at us from all directions as Renna managed to fit the length of her arm down her tiny little bag. 'Aha', she cried, her face lighting up. 'Found you, you beauty.' She pulled it out with a flourish and gave it a dramatic kiss before chucking it at me.

'Ow,' I yelped as it bounced off my head.

'Oops, sorry,' she giggled. 'Looks like we found ourselves a new Gryffindor seeker, girls!'

I snatched the cream from the floor, trying not to look too desperate. Oh God, please let this work. I plopped a dollop of the foul smelling stuff on the spot and turned to Renna. 'How long does this stuff stay on for?'

'No idea,' she claimed 'Never needed it before. It was my idiot brother's idea of a funny present.'

'I'd take it off now, if I was you,' Josie mumbled, looking worriedly at my forehead. I snapped back to the mirror and scrubbed the cream from my face. The big red spot had receded to basically nothing. Phew...

'Well that's all sorted, then,' smiled Lily. 'Can we please go down for breakfa-' Lily stopped mid sentence as her eyes were suddenly drawn to my forehead.

'What?' I squeaked. 'What's wro-' I caught my reflection in the mirror and felt my stomach drop to the floor. 'SHIT!' The spot, which had for a few seconds turned minuscule began to slowly grow, larger than it had been before the cream. I watched in absolute horror as deep red slowly grew out and spread across my entire forehead. The spreading came to a slow stop as we all watched, transfixed. I let out a squeak of disbelief as I took in my appearance.

The red splotch that had taken over my face had thankfully stopped. Though before I could start bawling my eyes out it had one more little surprise for me. Apparently covering half of my face in a huge red blob wasn't enough. Oh no, it then had to go on to slowly separate until, within one minute, the red blob had turned into hundreds of tiny little pimples.

'Holy. Shit,' came Renna's dumb-founded remark. 'I had no idea it would do that...'

'Renna!' shrieked Lily. 'What have you done?!'

Renna's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. 'Oh yes, because I did this to her,' she said in a voice heavily applied with sarcasm.

'Well it was your cream, wasn't it?'

'You can't blame Renna, Lily' sighed Alice, always the one to keep the peace.

'Would you guys just shut up! I don't care who did it; just help me get rid of the things!' I shrieked, clutching my bird's nest hair.

'Okay, Okay maybe there'll be a spell or something?' suggested Josie, shrugging her tiny shoulders. 'I could check some books.' She made her way to the small bookcase in the corner and began to quickly scan the titles of the various spell books lined up.

'Leave it, Josie, there's no time. We'll just have to try make-up.' Alice summoned a little pink bag and dug out a bottle of concealer. With practiced hands she gently spread it evenly across my forehead, sat back, and smiled at her handy-work. 'Perfect.'

I turned on the stool to face the mirror and true enough, my forehead looked clear with just a slight orange tint to it, but I could live with that.

'Oh, wait. Oh dear.' Alice sat back on her stool and looked worriedly at my forehead. I found myself groaning for what must have been the tenth time that morning.

'What? What is it now?!'

'It's not that bad.' Lily's tone said it all for me. Turning back round to face the mirror I discovered that the spots (clever little things that they were) had protruded out from the makeup and were now redder that ever. I could have cried.

'Okay, maybe we should just go to Madame Promfrey,' sighed Alice, clearly at a loss as to what to do.

'Who's that?' I asked, cringing. Oh God, please don't let it be one of the teachers. Last thing I want is to be introduced as the spotty new kid.

'She's the school nurse ' replied Lily. 'And don't worry; she's seen far worse than this before.' This girl could clearly read minds. 'But anyway, it's too late to go to her now. We have to get our timetables. We'll just have to wait till after classes. Here - ' Lily reached down the side of her bed and pulled a long red scarf out of her suitcase - 'just use this. Tie it round your head; it'll cover everything.'

'Yeah, she'll just be that weird new girl who thinks going around with a red scarf tied around her head is a good look,' quipped Rena, rolling her blue eyes.

'Well I can't think of anything else so unless you've got some brilliant plan in that blonde head of yours then shut up,' Lily said loftily as she tied the scarf around my forehead. It was incredibly light and seemed to be made of some silken material. 'Just remember who's responsible for this in the first place.'

Renna made to argue but Alice interjected just in time. 'Don't start with that again! Can we please just go down to breakfast? I already have a headache.'

Somehow I was of the opinion that my own head problems were just a little bit worse than hers...


The Great Hall was exactly as it had been last night: packed full of students, the sound of excited chatter coming from all directions, and smelling mouth-wateringly fantastic. This was a side of Hogwarts I had greatly come to appreciate in the short time I had been here: the food. It's not that I find French food abhorrent - most of it anyway - but you just couldn't beat the standard of delectable dishes that appeared on the Hogwarts' tables. It was any food fanatic's dream, and believe me, I liked my food.

The smells of many different breakfast dishes assaulted my nose as I sat between my dorm mates, and normally this would have transformed me into a frenzied, drooling stomach with legs, but not this day. My nervous stomach from last night had returned.

I watched with growing dread as Professor McGonagall slowly made her way down the Gryffindor table, handing out timetables and occasionally giving out snap comments concerning certain pupils' state of dress, or rather undress - as was the case of Black and Potter.

They had each taken off their outer robes to reveal that they were wearing nothing more than their sleeping wear beneath, consisting of an old T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts each. James Potter even had on a long dressing gown over his pajamas; a deep crimson in colour and complete with the Gryffindor lion on the chest.

'So sorry, Professor, but we were told it was casual Monday this morning,' James Potter said, adding to his mislead tone with a poorly executed innocent smile plastered on his face.

'Yeah, Remus here told us it was a new tradition; and he's a Prefect,' smirked Black.

Remus nearly choked on his cereal. 'No I did not!' he exclaimed, looking flushed. 'Don't you dare drag me into this!' Sirius Black winked at him - a friendly gesture that was clearly not returned judging by the annoyed scowl Lupin was sending back.

'Enough!' snapped McGonagall, effectively silencing the amused giggles of the surrounding viewers. 'Ten points from Gryffindor each! And unless you wish to receive a detention I suggest you both go and dress appropriately! Immediately!'

'Better go, James,' Sirius said in a grim tone. 'We don't want to tarnish our impeccable record, after all.'

James nodded to his friend in an equally serious manner. 'You're right, Sirius mate. Can you imagine the scandal if we both got detention on the first day back?'

'I don't even want to think about it, mate,' Sirius replied, shaking his head slowly.

I could see Pettigrew looking on in amusement while Lupin was clearly trying to concentrate on his bowl of cereal, though the twitch of a smile was evident.

'Out now, both of you! Or it will be another ten points each.' McGonagall's voice cracked like a whip and the two boys jumped up from the bench.

'Alright, alright, Professor, we're going!' Potter held up his hands in an apologetic manner, though it was slightly ruined by the large grin taking over his face. The two made their way down the length of the hall; Sirius Black's bum in boxers earning him many appreciative glances along with a few wolf-whistles, while Potter's long red dressing gown billowed impressively out behind him as he strutted towards the door.

Laughter broke out at the table as McGonagall moved on but mine quickly died in my throat as she stopped at our group of girls. 'Timetables, girls,' she said crisply, handing out white sheets of parchment to each of us in turn. 'Miss Carson you've opted to take Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Muggle Studies, is that correct?'

She looked up at me as she handed me the parchment and her eyes were immediately drawn to the red scarf that had taken over my head. 'What on earth are you wearing, Carson?' she demanded in a bemused tone. 'Take that ridiculous thing off at once. I've had quite enough of inappropriate school-wear for one day!'

My brain blanked as I tried to think of a plausible excuse. Luckily for me Renna stepped in.

'She has a - erghm - situation, Professor.'

McGonagall's eyebrows arched in disbelief. 'A situation?'

'Yeah, you see she got into a little spot of bother this morning.' Renna nudged Lily playfully in the ribs who rolled her eyes in return.

'Her forehead is covered in spots, Professor, and she wants to keep it hidden,' cut in Alice.

McGonagall peered at me curiously. 'May I see, Miss Carson?' Glancing around the vicinity to ensure no one was watching I quickly pulled up the scarf - the look on McGonagall's face told me she had seen quite enough.

'Very well, Carson. You may keep the scarf on today but as soon as lessons are finished you go straight to Madame Promfrey, is that understood?'

My heart skipped in relief. 'Yeah, thanks, Professor.' I grinned in triumph as she walked down the table to a group of first years who all looked just about ready to piss themselves.

'Well then, aren't we all happy now?' grinned Renna. 'Lily got her breakfast, Sarah got to wear her scarf, and I get to watch that little first year burst into tears.' We all turned to where she was pointing, and sure enough Professor McGonagall was snapping at a little girl with a big red bow in her hair. Apparently there had been one too many uniform mishaps for McGonagall this morning... 'I just love a happy ending,' Renna sighed.


I know, pretty pointless, but I'm just putting in fillers till I get the plot fully formed. Hope it's not too bad and good news is I'm off for summer now so I'll be able to update more :-)