disclaimer: i still own nothing. i'm still insane. . . . . yep, i think that covers it

A/N: hey all, so i'm headed back to school in just a few days so i won't have as much time to write so i'm afraid i'll probably be back to slow-going posts, sorry. i promise to try and make time though and hopefully i wont get too stuck or anything (i get random bouts of writer's block or something... go figure). anyway, hope your all enjoying this. i would love some reviews (you know, just tell me what you think; what's funny, what works, what doesn't, an particularly egregious spelling/grammar mistakes, etc. seriously, any kind of feedback is great. if i know what you all like here, i can try to put more of it in...).

Cheers!

~SilverKit'sFire

A Pranking Good New Year

By the end of the week, as the Christmas decorations started to come down around the castle and with New Years just around the corner, Sirius was prepared to call this his most enjoyable vacation ever. Christmas day had started nicely, sitting around the tree in the common room and opening presents with his friends – Sirius thought his favorite might actually be the book Chitral had found. It wasn't magical, but it was full of instructions for building all sorts of odd devices with stuff you could find lying around the house, including a potato cannon he was dying to try. He'd been glad to see that his own gifts for the girls had been well received as well; he hadn't been quite sure what they'd want so he'd banked on the fact that every girl he'd ever met (even Bellatrix, in her own disturbing way) liked pretty things so he'd gotten them a pair of little colored-glass figurines – an orange and yellow gryphon for Kaysa and a blue-pointed unicorn for Chitral. Both girls had squealed with delight when they saw them, proving once and for all that – whatever else the special differences (i mean the differences in the species, here. if anyone knows a better way to say or spell that please let me know.) might be – they were still girls just like any others.

After the presents, they'd all gone outside to the frozen lake where Kaysa and Chitral had introduced them to the concept of skating, had another snowball fight, then headed back inside and experimented with James's new ever-bashing boomerang until it was time for dinner. Christmas dinner at Hogwarts, Sirius decided, was almost reason enough to stay for the holiday; the food was absolutely amazing, although sharing a table with both the remaining students and the remaining teachers was a bit intimidating. Or, at least it was until you realized that most of the staff actually did have senses of humor, after which dinner became frightening on an entirely new level.

Boxing Day had been relatively lazy with James, Sirius, and Kaysa playing chess and Exploding Snap and working out the final details of the course for the broomstick race. Remus, Peter, and Chitral played some too, then – probably at Remus's suggestion – tried to actually get some work done. Sirius suspected that he might later regret not having done so as well, but there was still time, he told himself, and, anyway, it wasn't as though they had that much work to do. And besides, he was exited for the race.

So was everyone else, actually, and the whole thing probably would have gone off without a hitch until Chitral thought to mention that, except for their brief lessons in flying during first year, neither she nor Kaysa had ever actually ridden a broom before.

"Oh, you've got to know how to fly," James had told them. "It's the only real way to get around til you learn to apparate, and they don't teach us that til we're seventeen."

So they had borrowed some of the school brooms and James had given the girls a quick tutorial. Kaysa had picked it up fairly quick, but Chitral didn't seem quite comfortable.

"Look, I'll just referee this time," she'd said finally. "Then we'll just have to do it again sometime and I can practice over the summer."

Peter also elected to watch, rather than compete, so he and Chitral set up on one of the staircases from which they would be able to see most of the competition while Sirius, James, Remus, and Kaysa all flew the course. James won of course, coming into the finish a good thirty seconds ahead of everyone else, but Sirius felt that the rest of them hadn't done too shabbily, especially Kaysa, who, despite being the least practiced, beat Remus for third by a broom-length. Sirius had been a bit surprised when Remus had said he'd fly, but Remus had jut laughed.

"If any of you get caught doing this we're all going to be in trouble," he'd reasoned. "So I may as well just do it and have fun, right?"

Fortunately, no one did catch them, although Kaysa did comment that it was probably just as well that they wouldn't be sharing a table with Professor Dumbledore that night since if they had he probably would have asked them how it went. James protested that if the man knew what they were up to then why had he let them do it.

"Are you mad?" Kaysa had asked. "Us careening around the castle like idiots? It's probably the best entertainment he's had all year!"

Sirius had laughed at the time, but at dinner that night he'd noticed a twinkle in the headmaster's eye and suddenly wondered if Kaysa might be right. Then he'd wondered, if Dumbledore had indeed known about their obstacle course, did he also know about the enormous pile of fireworks Sirius had hidden under his bed for New Years Eve? Sirius couldn't imagine how he would know something like that, but it suddenly seemed entirely possible that he did.

Still, they'd gotten away with the obstacle course, hadn't they? And it wasn't like he was planning to do the fireworks inside, so probably it would be fine. Probably. Sirius hoped so, anyway, especially given that under his bed wasn't really the ideal place for hiding that many fireworks. It would be a terrible way to wake up.

"Okay, not that I'm oppose to late nights or anything," Kaysa said when News Years Eve found them all in the common room waiting up, "but why are we waiting for midnight? I mean, what's the deal?"

"It's traditional," Sirius told her. "On New Years Eve you always stay up til midnight, that way you see the new year start."

"But why?" Kaysa wanted to know.

"And what for?" added Chitral, looking at him as though he were crazy. "It's not as if it'll look any different."

Sirius gritted his teeth and counted to fifty by fives. She might be more resigned to the cultural differences than Kaysa, but sometimes Chitral's practicality really ground on his nerves. At least with Kaysa it was just incessant but open curiosity.

"I don't know," he said. "I don't think it's that kind of seeing. Anyway, I said it was traditional, right? Doesn't that mean that no one really knows why?"

Kaysa opened her mouth and turned to Remus, but the werewolf was already shaking his head.

"Don't look at me," he said. "I don't know either. Maybe it was supposed to be lucky or something."

"It's still stu—" Chitral started but Kaysa cut her off.

"Oh, shut up, Chi," she said rolling her eyes. "Honestly, I don't know why you're such a sourpuss today."

Chitral glowered slightly at her cousin but subsided; going back to the essay she was working on.

"Don't mind her, Sirius," said Kaysa cheerfully. "She's probably just working on a hairball or something. So we wait for midnight, see the new year, and then . . . what? Have some kind of a party?"

"Something like that," said Sirius, laughing at the idea of Chitral hawking up a human-sized hairball in the middle of Gryffindor tower. The poor house-elf that found it would probably be very confused. "We're going outside."

"Why?" asked Kaysa. "Is there something to see?"

Sirius grinned. "Actually, there is. But I'm not telling you; it's a surprise."

"No fair," Kaysa complained, but she looked excited. Sirius was glad. Earlier that evening, he and James had enlisted Remus and Peter's help in distracting the girls while they snuck all the fireworks outside and set up.

"Come on," Kaysa wheedled. "Tell us what the surprise is."

"Nuh-uh," said Sirius. "Then it wouldn't be a surprise."

"Well, how about a hint, then?"

"Nope."

"Oh fantastic," Chitral grumbled irritably. "Now she's gonna pester you all night long."

Silence filled the room. After a moment Chitral finally seemed to notice and looked up from her essay to find them all staring at her. She blinked then seemed to come to. She cursed softly and put her head in her hands.

"I'm sorry, you guys," she said. "I don't know what's wrong with me today."

"Maybe you're hungry," suggested Peter. "That always makes my mum grumpy."

Sirius rolled his eyes; of course Peter would think of something food-related, but Chitral looked thoughtful.

"I suppose that could be it," she said frowning. "We did get up pretty late so it was just late breakfast and then an early dinner."

"Okay," said James, looking suddenly excited about something. "How 'bout this then: it's ten past eleven now, so why don't we just sneak on down to the kitchens? We can get a second dinner or whatever, and pick up some butterbeers for midnight while we're at it."

"Sounds like a plan to me," said Kaysa. "What say you all?"

"I'm in," said Sirius at once. Butterbeer was a fantastic idea and it would give them a way to pass the time too.

"Me too," Peter agreed readily, not that anyone was surprised.

"Yeah, okay," said Chitral when James looked at her. Remus just shrugged, but that was all they needed. James ran upstairs for the Invisibility Cloak while Kaysa and Chitral swapped out their human forms for cat ones. By the time they all made it down to the kitchens everyone had worked up something of an appetite and while Peter and Chitral ate the most, Sirius and the others put away a tidy bit as well. Then, at five minutes to midnight, they took their butterbeers, thanked the house-elves, and headed outside.

Sirius made everyone else wait on a small hill while he and James went down to the lake to light the fuses. There weren't that many, actually, despite the vast quantity of fireworks. He and James had managed – they hoped – to rig them so that they only had to light about four or five fuses which then branched and would set off everything. Sirius just hoped that they had gotten the timing right, was all. If everything went off at once it wouldn't be very impressive, just very loud. Still, the man at the shop had advised them on how to do this and both he and James were pretty sure they'd gotten in right.

As they made it back up the hill and joined the others the first batch went off, hissing and whizzing as they shot into the air, then exploded with an awesome bang. Bursts of green, gold, and red filled the clear night sky, followed by several white ones that screamed on the way up then flared into smaller, crackling spots that flashed quick and then died.

"Pretty," breathed Chitral, her eyes glued to the sky as more fireworks went off, this time in purple, blue, and white.

"Oh, you guys," said Kaysa quietly, a rapturous expression on her face. "Oh…"

"Don't look at us," said James grinning. "It was Sirius's idea."

"Well, you said you'd never really done New Years before," said Sirius gruffly, blushing as Kaysa and Chitral turned to stare at him. "So I just thought… Anyway, don't sell the rest of you short, James. You all helped." They had, too; he couldn't possibly have paid for all those fireworks or have set them up on his own.

"They're beautiful," said Kaysa, smiling warmly at them all before turning her attention back to the sky.

"Thanks, everyone," said Chitral quietly. She looked a little humbled and Sirius suspected she felt guilty for being such a grump all day.

"It was our pleasure," he told her, smiling and touching her on the shoulder. "Really."

Jade-green eyes studied him for a moment, then Chitral smiled, it was a little hesitant, albeit, but a smile nonetheless.

"Thank you," she said again.

"Cheers, mate," James told him, holding out his butterbeer as another round went off and everyone oo-ed and ah-ed appreciatively.

"Cheers," Sirius agreed happily, clinking his bottle to James's, then looking back up at the sky. The new year looked pretty good to him from here.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"What happens if you get shrinking solution on a person?" Kaysa asked several days later as they sat at a table in the common room, trying to get through all the homework they'd been ignoring til now.

"No idea," said James. "Probably nothing pleasant. Why?"

"Just an idea I've been toying with," said Kaysa shrugging.

"Spill," James ordered. "I know that look."

Kaysa hesitated, then said, "Okay, so you remember how, at the begin of break you said something about setting traps for the returning students? Well," she continued when they all nodded, "I've been thinking… You remember that time last year when Peeves caused such a ruckus throwing water balloons at the students as they got out of their exams? Well, what if we did something similar, but with a potion or something in the balloons instead?"

"I like it," said James approvingly. "Simple yet effective."

"I don't know," said Remus slowly, frowning at his Arithmancy homework. "Most of the potions we know aren't very nice to have spilled on you. And anyway, where would we brew them?"

"The where is hardly a problem with the castle so empty," scoffed James. "And I'm sure we could think of something funny but relatively harmless."

"Dye," said Chitral suddenly.

"Uh, no thank you," said James. "I like living."

"No, no, no," said Chitral laughing. "Dye, not die. I mean like for clothes or hair or whatever. Could you imagine if we turned all the Slytherins pink or something?"

"Oh!" said James, catching on. "Yeah, that's good. Think we could get it to stick to people's skin too?"

"Why not?" said Kaysa. "I mean, ink does. Remus, this can't be right," she added, indicating one of his answers. "It doesn't add up right."

"What?" said Remus, looking where she was pointing. "Oh. You're right. Huh… I like the dye idea," he admitted as he started refiguring. "It sounds like good fun. Hmn." He bit his lip pensively, eyeballing the problem. "Kaysa, how'd you do this?"

"Easy," said Kaysa, grabbing a piece of scrap paper and scribbling something quickly on it. "See, you move this over here like this, and then that goes there and then . . . see? Makes much more sense that way."

"Oh, yeah," said Remus happily, going back to the problem. "Okay, I get it. Cool. I don't think I'd have thought to do it that way."

Sirius, working on an essay for Professor McGonagall, rolled his eyes. Arithmancy, which Kaysa, Chitral, and Remus all took instead of Muggle Studies, was Kaysa's best subject, probably because it was a lot like math. Kaysa wasn't exactly the classic nerd or anything, but she did get excited about learning new things or when she managed to grasp a new concept; the more complicated the better. Frankly, Sirius couldn't see what the fuss was all about.

"Anyway," he said pointedly, "going back to the original topic…"

"Right," said Kaysa, looking back up and frowning. "So we can use dyes to color people's hair, clothes or skin. What else?"

"Boils, maybe," said James. "There's that powder you can buy at Zonko's."

"What part of 'harmless' didn't connect with your brain?" asked Chitral with a snort. "Boils hurt."

"Oh," said James, looking a little put out.

"I don't know," said Sirius shrugging. "If you diluted it enough it might not be so bad."

"Wartcap powder too, then, if we're careful," said Kaysa.

James stared at her. "You know, sometimes the random things you know about are a little scary," he told her.

"I read a lot," said Kaysa dismissively. "Anyway, wartcap powder I think would work okay diluted, but I'm not sure we could find any fast enough. We could also use a swelling solution, couldn't we? That's harmless enough in small doses."

"We could use a Hair-Raising potion too," said Sirius, nibbling the tip of his quill as he thought. "People would be walking around all day with their hair sticking up, that'd be fun."

"Yeah, okay," said Peter, "but how are we gonna get all this stuff?"

"Boy's got a point," said Chitral on a laugh. "Some of it we can find in Hogsmeade, like the balloons and the Bulbadox Powder—"

"Dyes, too, probably," Kaysa put in. "I know there's a shop that does stuff for hair. We can modify them if we need too."

"Yeah," agreed Chitral, "but what about the potions? I mean, we'd either have to make them or else steal them."

"Well, we know how to brew a Swelling Solution," said James. "So that one's easy. And I bet we could find the recipe for the Hair-Raising one in the library."

"What if it needs to be swallowed?" asked Sirius. "I mean, we know the Swelling Solution is topical, but most potions need to be drunk."

"I think I can handle that," said Kaysa. "We used to make ointments and medicines and things back home. Potions isn't too different."

"Really?" asked Remus, looking surprised.

"No," said Chitral before Kaysa could answer. "I mean, we did make stuff back home, but it's not that much like potions. Kaysa's just good at it, is all."

"Shut up, Chi," said Kaysa, looking a little self-conscious. "It is so like what we used to do at home."

"Only the way you think about it," retorted Chitral. "You're brain works funny."

"Whatever," James interrupted. "You can do it?"

"I think so," said Kaysa. "I can try, anyway."

"Good," said James. "Then you and Remus or someone can hit the library later today and find the recipe while the rest of us slip over to Hogsmeade and pick up the rest of what we'll need."

"Sounds good to me," said Remus. "I need to go to the library for one of my essays anyway."

"Good," said James, then he held out his essay to Sirius. "Swap you for proofreading?"

Sirius, just finishing the final sentence for his own essay, groaned but took James's essay anyway, shoving his own across the table. Ah well, nearly done.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

(Kaysa)

"You know," said Remus to Kaysa, as they researched potions in the library, "stuff like this would be a lot easier if you'd just teach us how to use that telepathy stuff long-distance."

Kaysa laughed and rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid," she told him.

"What, you don't think this would be easier if Chitral didn't keep pestering you about what to get and all?"

"Oh no, no it would be," said Kaysa; it would be much easier if James and Sirius and Peter could have reached her directly instead of having to go through Chitral each time. Of course, it would also be nice if it could have been Chitral here doing research instead so she, herself, could go to Hogsmeade and have some fun.

"Kaysa?" Remus prompted.

"What?" she said, blinking. "Oh, sorry. Of course it would be. But I didn't mean that. I meant that we can't teach you. It's not something you learn, it's something you acquire."

"I don't get it," said Remus flatly. "I mean, we can do it just fine. Why should getting in contact with you from Hogsmeade be any different from doing it from across a room?"

Kaysa sighed; Remus had that look on, the one that said he wouldn't leave the matter along til he knew. Oh well, maybe she'd slip into the village later. James and Sirius would probably be willing to go with her; they were always up for more fun.

"It's because it's farther away," she explained. "Mind-speech is a skill. It doesn't work like a muggle telephone. You can't make a 'long-distance call' until you have enough mental control and strength to reach that far away to find someone's mind. And right now none of you are there yet."

"But we do okay here," Remus persisted, frowning at her. "It's not like you can't hear us, or anything."

"No," Kaysa agreed, "but you still need us to make contact first."

"Oh, come on," her friend protested. "We've managed to get your attention a few times all on our own."

"And how did you achieve that?" Kaysa prompted him.

"We just had to shout loud enough," said Remus.

"Exactly," said Kaysa. "When Chi or I makes contact, do we ever need to shout at you?"

"Well, no, but—" Remus began then stopped, comprehension dawning. "Oh," he said, blinking at the realization. "Oh. Sorry…"

"It's alright," she reassured him, smiling as she remembered her own early attempts to perform intentional telepathy. Trying to teach the boys had made her feel sorry for her old instructors; not only had she done her share of mental shouting, but she'd tended to whack people over the head when she got frustrated. "It's the same for everyone at first."

"It is?" He looked startled.

"Of course," said Kaysa. "Telepathy is a skill like any other. It takes practice."

"Oh," said Remus. "I guess I always just assumed that it was you guys' language. But I guess that was stupid. I mean, I heard you talking foreign that time you all sent me to the Hospital Wing."

Kaysa laughed. Maybe more than she should have, since he started looking confused, and then a bit concerned. But she couldn't help it; it just struck her as funny at the time.

"Sorry, sorry," she said, waiving a hand. "It's just — you looked so serious — and — and that's not even—" She stopped, took a few deep breaths; she was only confusing the poor bloke more.

"Sorry," she said again when she had a hold on herself. "It's just kind of funny because that's not actually our native language either."

"It's not?"

"Of course not," said Kaysa, grinning. "Lions, remember? We're don't exactly have human vocal cords. Or mouths."

"Right, right" said Remus, rolling his eyes at himself. Then he frowned. "So then, what language do you use?"

"All animals have ways to communicate," said Kaysa. "Shouldn't you know that better than most humans? I mean, you are a werewolf."

"Well, yes, but it's not exactly as if I'm ever around anyone when it happens," said Remus. He looked uncomfortable and Kaysa mentally kicked herself for forgetting how he disliked talking about it. She still didn't really understand; she knew that the transformations were painful and all, but his desire for secrecy felt like more than that, as if he were afraid or ashamed or something. But this was hardly the time to ask.

"Oh," she said, "well, they do, and my people were no different. Until we started interacting with humans – or humanoids – we had no concept of an entirely spoken language. We spoke only the language of beasts. We still do, actually, and consider it to be our native language, even though we do now have a spoken language."

"Cool," said Remus, putting aside the book he'd been looking at and taking another one from the stack of books they'd thought might be useful. "Could you teach it to us?"

"What, Spoken?" said Kaysa, startled.

"Is that what it's called?" asked Remus. "Just 'Spoken'?"

"What else would we call it?"

"Oh. Well. Then yes, could you teach us Spoken? Or, me, anyway. I guess I can't really speak for the others."

"Huh," said Kaysa, chewing her lip as she thought – a habit she'd picked up here among humans. "I'm not sure. I mean, I could try. You could learn the words, probably. Most of them, anyway – we've found some aren't really pronounceable for humans. Anyway, you'd never all the undertones right."

"Undertones?" her friend repeated blankly.

"Yeah… I'm not sure that's the right word, but… it's like, little things," Kaysa tried to explain. "Little sounds that we make – inflections, purrs, and the like – little things we use to make the words mean more."

"What, you mean like tone of voice?" asked Remus.

"Yes. No. Not really. Look, it's complicated."

Remus shrugged. "We've got time," he said. Kaysa studied him for a moment. He stared back at her, his blue eyes eager and curious. She smiled.

"Alright," she told him. "But be prepared for an earful." He just grinned and nodded. "Right," she continued, "so, remember way back when when I said something about how our languages were different? Like ours had more context than English? Well, this is what I was talking about. See, with animals – with our native language – it's different. We speak with more than just sounds, we speak with our bodies, with our scents. When we speak with telepathy we speak with our minds, with our hearts. My people were used to 'language' communicating much more than any spoken language we've ever encountered ever did. Do you understand?" She wasn't sure how well she was explaining this; she'd never really though about it before. To her, it was just how it worked. But Remus was nodding.

"I think so," he said. "I mean, not specifically, but I think I get the general idea."

"Good," said Kaysa. "Now, among animals, there is a certain amount of universality. Like knows like best, of course, but any one of the People can speak to any other, regardless of species. Humans are all one species, but they are not like this. When our people first encountered humanity, that was when we first learned of spoken languages, and of deception – of lies."

"You didn't know how to lie?" asked Remus. He sounded shocked.

Kaysa shook her head. "We never lied. How could we when our bodies would give us away?" When he still looked confused she said, "I mean we could smell it."

"Oh," said Remus, nodding. "Okay. So you were used to language communicating more and being honest. Got it. Keep going."

"Well," said Kaysa, "we quickly realized that to communicate with humans we would have to learn these spoken languages. And then we decide that maybe we'd better have a spoken language of our own so our ancestors invented one. And that's what made it complicated. See, Spoken was invented before we really understood about language so we ended up trying to make it say as much as telepathy or our native language could. That's what the undertones or whatever are for. When I say something, like, say, if I were speaking to Chitral, then anyone listening who understood would be able to know – not just guess, know – things, like who we are to each other, are we friends, are we Family, who has the higher rank, would we die for each other, would we kill. Things like that. In English, when people say 'I love you' so much has to be inferred. With Spoken, everything is said."

"Wow," said Remus, blinking. Kaysa was pleased; he looked impressed.

"Yeah," she said. "So, I could try to teach you, but I think you'll have better luck just sticking with the telepathy."

"Yeah…" said Remus, still looking as though he was having trouble getting his head around the idea of a language that said everything. "Yeah, okay. Maybe you could help us some with that? I mean, I know you said that you can't teach us the long distance stuff and all, but surely you could teach us something, like how to make contact without shouting. That's got to be annoying."

Kaysa laughed. "Maybe," she said, turning her attention back to the potions book she was flipping through, looking for ideas. "But it's work. I'm not too sure your friends will like it."

"They'll live," Remus assured her, a faint but definite twinkle in his eyes. "Besides, work's good for the soul. Character building."

"Boy after my own heart," said Kaysa, holding out her hand for a high-five. "Now, what do you think of this…"

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Between what Chitral and the boys brought back from the village and what Kaysa and Remus found in the library, they decided that they had enough to make balloons filled with Swelling Solution, a mild dilute of Bulbadox Powder, and a mixture of Hair-Raising Potion and paint. It had been James's idea to use paint instead of ink, since it was cheaper and came in better colors. Peter had actually been the one to suggest combining it with the Hair-Raising Potion. Kaysa thought both ideas were brilliant; paint wouldn't sink into skin the way inks and dyes did and using the potion would mean that people couldn't hide their fun-colored faces behind their hair.

Both Remus and Chitral were still on the fence about using the Bulbadox Powder; worried that it would hurt no matter how much they watered it down. Sirius had complained that they were over thinking the whole thing and then said something about how you couldn't make broomsticks without cutting down a few trees, which made no sense to Kaysa, or her cousin, who was beginning to snarl. Fortunately, at this point, James had jumped in and settled the whole argument by saying that if Chitral was really so worried he'd just test out the solution on himself before they put it in any balloons. This seemed to satisfy Chitral, but Sirius was still being a bit stiff with her.

"Don't be mad at her," Kaysa murmured to him as they set up some of their cauldrons in the bathroom off of the third year boys' dormitory. Only a few other Gryffindors had stayed for the holidays, mostly seventh years studying for their N.E.W.T.s, but it still meant that the bathroom was going to be the best place for brewing the Hair-Raising Potion and Swelling Solution.

"Huh?" said Sirius blankly, looking up from where he was balancing a cauldron on its stand. "Mad at who?"

"Chitral," said Kaysa, glad her cousin was busy stashing the paint and the powder in her own trunk. "About the powder. She just wants to make sure no one gets hurt is all."

"I know that," said Sirius, rather brusquely. "I'm not mad. Not really."

Kaysa raised an eyebrow at him. He sighed and rubbed his face.

"Really," he said, his tone softening some, "I'm not mad. Chitral just gets on my nerves sometimes. She's a little… I dunno, fussy? … sometimes. I probably wouldn't even have minded except I'd already spent over an hour listening to her worry like that in Hogsmeade."

"Oh," said Kaysa. Well, she supposed she could understand that. Hadn't she thought as much herself often enough? "Alright then."

Carefully, she set the last cauldron on its stand then started making a small pile of wood beneath it for the fire later. Then she frowned as an odd thought struck her.

"So," she said slowly, tapping a piece of wood against the rim of the cauldron, "if you and James are too rash, and Remus and Chitral worry too much, and Peter's… well, Peter's a little timid, really, I guess, then what about me? What am I?"

"What, you mean like, what's your flaw, or something?"

"Yeah. I know what people say about you all, but what about me?"

Sirius laughed. "You're joking, right? It's curiosity," he said. "You ask way too many questions!"

Kaysa blinked, then burst out laughing, remembering her teacher's complaints from back home. She supposed some things just never changed.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

The best part of the holidays being over, Sirius decided, was easily how well their balloon prank worked. Both James and Sirius were put in detention by Professor McGonagall when one of the balloons hit her as she opened her classroom door, but that didn't mean that the fun was over. Thanks to careful strategic placement, worked out mostly by James and Remus, but also aided by Peter and his shocking knowledge of small hidey-holes, students and teachers alike were walking around the castle with bright pink, blue, yellow, or green faces, spiked hair, inflated extremities, and mild boils for several days after classes started back up again. James and Sirius were particularly pleased with the results of their Slytherin balloons. They had spent a good few hours placing balloons in places they thought only Slytherins were likely to go in the hopes of catching Snape with something. To Sirius's utter delight, not only did Snape get hit with a Bulbadox Powder balloon, but Malfoy and Narcissa also got hit, Malfoy by one of the ones with blue paint which he couldn't get off for two whole days, and Narcissa by on of the pink ones.

The worst part of the end of the holidays, however, was a tie between just how much homework they were being given and how little time Kaysa and Chitral seemed to spend with him and his friends now that Lily and Heather were back.

Not that Sirius didn't understand, he did. Girls needed other girls for friends, just like blokes needed other blokes. He knew that. But he missed Kaysa's quick humor and Chitral's practical solutions to problems and Lily's persistent dislike of himself and James meant that they could never just all hang out together.

"You know," he said to Kaysa one night at dinner as Lily shot James a disgusted look, "you could try convincing her we're not all that bad."

"Yeah, and hedgehogs might fly," Kaysa retorted as she smacked the back of James's head. "Don't do that, you idiot. The teachers are still watching you."

James, who had been aiming a forkful of mash potato at Snape, swore mildly as the shot went wide, landing in some poor, unsuspecting Hufflepuff's lap.

"I could have had him," James complained, turning to face the table quickly as the Hufflepuff, a fifth or sixth year by the looks of it, turned round, looking for the culprit. "Why'd you have to do that?"

Kaysa rolled her eyes. "Moron," she muttered, then turned back to Sirius. "And you wonder why she doesn't like you lot."

"You don't seem to mind," James pointed out, loading the rest of his mashed potatoes with gravy.

That was true, Sirius reflected and he looked expectantly at Kaysa, wondering what she'd say.

"No, but I'm crazy," came her answer. "You can hardly expect me to be any kind of example of normal."

Sirius laughed with the others, but he wished she'd given a serious answer. Now he thought about, he really wasn't sure why she and Chitral hung around with him and his friends. Not that he was complaining, his friends — and he now included Kaysa and Chitral in that category — were some of the only things that his life feel worth living. Not that he'd ever admit it out loud. Then he'd have to explain, and while he thought James probably suspected he doubted if the others had a clue, which was how he preferred it. He didn't want pity, just good friends.

Still, he mused, as he crawled into be later that night, people (which is to say, his parents) never seemed to have a problem vocalizing why they didn't like him. He could have made an extensive list of all his potential flaws. It would have been nice to have a list of his good points to match.

A/N: sorry about the linguistics lesson... i go off on tangents sometimes... i also like exploring Kaysa and Chitral's world/culture. i'm still working out all the details. if anyone is curious about Shifter culture or more Shifter stories check out my stuff at fictionpress. i've got one story up that i'll continue if there's enough people interested. i've also got some poetry and a teen story i'm working on there too. feel free to check it out. it's all under the pen-name Kuroki Honoo.

Cheers,

SilverKit