Disclaimer: The world of Hogwarts and any recognisable characters, descriptions, scenarios etc, belong to JKR and the concept and some dialogues of the character Wicked Witch belong to the makers of Gossip Girl

Chapter name credit: The War of the Roses


James Potter was ranting. He was furious, confused and hurt. His friends thought he was hurt physically but only James himself knew of the emotional stab he had felt.

Remus Lupin was a werewolf. Being a lycanthrope, he had the privilege of being trusted by Madam Pomfrey, and therefore held the much envied access to her medicine cupboard. Patiently he listened to James rant as he applied the thick orange burn-healing paste to his friend's face.

James flinched at the contact of his friends fingertips with his irritated skin. He immediately felt a cool sensation as the inflamed and sore skin returned to normal.

'You're lucky it was a minor burn, mate', Remus started

James just shrugged. Finally after half an hour of uninterrupted ranting he was speechless. Allowing the paste to work its magic on his damaged face.

'Thanks', he said quietly once Remus was done. And got up from his friend's bed to make way to his own. He stripped down to his boxers and got into bed.

He felt awkward lying on his back, he favoured to be on his side or on his stomach, but he didn't want the paste to come off, he couldn't risk having shrivelled up burnt skin. It was a matter of pride and vanity.


Elsewhere, in the fifth year girl dormitories six girls were laughing.

Mary McDonald giggled away with her friends, looking fairly comical given that her eyes were still bloodshot from crying. Eventually it just looked like she had been crying of laughter as Lily and Marlene re-enacted the encounter of James Potter with Lily.

They had made it all the more comical by adding a hint of magic. Marlene had coloured her hair temporarily black and clipped it in a way to appear messy and short to mimic James' hairstyle. She had made her robes bigger and looser and added some eyeliner to thicken her eyebrows and just for the fun of it drawn on a goatie. She tried to deepen her voice to mimic his male one but only managed to sound like a cat that had been repeatedly thrown at a brick wall. She had changed the colour of her blue eyes to brown to complete the look.

Lily had taken it a step further by making her voice unnaturally high. But by the sounds of it she might as well have inhaled loads of helium gas.

The encounter itself had gone by in a blur and since no one really remembered what the two of them had said to each other so they had proceeded to come up with the oddest of retorts for each other, the original conversation, if one could call it that, was forgotten.

'You with your froggy eyes' Marlene laughed

'Your eyes are the colour of shit' Lily retorted and all the girls started laughing like there was no tomorrow.

'I have brown eyes!' Dorcas yelled, still laughing.

'I like brown eyes, just not on Potter' Lily defended her joke

'Yeah and Potter's eyes aren't brown or hazel, Dorcas', Marlene began, 'they're the colour of shit'. And the girls howled with laughter once more

Yes, Mary was particularly glad for the friends she had.


Lily. A simple four lettered word. The given name of an ordinary flower. That's all it was. No, in fact this word had been plaguing James Potter for the entire night. He lay in bed unable to get her out of his mind. The eye-catching hair, the heart-piercing eyes, the million galleon smile. And not just the way she looked but the things she did as well. She was by no means a pushover, but he had seen her vulnerable. He knew how much her friends meant to her, hell he had felt how much they had meant to her. Perhaps it was as much as his friends meant to him. Almost. There were some standards of loyalty that were rarely surpassed and becoming animagi fro a friend was one of those standards.

Perhaps I should make good use of this time and touch up on the remaining research instead of thinking about some girl. Though in the deep recesses of his mind the idea lingered that for once this was not just some girl.

Sighing deeply he threw the covers off himself and got out of his warm bedding. Shivering slightly in the chilly still air of the room. Looking around he found a pair of simple black robes that he could wear on top of his boxers. Being decent enough to leave his safe haven he left the dorms grabbing some silvery material and seemingly tattered bit of parchment on the way out.

If one was lingering in the shadows outside the Gryffindor common room entrance they would have been confused and intrigued by the self opening portrait hole as no one was going in or coming out. What made the scenario curious was the soft footfalls that were coming from air. But if one really listened into the thin air one could potentially hear soft breathing indicating a human's presence.

Argus Filch was a character that paid attention to such detail. Taking the craft of busting rule breakers as seriously as Dementors took kissing law breakers. He treaded the castle stealthily looking for any tell tale signs of stragglers and for once at night he came up with none. He considered briefly abandoning the patrolling and retiring to his own quarters but as he was about to give in to the temptation of sleep his conscience stopped him and he conceded to making one more round and then leaving the shadows to join the comfort of his warm inviting bed.

James had made it into the library successfully having avoided anyone and everyone- namely Filch and the love of his life- Mrs. Norris. He approached the restricted section slowly and cautiously, acutely aware of the amount of noise the scurry of a mouse could make in the library. He glanced at the bit of parchment he had grabbed on his way out- it was easily visible as a map, fine lines showed the castle and everyone in it. Satisfied upon seeing himself outside any sane person's and even Mrs. Norris' hearing distance he opened the large door that separated the restricted section from the rest of the library. As expected the loud click echoed in the room. One could almost feel the vibrations through the air.

It was now four in the morning and James felt like a true geek. Of all places to break into in the dead of the night he had chosen the library. His father wouldn't believe it. Actually, his father was probably convinced that James was unaware of the existence of that blasphemous underground location called the library- where the dastardly scrolls of knowledge were held. James grinned to himself thinking of this and slightly prideful of the imaginative reference to the library and the books that lived there. This bout of pure genius would be undoubtedly wasted on Peter, Sirius would shrug and overlook it deeming any reference to academia unless it was mandatory insignificant, Remus however would be proud.

Fifteen minutes later James was frustrated. There was nothing in the books he didn't already know and there was nothing he could occupy his mind with any more. Without a doubt by the next full moon the animagus transformations would be complete and Remus would never have to suffer alone. Ironically the next full moon fell on Halloween night. A fitting start to a new-found tradition.

Still draped under his silver cloak with a selection of books regarding animagi and the tattered parchment come map cluttered around him on the floor, James Potter was sat.

After reading and rereading the warnings, precautions etcetera associated with becoming an animagus James sat silently with the events of the evening freshly imprinted in his mind.


He and Sirius walked out of the Great Hall, leaving the gossipers in their wake following the Wicked Witch blast. He thought that it was a noble idea to apologise to the girl for what had happened though it was no secret that she had an equal perhaps a greater role to play in her unfaithfulness than Sirius.

Sirius remained thankfully quiet in their trip and they did not bother trying to cut the girls off by making it to the tower before them. They did not even bother to consult the map, fairly certain that the girls would be headed to Gryffindor Tower- it would act as a sanctuary for them.

In fact they were in no hurry whatsoever, they walked at a leisurely pace, James was secretly hoping that the worst of the crying would e over by the time they would make it there.

The long walk along with purposely missing the needed staircase as they moved randomly took them little under ten minutes.

They murmured the password to the fat lady and walked into the empty common room. Unsurprisingly the girls ad probably gone into their dormitory.

'What do I even say to her?' Sirius asked quietly

'Tell her you are sorry, and that she is not alone in what happened'

'But she will most likely bite my head off and hex me'

'Take it like a man' James shrugged and smiled at his friend deviously

'Fine' Sirius grumbled. 'Any bright idea on how to bring her down to the common room?'

'Not exactly, I was hoping that they would be in the common room, but its hardly surprising that they would opt for their dorm, yelling her name might do it'

Sirius looked at James with a rare straight face for a moment. He then walked determinedly to the foot of the stair to the girls dormitories and yelled 'McDonald'

Sirius waited for a few moments patiently waiting for a reply as did James, a meter or so behind him.

Upon receiving no reply Sirius screamed her name again and repeatedly so until two girls, both carrying steaming mugs of what smelled like hot chocolate, appeared before him wearing identical scowls

'What is it Black?' Marlene asked

'I need to speak to McDonald, ask her to come down please?'

'Why?' Lily asked

'I want to speak to her, that's why' Sirius replied irritably, 'just tell her to come down and I'll leave here alone, okay?'

Lily nodded to Marlene and wordlessly went upstairs leaving Marlene with the boys

Moments later a Mary McDonald appeared with her pitifully tear-stained face and pink puffy eyes. Lily was with her with her arm around the depressed girl's waist.

'I wanted to apologise' Sirius began. 'I'm sorry that you were ambushed like that, I never should have complied-'

'Complied?' Mary interrupted. Her eyes flashing dangerously. 'I was under the influence. You took advantage of a girl with impaired judgement' she yelled

'Hey hang on a second. You came to me. You initiated it and I followed suit- I'm a guy' Sirius retorted

'That's your excuse, "I'm a guy"' she said viscously making air quotes

'You're taking this out of context' James intervened, he wanted Sirius to apologise and instead of being thankful that he was sorry and willing to take up his part of the blame she was making it out as though she had not consented to their activities that evening. LIE. Sirius was careful when it came to such things. Rape was never something he would indulge in.

'YOU STAY OUT OF THIS', Mary screamed. 'You come here with your pompous attitude with your head held high to oh so kindly share the guilt' she said

'Hey, this is not fair. I came to apologise, James convinced me to do so, don't be so difficult and lash out at him.' Sirius was getting angry now, no one screamed at his best friend like that.

'The entire school thinks I'm a slut and it's all your fault' Mary yelled.

'It's not like you didn't part take it' James said meanly.

'How dare you?' The words were not uttered from Mary's mouth. They had come from the girl next to her. Lily.

'How dare I? How dare she insinuate that she had nothing to do with it, she's twisting the events up making it appear as though Sirius took unfair advantage of her while she was drunk' James tried to justify. He was well in his right to do so.

Sirius did not have to come up to apologise, but he had, and instead of taking the apology graciously Mary was lashing out at him- that in James' opinion was unfair

'She's upset' Marlene yelled at James.

'And she's well in her right to be so as well' Lily added on

'That does not give her the right to hurl accusations at me and nor does it give the right to any of you to yell at him' Sirius retorted

'But he does not ave the right to come here to condescend her' Lily argued

'I am not here to make her feel bad about herself. I told Sirius to come up here to apologise because it's unfair that she has to deal with the gossip surrounding her alone'

'Well it certainly doesn't seem like that' Marlene said stubbornly

'Well things are not always as they seem. Sirius came to apologise. He's sorry for the problems this has created for you, and it's unfair that you are being so ungrateful about this' James said and instantly regretted using the word "ungrateful"

'Ungrateful?' Mary said. And then she screamed in frustration.

'How kind and thoughtful of you to think it would all be fine because the great James Potter and Sirius Black have come to apologise' Marlene said venomously. Each syllable laced with sarcasm

The sarcasm was not lost on James.

'You don't have to be such a frigid bitch about this' James retorted

'You bastard' Lily yelled coming to the defence of her best friend. 'If you had come here to apologise then you would have apologised and be done with it. You wouldn't be here aggravating the situation like you are now. Take your pompous ass away from Mary and don't come within a close radius of her' she yelled

'What are you going to do? Pass a restraining order?' James retorted.

The reference wasn't lost on her. He saw it in her eyes. She knew that he knew. And in that moment of realisation panic settled in her. And she made first impulsive movement her reflexes allowed to harm him. Her left arm was still securely around Mary but her right held the mug with steaming hot chocolate she had made in the dorms to help ease the mood in the dorm.

With one spontaneous movement, before she had known what she had gone and done, her mind registered Potter yelping in pain. She had then realised that her mug was somehow suddenly empty.

James himself registered two things, 1- that Lily Evans was perfectly capable to throwing hot liquids at people she did not want in her company and 2- the said hot liquid had burnt his face.

'James' Sirius had screamed as Lily had chucked her drink at James' face and James himself had let out a gasp of pain. Lily herself had stormed off back upstairs, forcing Mary along with her ad Marlene quickly sprinted up after Lily and Mary leaving Sirius to deal with James.


That was not how James had wanted his first encounter with Evans to go. It was the complete opposite of how he wanted to speak to her. They would chat civilly, both realising their common traits- loyalty to their friends, academic brilliance, their common house and he was certain there was much more.

Suddenly there was a sharp sound- the sound of the door to the restricted section opening. Quickly consulting the map he saw three dots in close vicinity to him- Avery, Mulciber and Snape.

Rising quickly and somehow noiselessly he grabbed the books around him and placed them under a desk so it would appear as though someone had hidden these books so no one would take them out and not so that it appeared as though someone who was at this present moment in the library was reading these books. Pointing his wand to the map he whispered 'Mischief managed'. His voice was barely audible.

Adrenaline was pumping in his veins reading to fight them and then flee from the scene. His heart beat increased- an annoying stimuli as that made his head throb.

Peering from around a bookcase he saw the three figures hunched over a book that the middle figure was opening to a previously marked page. The greasy curtains around his face and his monotone voice when he said 'here it is' indicated that it was Snape

'This is perfect' came the silky voice of Mulciber

'Yeah, that'll put the mudbloods in their place' Avery agreed

James' clenched his fists at the offending word. It took all his self control to not begin hexing the boys there and then but his pride stood in his way as much as common sense did. Gryffindors did not attack the unsuspecting- at least not when the Gryffindor himself was invisible- it was unfair advantage. And common sense told him that he was outnumbered and therefore it was not an opportune moment to attack.

'I say we pick ourselves a nice little Gryffindor' Avery continued. And James became more frantic

'This spell will be best used on a girl' Snape offered and the other two offered murmurs of agreement.

'I've already made the notes on it...' Snape began

'I want to cast it' Mulciber said, interrupting Snape

Silence

'That's a good idea', Snape agreed.

'Right let's go, I think Filch will be coming this way soon' Avery said and the boys began to leave.

Snape took the bookmark out and slipped the book back in its place. James noted the tattered dark green leather-bound cover.

As the three boys turned to leave James could no longer control himself. It was one thing to insult muggleborns. Racism was not something James took lightly, but a threat to a fellow Gryffindor arose a strong feeling of protectiveness in him.

In anger he pointed his wand quietly at the table the boys were still behind and uttered a curse that caused the table to fly backwards with great force taking the offending trinity with it till they hit a large bookcase. Upon the contact the table exploded and the splinters fell around like rain, most of them penetrated the boys- something James was very happy about. The impact with the bookcase itself caused the respective bookcase to fall over causing a cascade effect and all the bookcases in that line fell back like dominoes making a lot of noise.


Argus Filch was almost done with the last of his rounds. He had needed to check the library but somehow he doubted that straggling students would be found in there. But you could never really know. So when the loud thuds sounded from the library he was surprised to say the least, then angry and then relieved that he had not gone to bed.

Carrying his lamp and with his beloved Mrs. Norris at his feet e quietly and swiftly walked to the restricted section of the library

'Who's there?' he called in his hard voice that struck fear into the hearts of most students

James upon hearing the voice panicked momentarily. Swiftly he opened Snape's bag and "borrowed" his quill and parchment and left a little note saying 'Hope that hurt' which he then duplicated twice for each of the three boys and tucked it in their robes. He then swiftly grabbed the book he thought the boys had been looking at but just to be safe he grabbed a number of books from the area the book would have been placed. Better safe than sorry, he thought and he fled the scene smirking as he walked right by Filch who saw the great mess in the library and the three boys lying there unconscious.


By the next morning it came as no surprise that Wicked Witch had chosen to mention the news of the night for the morning.

The ceiling had changed to the WW logo signalling the upcoming gossip...

Wicked Witch here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Hogwarts elite. I bet your wondering what Gossip Girl is doing up so early. Truth is I never went to bed why waste precious time dreaming when waking life is so much better. While the vast population of Hogwarts talked about the battle between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw I was witnessing a civil war within the most loyal themselves (the ceiling changed to show Lily chucking her boiling hot chocolate at James' face). Gryffindors at war. Mmmm. Yummy. But as the night progressed so did the battles though the only booty collected was by Filch in the form of three Slytherins (the ceiling changed to show Snape, Avery and Mulciber being reprimanded by the caretaker surrounded by the ruins that James had caused- not that any but James himself knew that). Though they say that love makes the world goes round, hate makes it so much more interesting. Surely Slytherins' Trinity did not harm themselves so come into my favour by finding out who did it- after all the worst enemies are the ones we don't know about. And who am I? That's a secret I'll never tell. You know you love me. XOXO Wicked Witch


Well hello there :)

So it's been a while. But in my defence, it's a lot sooner than my last update *smiles cheekily*

Sorry about the wait. But as its summer I have a lot more time on my hands to write so hopefully there will be more frequent updates.

Thank you everyone who reviewed- your words never fail to bring a smile to my face.

Also, usually I spend days just proofreading my writing but right now I simply cannot be bothered, and it just gets tedious to reread what you have already written so I'm looking for a beta reader- any takers? Let me know via private messaging and I'll read your stories and get back to you.

Also, please review- I know you're reading and it'll just be so much more motivating to write knowing there are people waiting to see what happens next. Let's not forget there's two things that will DEFINITELY come back to haunt my characters 1- Marlene's one night stand and 2- the devious plan the Slytherins are hatching...

So yeah, it'll be nice to get some feedback. With hope I will not have to resort to asking for a set number of reviews before I next update...

Anyway, I'm rambling now

Love, Paris

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