Don't own Harry Potter...I need to get writing more before school. Enjoy!
The two spent the rest of Arithmancy brainstorming and ignoring Lily and Sirius, who kept shooting them dirty looks since they were forced to sit together in the back of the room. It was rather fun planning with James, who, Montgomery had to admit, was very bright. But as their conversation continued out into the hall, he raised a protesting hand.
"Now, now, I know you want to get back at him for snogging someone else," he started, ignoring Montgomery's denying sputters, "but we can't be seen canoodling or Sirius might get suspicious."
Montgomery rolled her eyes but nodded in agreement.
"We'll think it over some more tonight," he said just as Sirius walked out of the classroom. James ushered him towards the Great Hall, speaking avidly about lunch.
Meanwhile, Lily had rounded on Montgomery for her mutinous actions. "What was that about?" she hissed as the two girls meandered through the bustling crowd, "and why were you talking to Potter?"
"O come off it, he's not so bad." Lily gave her a look of exasperation. "Besides, great minds think alike. The guy's a lot smarter than he looks, Lil."
"I'm so sure," she said sarcastically. "The only things going on in that prat's mind are Quidditch and well-endowed, German redheads." Montgomery rolled her eyes again but could tell that the argument was going nowhere and decided to keep her mouth shut as she began silently plotting her next prank.
However, she was soon distracted from her musings as they sat down at the Gryffindor table and noticed Sirius being pulled roughly by the arm to sit with Alison's friends. He looked pleadingly at James, Remus and Peter but they were all failing miserably to hide their laughter behind their hands. Montgomery smirked and pointed out the scuffle to Lily, who snorted and mumbled something along the lines of, "Stupid git deserves a crazy girlfriend."
A few nights later, while Alison and some of her third year friends were fawning over Sirius in the corner of the Gryffindor common room, James and Montgomery pretended to work on their Arithmancy essay.
"If we're gonna get Severus to do it, we must get Sirius out of the room…" pointed out Montgomery as she sorted intently through her notes. "We could land him in the hospital wing," she suggested nonchalantly.
"Nothing serious though, he is my best mate after all," sighed James as he crossed something out on his parchment.
"Did I hear my name?" asked Sirius raggedly as he shook off the girls and stumbled over to their table.
"Nope," said Montgomery innocently as she skimmed the index of her Arithmancy book. Sirius took the seat next to her and started indifferently reading through her essay.
"I should really be working on mine but," he started, looking fearfully back at Alison, who was waving airily at him from across the room, "girls mate."
James looked up at him with a smirk that faltered as Lily came in through the portrait hole. "Know exactly what you mean."
"Me too! The Missus is always giving me trouble," sighed Montgomery loudly before breaking out into giggles.
"Well, if you didn't look like such a bloke, you wouldn't have that problem," teased James as he started putting books back in his bag. "We'll go over it some more tomorrow," he added, pulling Sirius out of his chair. "Come on, I told Moony we'd meet him in the library."
"See you later," mumbled Montgomery as she read over her sorry excuse for an essay.
Lily took Sirius's seat and began reading over Montgomery's shoulder. "I should probably have a look at that before you hand it in," she laughed amiably as she snatched the parchment from Montgomery's hands and started making corrections.
"Thanks," she sighed as she looked aimlessly at her empty hands. Even if she got along okay with James, hanging out with him just wasn't the same as when she was wandering the halls with Janis. At the very least, she didn't have to put up with cracks about her androgyny when she was with Janis.
Just as Montgomery was about to go to the Owlery to send her best friend a letter, there was a loud ruckus just outside the portrait hole.
"Miss Rodriguez, the headmaster has requested to see you…" sounded an irritated Professor McGonagall from the hall.
"I don't give a rats ass about what that old fart has requested!" retorted a familiar voice angrily. "I haven't seen Monty in months!" With a final cry of defiance, Janis came tumbling through the portrait hole, balancing several boxes in each hand. Montgomery jumped up from her chair (scattering several half-finished papers in the process) and ran towards Janis.
"Monty!" she cried as all of her packages went tumbling to the floor. The two hugged each other as Professor McGonagall tripped over the boxes towards them.
"Honestly, is that the way to speak of the headmaster? Detention, Miss Rodriguez!" she sputtered angrily before marching out of the common room. They both ignored her.
"How's your grandmother?" Monty finally asked as she dragged Janis over to sit by the fire. Janis's face fell a little.
"Well, she didn't make it," she started sadly but then her face broke into a wide smile. "But she left my family her entire fortune! I had no idea she was so well off! There's a whole castle waiting for us in Spain!" As she said this, she rummaged around in her robes and pulled out some muggle photographs, handing them to Montgomery.
"Wow, that's so cool," she said, flipping through the pictures of her friend's newly inherited palace. "Sorry to hear about your grandmother, though," she added.
"O, well she was pretty old for a muggle. And she lived every minute of her life to the fullest. You see that?" Janis said, pointing to a picture of a red motorcycle. "That was her Ducati. And she left it to me. You should have seen the faces of my brothers when they heard that part of the will."
They both laughed, but Montgomery was a bit lost. "So…what is it?" Janis laughed harder at this.
"It's like a car, but smaller and faster and loads of fun to ride. My grandmother used to take me through Europe on the back of it, drove my parents mad!"
"She sounds really cool," Montgomery said eagerly, still looking at the Ducati. Her interest in the vehicle did not go unnoticed.
"You know," started Janis mischievously, "there's a whole garage full of these at the house in Spain. You should stay with me this summer."
The very idea of her parents' faces as she sped off into the sunset on a motorcycle was enough to get Montgomery to agree. "But that's a ways off, it's only September after all," she sighed as she wandered over to the hazardous pile of boxes blocking the entrance to the common room. "What's in all these, by the way?"
"Souvenirs from Spain," Janis answered simply. "There's one for almost everyone. Wanna help me carry them upstairs? You could open your's early."
"Definitely!" Montgomery grabbed several boxes and ran up the stairs to their dorm, her Arithmancy homework lying forgotten on the table. "Come on, Lily!" she shouted behind her.
Lily rolled her eyes before getting slowly to her feet. "Alright, alright!" she mumbled. "But you really have no head for numbers, you know!" she complained loudly as she followed them, missing a step every once and a while as she continued crossing out whole paragraphs of Montgomery's essay. "I never should have made you take this class."
Sorry this one is so short! It wasn't actually gonna be the whole thing but it's just been sitting, half-finished on my screen for at least a week like this giant, useless blob and I figured I would submit it anyway. Maybe now that it's out of the way, I can continue with whatever is going to happen next.
Not that it will affect the next few chapters much, but would you guys prefer a happy or sad ending? I like sad endings better because they're more realistic. Like...if you guys saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, I loved that bittersweetness. Simply amazing. Anyway, R&R and tell me which you would prefer, because I am honestly torn about which way this story is going to turn.
Anyway, are you guys curious about the prank? I certainly am, it's driving me nuts figuring out how it's gonna work :D
Happy reading!