- Chapter Seven -

About A Favour

No matter how much I valued Professor Slughorn's advice, I had still convinced myself that that would be the last time I would ever talk to James Potter or Sirius Black.

Seriously, it was getting out of hand. I had a yearly quota of Gryffindors that I had already WAY exceeded. So that was that so-called 'friendship'. Done and dusted. Back to my boring routine of eating, sleeping, going to classes, going to the library, and sleeping some more. And eating some more. ALONE. No random encounters with people whose problems were none of my business, to be perfectly honest.

So there I was on a perfectly ordinary day in my perfectly ordinary life, in the library. Minding my own business.

Swish and flick.

A book rose lightly off the table and floated into the air. I directed it with my wand – with the sort of wonder only seen in a first year Charms class – until it hovered in front of a small gap in the massive bookshelf surrounding our desk, swaying slightly - and then when it was perfectly straight, I whipped my wand into the air and the book slid neatly into its place.

I turned back to the dwindling pile of books beside me and caught Aubrey glowering at me over the top of it.

"What are you doing?" he sighed in exasperation.

"I – um – you know. Preparing for the practical exams."

He raised one eyebrow mockingly. "With Hover Charms? That's first year stuff, that is."

"There was a Depulso in there as well," I added sheepishly.

"OK, fourth year, then," he answered, rolling his eyes. "You don't even do Charms any more!"

"Well obviously I was … er, practising some simple non-verbal spells," I said, smiling triumphantly.

He glared at me and then returned to his reading. "You knew non-verbal spells before the OWLs," he replied coolly.

"I –what?" I spluttered. Then I scoffed derisively. "No I didn't –Where the hell are you getting that from?"

He simply smirked. "First day of sixth year. History of Magic. You sat beside me. You summoned a quill from the bottom of your bag without saying a word."

I cursed him under my breath. Why did he have to remember stuff like that? Either that or he was bluffing because he knew I wouldn't remember.

I folded my arms on top of the desk and lay my head comfortably in them. If I could just get through this year I'd be out there making something of my life – once I was free I could do whatever I wanted. But I just had to finish school first.

Hopefully with a few NEWTs under my belt.

I dragged a heavy volume of number charts towards me and made a messy heading on a fresh piece of parchment.

But I was just so bored.

I was staring into space for about ten minutes straight when suddenly I realised I had just pointed my wand at random – and Aubrey's left shirt sleeve was now bright pink.

He jerked back in surprise and then shot me a glare as he pointed his quill menacingly at me.

"I'm sorry," I moaned.

He shook his head in irritation."Argh, look, if you keep acting the maggot I'm gonna have to ask you to move tables!"

I grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry, I'll move now if you want ..."

He just shook his head again and went back to writing his essay.

I peered over his mountains of reference books to see if it was something I should be doing too, but it was just DADA stuff. I blew out my cheeks and lay my head on the table again.

A few minutes later, the corners of my parchment were smouldering.

Aubrey sniffed and glanced up at me, and then did a double-take.

I slapped myself in the face. "Damn it! I'm sorry, I really am. I think I'm going to leave now anyway, I was thinking of having an early lunch – having a little break, you know? I just don't feel like studying, know what-"

"Er, Holly," he muttered.

"- I mean? Yeah, I think I should go get some sugar, I'm finding it really hard to concentr – Er, what?"

"Someone's coming," he said carefully, barely opening his mouth.

"Madam Pince?" I whispered, looking down at my parchment again and hastily scrunching it into a ball. I was already on the librarian's list for failing to recognise the volume limitations of my own voice.

He shook his head, still staring past me. And then -

"Hiya, Holly!"

I stared at the table while trying to convince myself it wasn't the voice I thought it was. Not in the library. No way …

Frowning, I looked up after the longest pause I could risk without seeming rude or deaf or just retarded, to see James Potter standing in front of the desk, grinning widely. He was bobbing up and down slightly, looking way too excited to exist in the library. By his side but just slightly behind him stood Sirius, scanning the room dully with his grey eyes.

Why? Just why were they here? And it wasn't a friendly we-were-just-passing-by-and-thought-we'd-say-hello kind of thing. They were firmly planted on the floor and looking like they meant business.

"Hellooo," I said slowly.

I glanced at Aubrey and he raised his eyebrows with a sly smile. I scowled a little, knowing he must have noticed the first-name usage.

I looked up again and smiled awkwardly. James scratched his head, knocking his glasses a little, and grinned. "Actually, I was wondering if I could have a word," he said matter-of-factly.

I looked down at my barely started Arithmancy homework.

"Outside," he continued.

"I'm actually quite busy here," I teased. "What is it you want to talk about?"

"Yes, you look very busy," put in Sirius, nodding to my blank parchment which was still smoking slightly.

At that Aubrey joined in. "But Holly, didn't you just say you were leaving now anyway?"

I glared at him for a moment. But I grinned in submission as I looked back up at James and Sirius. Sirius straightened the collar of the off-white shirt he was wearing and threw out his chest a little. James pushed the sleeves of his striped jumper up to his elbows and fixed his glasses. They exchanged a glance and I suddenly felt a very strange sense of foreboding.

Then James made a quick move for the wand sticking out of the pocket of his jeans and I instinctively grabbed for my own.

I focused wildly the first thing that came into my head, (Anteoculatia!) before his spell seemed to hit me with a physical force. He staggered a little. A split second later I doubled over and almost whacked my head off the desk, my hands clutching my stomach.

Invisible fingers were scrabbling at my sides as lightly as feathers, and my entire abdominal region was cramping up in pain and protest against the tickles. One hand shot to my mouth as I tried to desperately stifle the mingled screams of pain and of laughter that threatened to escape me, and as I squirmed I ended up falling out of my chair and onto the floor.

All my breath was in my mouth and I knew I couldn't hold it in for long or else I would literally suffocate. Before I could help it I had gasped in a load of air and then let out the cries of mirth, but somehow no sound came out of my mouth.

I rolled around, bent double and cracking up noiselessly, and then I looked up just in time to see Sirius quickly lowering his wand and dashing towards me. I had barely acknowledged how relieved and slightly impressed I was at his well-timed use of a Silencing Charm before I pointed my wand at him and thought, Colloshoo!

He staggered suddenly and then stumbled over his own feet onto the floor. My eyes were streaming now and I just saw James throw one hand protectively over the top of his head before rushing forward and grabbing me by the arm. He dragged me up off the floor and even though my body was instinctively trying to curl up into a ball, he forced me to lean on him as I struggled to stay upright, his grip firm around my shoulders. I obliged to be steered around extensive bookcases towards the exit, vaguely glad that we had been in a far, secluded corner of the library as we walked as naturally as we could past the librarian's desk and then fell out of the door.

Down the corridor, James threw open a tapestry and pulled me into a small alcove that I never knew existed. There, I let myself collapse on the floor and to roll over in pain. My sides were splitting but at least I could breath again. I didn't know what was going on at James's end of the miniature duel but I didn't really care either. (The bastard). At some point the Silencing Charm wore off and my mixed swears came streaming out in stifled groans.

Eventually, after a considerable few minutes of torture recovery, I wiped my wet face and got up a little shakily. A moment later Sirius swung the tapestry open and trudged in with difficulty to join us, wiping his feet on the floor as he went and leaving trails of a sticky green substance behind him.

He glowered at me. "What is your problem? I didn't even do anything!"

But I could see from his eyes that he was laughing and he couldn't stop the grin from cracking across his face.

"I'm sorry!" I laughed. "It was self-defence! But you should be glad that I was writhing on the ground in pain, because if I had been concentrating, your feet would be still stuck to the floor back there for at least half an hour."

"Yeah, I'm very glad you're so ticklish," he goaded, his eyes twinkling with amusement. "That was a good move, Ja-"

We both looked over at James and froze. For a moment Sirius stared at his friend, and then he exploded into raucous laughter. I slapped a hand over my mouth which was still sore from grinning.

A perfect pair of antlers were sticking out of his messy black hair, spread branch-like and still forming as we watched, like two trees growing in fast-motion. When they were at a reasonable size they slowed down and then stopped altogether.

Sirius took a moment out of rolling on the floor to point at his friend and choke out, "Prongs!"

James laughed harshly. He turned to me and made a face that was somewhere in between a grin and a grimace. "Would you fix this already?" he shot out impatiently, pointing to his head.

I was still trying not to laugh and Sirius was not helping. "What? Your hair looks fine, mate," I grinned. James clenched his teeth and I rolled my eyes. "All right, I'm sorry, it should wear off pretty soon. And don't worry about it; antlers really suit you!"

Sirius laughed all the louder and James scowled. I would have felt bad but that Tickling Charm was real torture! I felt worse about Sirius's good leather shoes which were now squelching ectoplasm all over the stone floor.

When Sirius finally stopped laughing, I said, "Er, I'm sorry about your shoes."

"You should be," he replied, his voice suddenly cold. But he still couldn't keep a straight face and immediately grinned and rubbed his face with one hand. "It's fine, I'm sure ectoplasm comes off leather."

He kicked out a foot in disgust and then hopped on the spot to examine the shoe more closely.

James cleared his throat and turned on me with his arms folded. "Now, that was all very unnecessary, don't you think?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Since I was willing to come quietly before you went and ambushed me."

He opened his mouth to retort but Sirius looked up and cut across him in a loud voice. "Well now that we're all here can we please just get down to business?"

James didn't say anything.

"Er, yeah. So what was it that you wanted?" I asked casually.

James looked at me and his scowl slowly turned into a grin. He exchanged a look with Sirius, who rolled his eyes and continued wiping his shoes off the corner of the wall.

Antlers bobbing, James turned back to me.

"I actually wanted to ask you a favour," he said importantly.

I paused for a moment. I really had no idea what he could possibly want from me in terms of a favour. Well, if it had anything to do with talking to Lily Evans I was out.

"You just attacked me in the library," I said, grinning. "Why should I do you a favour?"

James's confidence seemed to waver a little, and he glanced at Sirius - who was still busy with his shoes - before saying in a hopeful voice, "Because you're a really, really, really nice person?"

I laughed a little. Sirius siphoned the rest of the ectoplasm away with his wand and then admired the effect, before returning his attention to the conversation.

James had his big brown eyes out again. "And did I already mention that I love you and you're the best fr-"

"OK, OK! What's this favour?"

James took a deep breath and then looked thoughtful for a moment. He contemplated me with a small smile. "Well, you see … I hear that you're the best in the year at Divination."

I stopped and stared at him for a moment, wondering if I had simply heard him wrong. And then I burst out laughing, holding my aching stomach muscles. "You're having a laugh! Where'd you hear that from?"

"Oh, everyone says it," he said calmly, though he seemed a little thrown off by my behaviour. "Well, are you?"

I stopped laughing. "Er … Well I get good enough grades," I said carefully. When he didn't say anything for a moment I continued. "Is this related to the favour?"

"Oh, yes," he said mysteriously. He swelled excitedly as he lowered his head and grinned. "You … are going … to tell … my future!"

He nodded and beamed, as if it was the most spectacular treat any of us could have thought of.

I stared at him for at least three full minutes in silence, trying to understand what he could possibly mean by that. When I couldn't figure it out, I started laughing again.

James folded his arms and tapped his foot until I stopped.

I studied him, shaking my head. "How's that a favour?" I asked.

His face lit up again. "Well, you can look into my future, and see when I get with Evans! And you'll see how I win her over in the end, so then I'll know how to do it! Because," he added hastily, "I know I will get with her at some point. I just need to know when … and, er, how …"

I groaned a little and rubbed my neck awkwardly. "But if you think you're destined to get with her or something, then shouldn't it just happen without-"

"Holly, I'm desperate here!" he whined. "I just need a bit of hope to keep me going! Do you want me to lose hope? Do you?"

I shook my head and made a face.

"Look," I started, and then paused for a long moment.

James watched me attentively and I met his eyes painfully.

I took a deep breath before starting again. "You know Divination is a load of shit, right?"

James blinked and opened and closed his mouth a few times. I looked at Sirius and he was staring at me sternly with his eyebrows lowered.

"If it's a load of shit then why do you take it?" he asked bluntly.

"Because I can literally make it up as I go along," I answered. He continued to stare and I laughed a little timidly. "You know, learn a few symbols and pretend you know what you're talking about."

James was still acting like he had been hit over the back of the head with a broomstick.

Sirius just gaped at me, eyebrows almost reaching his hairline now. "You're a complete chancer," he said breathlessly. He turned to James, his face torn between a serious expression and a slightly baffled smile. "She's a complete chancer!"

He looked back at me and shook his head, smiling. He looked almost impressed. I made a weird sort of laugh in my throat.

"I never would have expected it from you," he said in mock-outrage. "But then again, I never would have thought you were a big drinker either, but you proved me wrong on that ..."

Then James seemed to come to his senses and waved a hand dismissively at his friend, while still staring fixedly at me. "Just answer one question. Have you ever in your life seen anything in a crystal ball?"

I opened my mouth and then almost immediately closed it again.

James grinned triumphantly. "That's a good enough answer for me!"

There was a pause. "That wasn't an answer!" said Sirius and I at the same time.

"Well it's good enough for me," he said, smiling contently. "Now, go get your things and we can get started straight away!"

He turned around and headed out from behind the tapestry.

"What, so I don't even get a choice in this?" I called.

"No!"

Sirius held open the tapestry for me and I huffed a little. He smirked and rolled his eyes. "Don't you know us at all?"

"Not really," I replied, a little affronted. "So you're just using me for my Seeing abilities, am I right?"

James spun on the spot halfway down the hall, looking very offended. "No way! We're not users!"

"Yeah," drawled Sirius sarcastically, "this is just his excuse to hang out with you some more."

"Oh my-" James started furiously, and made to hit Sirius but he dodged it, smirking nastily.

"Honestly, guys, I don't care in the slightest. But I'm just saying, there's loads of other people in the year who are good at Divination and are way more into it than I am!"

"Yes, but you're our favourite," James replied with a wink.

Sirius snorted.

I followed James, whose antlers had now shrunk almost all the way back into his head, back to the door of the library and, reluctantly, I entered.

I thought vaguely of just sitting back down and continuing with my work, but they were still right behind me. I greeted Aubrey somewhat wearily.

"Sorry we're stealing this one from you, mate," said James, nudging me playfully.

Aubrey stared at me with a knowing smirk that made me want to strangle him."Oh, not at all. That is quite all right."

I threw my bag over my back with a grimace. "Sorry about disturbing you again. But don't mind me, I'm just being forced to divine the future against my will." I picked up my books and James immediately took them from me. I didn't know if he was just being nice or if it was a means of making sure I didn't make a run for it.

"See you, Aubrey!" he said cheerfully.

"Bye," I muttered.

Down the hall a few minutes later I said, "I really was trying to study, you know."

Sirius grinned at me. "Yeah. Studying your boyfriend ..."

I choked, half-laughing and half-dying. "My what?"

"Your boyfriend Bertram," he sang, clasping his hands together and gazing dreamily into the distance.

I laughed loudly. "Ha. I think I might vomit."

He just raised his eyebrows and smirked arrogantly.

"You can think of this as studying if you like," mused James. "I mean, how often do you get to put this stuff into real-life practice? It's a great opportunity, really."

"But I could do this whenever I want," I reasoned.

He waved a hand dismissively.

A few minutes later Sirius said, "Why do I have to be part of this?"

"Why do I have to be part of this?" I asked, grinning.

"Shut up you two," was all James answered.

Sirius groaned loudly and dragged his feet along the ground.

I watched him for a moment, suddenly getting a revelation. I had thought more than once that Sirius didn't like me much, mostly because he acted a bit standoffish sometimes when I was with them. But so far, I had only ever been talking to them about something James had in his head about Lily Evans. He had definitely been a bit off that first night in the kitchens. Well, I couldn't really blame him if he was simply bored of James's long-term crush, could I? I could see how that could get old pretty quickly.

But now that I think about it, James is a little bit … domineering, isn't he? A lot of the times when I was talking to both of them, it felt almost like Sirius wasn't even there. Maybe it was just too easy for Sirius to step into the background when the attention was on James. Which seemed to be the case a lot of the time … It seemed that James's problems were always a dominant conversation topic between them.

His words about the situation came back into my head. He's my best friend. Well, I suppose that's not something I can understand. And I had decided after last time that I would stop trying to figure Sirius Black out, because it just didn't work. But … still. He wasn't a quiet guy, that much was clear. And yet he would often withdraw from these conversations.

"Where are we going anyway?" I said, after wandering purposefully down random corridors and staircases for a while.

James turned around and stared at me. "Are you joking? I was following you!"

"Then why are you leading us?" I exclaimed.

James shook his head in disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"No …" I said slowly. "I'm Holly."

He opened his mouth but Sirius cut in. "Where are we going?"

We all stood for a few seconds, looking around blankly.

"… The Divination room?" I offered.

James and Sirius exchanged a significant look of the sort that one could only associate with best friends or very close siblings; the type that makes you convinced they can read each other's minds.

Or maybe they just knew Legilimency.

"I dunno. Professor Mopsus seemed a right sight happy to see the back of us after the OWLs."

"Even if he is blind."

"Especially after the incident with the Nose-Biting Teacups-"

"-Or when we dropped a bag of Fizzing Whizzbees in the teapot-"

"-Or when all the crystal balls mysteriously disappeared from the room and then turned up at the Slytherin Quidditch team training session-"

"-Or when your star chart got too friendly with Uranus-"

"-No, that was you! My stars always told me I was going to snog Evans that week-"

"-And mine always said I'd persecute a bunch of Slytherins-"

"-At least yours always came true. Oh, and your palm said you'd marry your cousin-"

"-Urgh, and yours said you'd drop dead of happiness just after Evans finally agreed to go out with you-"

"-Shut up! And you were going to become a homicidal maniac-"

"-Ah, yes, that's always been the dream."

" Not to mention the Exploding Potion that accidentally fell into that perfumed fire of his-"

"- Blew apart half the room, it did."

"I always wondered who did that," I said.

They looked around at me as if they had forgotten that I was there. Sirius gave a small sigh.

There was another silence before he said, "So where to?"

I paused. "Well ... it depends on what method you want to use, really. We don't have to use crystal balls and things, we could easily just go to the Great Hall and get some tea. Leaves, I mean. It's all the same."

James made a thoughtful noise but then made a face. He smiled hopefully at me. "I was sort of hoping we could do the whole lot. We could make a day of it!"

I scratched the back of my neck. "They're all the same thing, though. We shouldn't need to use loads of methods to give us the same answer."

"If you think different methods will give us the same answer, then that doesn't sound like it's a load of shit," said Sirius.

I shook my head and smiled weakly. "I just … I don't want to get your hopes up or anything. It's not going to be concrete information. We won't be able to find out the exact way in which Lily Evans falls for you. It's all down to interpreting pictures, you know?"

"Don't you worry about that," said James. "I know you'll do your best."

I made a face. He really shouldn't trust me so much. "Well, we still don't have a crystal ball. But we could still do – er, let's see – tessomancy, palmistry, cartomancy … er, dream interpretation …" My voice faded out unimpressively and I realised just how bad this was going to be.

I looked up at Sirius to see him scratching his chin in thought. He glanced up and looked from James to me and back. "Well … The other night when I was .. er, coming back from the kitchens," (he hesitated, shooting me a significant look before turning back to James) "I was up on the seventh floor and saw" (he stopped again and exchanged a glance with James) "I mean, I heard Filch coming, so I hid out in this little broom cupboard." James and I looked at each other, wondering if this story had a point to it. "And there were some dusty old crystal balls in there," he added.

I wondered briefly if Sirius had ever told James about our meeting down in the kitchens that night.

We all looked at each other, and James said, "OK! So will we go get them?"

"Sure," I said slowly, "but where are we going to go after that?"

"We can figure that out when we get there," replied James, waving his hand in my face and heading off towards the Grand Staircase.

Along the seventh floor corridor, Sirius stopped suddenly and turned around. He walked backwards, staring at the wall.

"It was right here," he said, looking around.

I stopped and turned around as well. Sirius was carefully studying the blank wall of the hallway. Opposite him, some of the trolls in the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy had turned around and were now watching us. Barnabas himself clumsily tipped his hat to me, looking a little dishevelled.

"Maybe it's just up here," said James from up ahead.

Sirius shook his head in confusion. "Mm ..." He walked back to us uncertainly.

He reached my side but I hadn't moved. I was gazing transfixed at the wall opposite the tapestry, out of which an intricate, polished door had just appeared out of nowhere.

He must have noticed my distraction because he spun around and let out a cry of triumph, and headed for the door.

"That was not there a second ago," I said quietly.

James passed me in a rush and made for the door, which Sirius had just pulled open by the brass handle, grinning widely.

James disappeared quickly into the mysterious room, and Sirius indicated into it with his head to me before following.

I stared at the open door and then around the corridor. Some of the trolls in the tapestry were grunting and hooting at me now.

I grimaced and walked forwards towards the door and followed the two boys into it.


Sorry for the delay on this one! My computer decided to commit suicide halfway through the week, but it's all good now! I hope this chap was especially good to compensate :D