Chapter 11:
A/N: We are updating today in honor of Lily and James.
After all, October 31st is not just Halloween.
-R
Brett
The sun was shining bright and I had no classes after lunch, so I decided to head on over to the quidditch pitch to practice my moves.
"Ummmphh," came a voice from a heap of limbs on the corridor floor. Lost in my thoughts, I had accidentally bumped into someone, and consequently knocked them askew.
"I am so sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going!" I rambled as I saw who was on the floor. "Oh hey Leigha! " All of a sudden, I had an unbearable itch at the back of my neck; I reached back to scratch it, "So what brings you to this neck of the woods?"
"Oh ya know. enjoying the break and all. I was going to get my broomstick so I could practice quidditch."
"Ooooh cool! That's where I was going, too! Are you up for a one-on-one game?"
"Sure! Want to come with me to get my broom?"
"I would love too!" I was ecstatic. My sister wanted me to spend more time around Leigha; I would spend more time around Leigha. And, we wouldn't be in some coffee shop either. The weather was perfect outside, the wind blowing just right and not a lot of sun. Perfect day for some quidditch. And, while I was thinking about it, Leigha wasn't all that bad-looking either.
We kicked off the ground, ready to throw a couple pitches at each other without the annoying duo, Potter and Black, around to mess things up. Maybe I would end up getting as close to Leigha today as my sister wanted me to.
I flew over to her, hearing her mutter something about her hair being 'poofy.'
"What was that?" I asked.
"Let's play some quidditch."
I was focused on the game. So was Leigha. In fact, we were so focused that we didn't see my little interfering sister down in the stands. We didn't see her nod to herself in approval. We didn't know that she was already thinking up rumors to spread about us.
By this point, I wasn't just focused on the game; I was focused on Leigha, too. So focused, in fact, that when I went to get the quaffle from her, it didn't go so well. Somehow, we ended up crashing.. and falling to the ground.
Together.
Tangled together.
In an uncomfortable and embarrassing position.
But, we didn't notice because we had been knocked unconscious.
We didn't notice when my sister took incriminating pictures either.
We woke up in the hospital wing on separate beds. I looked across the room to see Leigha glaring at me.
Well this was just wonderful. Women and their temper. Best to get it over with as soon as possible.
"HiLeighaIAmSoSorryIDidNotMeanToCrashIntoYouPlease Don'tBeMadAtMe."
"What? Brett are you ok? I can't understand a thing you are saying," She looked at me, looking quite concerned.
Well this was a change. She wasn't glaring at me.
"Yes, I am ok. But I thought you were mad at me cause you are a woman and you were glaring and women have tempers."
Instantly I knew I said something I shouldn't have. I guess she was like my sister, who didn't like gender stereotypes.
Now she was glaring, and boy was that a glare.
"Well, Brett, I'll have you know that the reason I was glaring was not because of you, though it was rather stupid of you to just stop in midair. I was glaring because Madam Pomfrey force-fed me a disgusting potion."
Sure enough, as if on cue, our school nurse came to my bedside with the potion Leigha must have been talking about.
"What's wrong?" She asked Leigha, noticing the glare, "The potion was necessary, I'm afraid."
"No, Madam Pomfrey," Leigha answered her, "It was McKinnon. He decided to call women moody."
Madam Pomfrey gave me a stern look but didn't say anything.
Then, as she was tipping the potion into my mouth and Leigha was pointedly looking away, she told me, "If you want to charm a girl, that is not the way to do it."
I looked at her in surprise.
"Your sister showed me the pictures."
Severus
POTTER! HOW DARE HE! I have to serve detention because of him! At least I will still have Avery and Yaxley there. I mean first he "accidentally" trips me in the hall and then he makes fun of there while my future GIRLFRIEND (aka Lily Evans, aka most perfect girl in the world, aka love of my life, aka future wife, mother and bearer of young Julius) is standing right there. Like Potter could you not? Besides Lily likes me, not you so suck it Potter! Ahem. Ok so Potter landed me in detention because a teacher saw me trying to hex him in the corridors. That's right "innocent" Potter slipped right out of detention once again! Oh how I hate that boy and his friends! That Black is no exception. He just sat there laughing that maniacal laugh of his while saying "Is that the best you can do?" How dare he taunt me. Now I'm stuck cleaning the trophy room this Saturday with those buffoons, Avery and Yaxley, instead of attending the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. But on a more serious note, Lily thinks that I shouldn't be hanging out with all my Slytherin "friends" because they are a bad influence on me. I mean I see where shes coming from since we have a "Dark Lord Rising to Power, What Shall We Do about It" meeting now and then. Ok the Dark Lord is terrible plus he smells terrible because of his lack of nose. I mean I've always wondered how he has no nose. Was he born without a nose? One will never know. Except I think that Dumbledore headmaster guy knows. Don't even get me started on his beard or the fact that he looks like he's 80 years old. How am I supposed to concentrate in the Great Hall if his blue eyes are sparkling behind those half moon glasses and that mile long beard? It's like he knows all of my thoughts about a certain redhead who I'm going to marry in the future. But enough about that old man, I have to head on over detention now to possibly scrub the trophy room. I saw Avery, Yaxley, and that giant of a man, Hagrid waiting for me.
"Now tha' yer here, we have a big job ahead of us."
Well, looks like our evening will be spent cleaning up thestral dung in the forest. Sigh.
James
The only way to get the book we wanted was to go to the restricted section.
However, there was some reason that we, the responsible third-years we were, were not allowed to go in there unattended.
For some other reason we did not understand, there were no books on becoming anamagi in the normal part of the library. These people just did not understand education.
That, or they did not trust us. Probably the latter.
The easiest thing to do was to sneak into the restricted section late at night and read the books we needed while the castle was asleep. So, that was what we set out to do late one night. Sirius, Peter, and I, that is. Remus had elected to stay behind because all of us wouldn't fit under the cloak. Also, he didn't like to have as much fun as us. Apparently there was a test the next day, and Remus seemed to think he needed to get good grades to graduate or something...
I opened the creaking door to the library, moonlight cascading down the shelves of books. It was almost the full moon. Once again, Remus would be alone for his transformation. That just made it feel more real. even though we couldn't help him this month, we could make it so we can help him in the future.
I picked up a book at random off the shelf in the restricted section. I opened it and it let out a bloodcurdling shriek.
"Well that's just wonderful," Sirius remarked dryly.
I closed the book and placed it back on the shelf. It was still screaming. I felt bad for any future kids of mine that would ever have to deal with books like this one.
"Maybe we should go," Peter muttered to us.
Sirius and I exchanged a glance, "Nah," I replied, "We are invisible. What could teachers do to us?"
"Nothing," Peter responded resolutely.
We kept looking around the restricted section, trying to find the right book.
"Hey, look at this!" Sirius remarked.
"Did you find anything useful?" I asked him, hardly daring to believe it.
"NO. But, I did, however, just figure out that these books are organized by topic."
"Really? So pulling out books at random isn't helping?" I asked him. Granted, some of these books had really interesting diagrams in them. I was enjoying reading through them. Wait. Enjoying? Reading? Together? No. It must be because it's late. My conscious mind would never put those words together in a normal sentence.
"No, James. I guess it is not."
"So then what topic are we looking for?" Peter asked, his small voice barely audible over the ongoing shriek of the book. I was really surprised that Filch hadn't appeared yet.
"Well, we can look up books having to do with animals," Sirius suggested.
"Books to do with transfiguration," I added in.
"Werewolf books," Sirius concluded.
"Books about changing our appearance," The list goes on and on.
"Books about running around Hogsmeade at night."
"Books about exploring Hogwarts at night."
"Mate, we can't just bring a werewolf to romp around Hogwarts!"
"We can let him romp around Hogsmeade?"
"Good point. Hogwarts it is."
"We also need books about maintaining transfigurations."
All of a sudden, Peter piped up, "If you guys are quite finished having a good old chin-wag about books..." He trailed off as we saw a familiar busy tail creep into the library. Wherever that tail went there was always a body of a cat. And wherever the body of the cat was, the formidable caretaker was sure to be close behind. Sirius and I quickly skimmed through some of the titles of books, grabbing the one that looked the most promising. It also looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Surely it wouldn't be missed over one night.
Making sure the cloak was covering us sufficiently, we crept out of the library, me clutching the book, not wanting to lose it anywhere
Sirius
"Mate," I called to James after escaping into the restricted section last night.
"Yes, Sirius?"
"Mate, we can get into the restricted section now. Think of all the pranks we can pull?"
"What are we talking?" Asked Remus, his eyes lighting up.
"Remus, we never thought you would be anxious about one of our little pranks! I'm so proud of you!"
"Well, I have nothing to hide from you guys now! I can do whatever I want without worrying about you guys finding out."
James looked at him, "I'm so glad you're in! What about you, Peter?"
Peter replied, "Of course, James. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Yes!" I concluded, "I can't wait!"
"What about your little project?" Remus asked us, aware of our efforts to try and become animagi.
"We will practice soon, we just need to find the right part of the book," James assured him.
"You mean you got the book last night and you haven't even started to look for the right page?" Remus asked, appalled at how we could leave a book unread for that long.
"Erm.. Remus?" I started, "I think there is something you're forgetting about us."
"And what is that?"
"We don't read."
Remus groaned in disgust, "Then how are you going to look in the restricted section for pranks?"
"Easy," I replied, grinning, "you'll read it for us!"
"And I suppose I will be sorting through the information about animagi as well?"
I looked at Remus with mock surprise, "Well, now that you mention it, I think that's a wonderful idea!"
With another groan from Remus, we finished eating our breakfast, ready to head to our first class.
All day, Sirius and I passed notes, planning out the perfect prank... one that would prank not only the students, but the professors themselves.
Adding ideas throughout the day, we had the perfect idea. All we had to do was drag Remus up to the library, away from his homework, and get him to research a certain idea for us, one that would go down in Hogwarts history.
Remus
As we tiptoed out of the common room huddled together under the cloak, I again wondered why I had agreed to do this.
Although it was fun in the long term because James and Sirius always got the load of the blame, I always had doubts when we set it up.
Considering tomorrow, or today since it was the wee hours of the morning, was Friday and everybody loves a Friday, we planned to set a few of Filibuster's best fireworks off.
Sirius and James had convinced me to research a spell that would let them activate all of the fireworks at once. Luckily for them, I had come across one in my earlier reading.
"This way," James led us, "Let's get some in the Potions room."
"Wait," I paused, looking at James although he couldn't see me in the gloom, "I thought we agreed that we would be setting them outside so everyone could see the fireworks outside the windows."
Sirius quickly responded, "Well there was a change of plans. I think your idea is brilliant, James! We can put fireworks in all of the classrooms!"
I could feel James shake his head under the cloak, "I want to, Sirius, I really do, but the only reason we are putting some in the Potions dungeon is just that; it is a dungeon. It has no windows to see the fireworks through."
"Good idea, James! I can't believe you thought of that! You are amazing!" Piped in Peter.
"Thanks Peter."
Even under the cloak with next to no light, I could see how crestfallen Sirius looked. He had really wanted to wreak havoc on everyone.
"Cheer up mate," James told him, "with luck, a firework will fall into one of the potions they are brewing, with any luck spewing everyone with the potion!"
"Are you kidding me?" I asked them, incredulous, "You want someone to get seriously -sorry Sirius- hurt?"
"Calm down, Remus, they are only working on a swelling solution tomorrow! Madam Pomfrey has the antidote to that on hand all the time!" James assured me. Little did I know they were actually sixth year Gryffindors, working on Felix Felicis, liquid luck. Let me just assure you that the sixth year Gryffindors were pretty lucky that night.
A/N: Silly M, we are not ACTUALLY failing that class... we just.. aren't happy with the grades.. at all. It's an AP class.. what can I say? And we have high standards for grades.. What's a fail? Below a 90. A C? 93-90. A B? 96-93. An A? 97-100... but mostly 100. I promise we are both not Asian. One of us might be though... HAHAHAHAH YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHICH ONE OF US THAT IS MUAHAHAHA
but that is why we haven't been able to update, and even now, it is a meager one at that. I a-pie-logize. I hope you accept our pies made with sincerity and love.
-R
