Chapter 9: The Beginning
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Argh! Lily opened her eyes unwillingly. She was starting to have this wonderful dream of James Potter when the alarm clock went off. Where am I? This is not even my bed! It took her a few seconds before she registered the fact that she was a witch and now in the first-year dormitory in Hogwarts.
Lily dragged herself out of bed and headed towards the bathroom to wash up. Am I anxious or what? First to be up. Once in a blue moon though. Since it was the first day of school, she might as well be earlier for once.
It was already seven fifteen when she got out of the bathroom and changed into her new uniform robes and looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror. Arabella was now washing up in the bathroom. Stefanie was still sleeping soundly in bed and had not stirred since the alarm clock went off.
When Lily and Arabella were all ready to head down for breakfast, they winked at each other and jumped onto Stefanie's bed and started to tickle her all over.
"AAHHH! STOP! I'm up!" Stefanie struggled to free herself and then dragged herself into the bathroom while Lily and Arabella shared a high-five on her bed.
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"All ready?" James mouthed to Sirius and Remus outside the first-year girls' dormitory as they stayed in their positions.
Both of them showed thumb-ups signs in return and waited impatiently for the three girls to come out of their dormitory. It felt like ages.
After about ten more minutes, they heard their door open and several footsteps and the door closed. The three girls were chattering happily as they walked down the spiral steps.
Sirius mouthed three, two and one at James and Remus. At that moment, there was a sudden huge downpour of what felt like water but reddish in color.
James, Sirius and Remus jumped down several flights of steps and dashed back to their dormitory instantly before the girls could say anything.
When they were safely locked in their dormitory, they burst into hysterical laughter.
"That was so hilarious!" Remus said in between his laughter.
"I reckon they still haven't found out who did it." Sirius said and burst into another fits of laughter.
"The look on their faces was priceless!" James said before he started laughing uncontrollably again.
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"Sirius Edward Black, you're going to get it from me!" An angry Stefanie muttered in her breath, wild attempting wildly to wipe off the reddish stains. The three girls were now back in their dormitory after the ridiculous prank first thing in the morning.
"How did you know he did it?" Lily asked reasonably, while trying to dab the reddish paint off her face. She washed her face towel again and tried harder to remove the disgusting stain but to no avail.
"We've no proof." Arabella added as she was busy cleaning her face in the bathroom but the reddish paint seems to be stuck on permanent.
"I'm hundred and one percent sure that it was Sirius and James and maybe even Remus! Firstly, I saw them buying lots of pranking equipments at Zonko last month. I think they had bought enough to last for the entire school year! Secondly, remember yesterday Sirius pushed us into the lake? Lastly, it was targeted at us only! Why not someone else?" Stefanie muttered angrily as she tried to magic off the paint using some simple spells.
"This is not coming off no matter how hard I try. I think it might be permanent for some time." Arabella commented, looking a little horrified at her outlook in the full-length mirror. Every angle of them was stained red.
"This is useless. We're going to be late for breakfast if we continue. How about we just go into the Great Hall as normal, or perhaps even make a joke out of our reddish outlook if people start laughing? Then, meanwhile we can find some way to prank the three guys?" Lily suggested, eyeing the time on her reddish stained watch.
"Great idea. Let's go." Arabella said and tried dragging the sulking Stefanie out of the bathroom. "C'mon."
"What a way to start." Stefanie muttered.
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"Look, they're coming." James mouthed to Sirius and Remus excitedly while trying to contain his laughter.
Everyone looked at the three reddish girls who were walking into the Great Hall at this instant. The hall was in silence for a few seconds before small giggles pop up here and there and that led to a series of simultaneous laughter.
Lily, Arabella and Stefanie walked towards the Gryffindor table and settled down at an empty space and started helping themselves to the toast and eggs. They were not talking much to one another and tried to ignore all the giggling sounds coming from the same table or the other house tables.
"What exactly happened to you girls? I'll not tolerate such nonsense." Professor McGonagall barked as she strutted towards the girls.
Lily started explaining the whole story with some additional fabricated details such as traps and tricks from James, Sirius and Remus. Professor McGonagall waved her wand and muttered a complicated sounding spell and the next moment the three girls looked normal in their black robes once again with the normal skin shade.
"Thank you so much, Professor." The three girls said gratefully before giving a smug look at the guys who were sitting some distance away from them.
The next thing heard down at the Gryffindor table was none other than Professor McGonagall's voice. "Mr. Black, Mr. Potter and Mr. Lupin, in my office right NOW!" A new topic of the first-year Gryffindors and Professor McGonagall seemed to pop up at the Gryffindor table conversation.
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The three boys had to serve their first detention that week together in the hospital wing, cleaning off bedpans and other equipments without using magic.
"Without magic! Was Pommpy trying to kill us?" Sirius groaned as he started scrubbing the bedpans, wiping harder and harder at his muttered under his breath.
"Well, this is detention after all. Do you think Pomfrey will let us sit on that couch and use magic to clean the entire hospital wing as detention?" Remus said, getting lazier and slower by the minute.
"Let's have some fun out of it." James said with a mischievous grin as he took out an unlabeled tube from his pocket. It squeezed sticky substances that became invisible upon application and started applying it on the edge of the bedpans.