Chapter 56

It was a horrible day. Large clouds swarmed in the sky like a plague and completely blocked out the sun. Thick fog hung onto the ground in waves, a break in the ocean of solitude. The rain began shortly after noon; it started with thin peals of rain and quickly became more powerful. It was not the most beautiful day to bury a mother. Everything was soggy and dripping. Gail had hoped they would be able to share the sunshine with Mrs. Potter one last time. It didn't look like it would be so. The sky was determined to improve the mournful atmosphere.

They residents of the small cottage, which the boys had taken to calling a variety of rude names, had all obliged Mr. Potter by wearing their best robes. Gail had never seen James look so tidy- his hair was almost completely flat because of the humidity. His robes were neatly pressed and there were no wrinkles in sight. James' dark shadow looked equally neat, wearing robes that make him look a tad bit snooty. At least Remus still looked like normal, though Gail wondered if he hadn't used a growing spell on his robes, which were the right size. Each boy conjured a black umbrella for themselves before apparating, one at a time, to the graveyard in Godric's Hollow.

The graveyard was utterly still and morbid. Just being there made the hairs on the back of Gail's neck stand up. She did her best not to stare at the tombstones of the people she didn't know as she walked along, sharing Remus' umbrella to keep herself dry. Soon enough, James' mother would be just another body in the ground with nothing more than a chunk of rock to show that she had ever been alive. Yes, the cemetery was morbid.

Very few people made an appearance at the funeral, including the Lupins and Bathilda Bagshot. It was likely because of fear or stupidity. Being the target of Death Eaters wasn't something you could catch, like dragon pox. The absence of mourners didn't deter the remaining Potters, though. James, Mr. Potter and Sirius had one another for company. The three men stood separately together as the casket was placed in the ground.

Gail was glad to have Remus with her. They shared an umbrella, and huddled together underneath the black object. Remus' presence partially blocked out the cold, damp intrusion of the rain. For a few moments, he would rest one of his warm hands on her lower back. At other times, he would rest his shoulder against hers. When they walked, their hands were connected on the umbrella's handle. His presence kept the tears at bay so that she could keep a close eye on the Potters.

James had a disturbingly tranquil look on his face, one that Gail wouldn't forget very easily. He had come to grips with Emilie Potter's, even if he was still immensely sad about it. The ceremony continued on like a blurry dream. Even the rain seemed to ease and fall asleep for a few moments while James said his last good bye to his mother.

Gail switched her eyes over one face to the left. Sirius stood quietly, acting his part as James' right hand man. He kept guard in an intense silence. He seemed to be glaring at the great big hole, as if he was mad at it for enfolding Mrs. Potter in a den of security. Gail continued to watch Sirius struggle with his internal anger. She was too worried, or perhaps afraid, to look at Mr. Potter's face as his wife's casket was being covered in slimy, wet earth. Even when Mr. Potter moved to speak about his wife, Gail continued to examine the boys.

James, to Gail's awe and dismay, remained strong. His light radiated to each person there, though Gail was sure she was the only one to notice. Neither smiling or crying, James had the very face of all that was good in the world. The hope that reverberated in his eyes would not be diminished so easily. From the look in his eyes, Gail knew he was making promises to his mother; ones that he would keep. The funeral continued to slowly drift by Gail, leaving her feel like she was stationary and everything else was crawling around her.

"Come on, Gail, it's time to go," Remus spoke softly, gently directing her with the slightest touch on her back, "the others are leaving."

The grim parade marched back down the street and into the Potter's residence. Dressed in black with mysterious matching umbrellas, onlookers couldn't mistake the train of mourners for anything other than a funeral procession. In memory of Emilie Potter, the small group would share a meal at the house before disbursing.

Gail was in a haze, burdened with controlling her own emotions. She had done well for most of the day, keeping herself from weeping like a child. She didn't notice that Remus guided her into a chair next to James. She was mildly aware that they were sitting at was the same one that Mrs. Potter always served her food on. Likewise, she was aware of her own movements as she dropped different things onto her plate as James handed them to her. After the food had been passed around the table, Gail was finally able to register what she had put on her plate. Gail couldn't help but cry into her mashed potatoes.


"Where is she, Potter?"

The redhead had shown up a few weeks after the funeral, much to Gail's surprise. Lily had flung the door open and was standing on the porch, looking mildly annoyed. The first person she could see was James, who had been standing in the middle of the kitchen, eating some buttered toast. Upon seeing her, James effectively missed his mouth and dropped his piece of toast to the floor. He was wearing the clothes he had been sleeping in, nothing more than a pair of red and gold checkered pyjama pants. Lily didn't even look embarrassed to have barged into someone else's house.

Gail snickered at James' morning inability to string words together and pulled herself up from her favourite kitchen chair, "g'mornin' Lily. You caught me on my day off."

Lily was subtly glaring at James, who was attempting to clean the butter off the floor with the corner of his toast. The next words out of her mouth scolded the poor boy, who was already quite embarrassed, "really, Potter, isn't it a little late to be in your sleep wear?"

James skirted out of the kitchen like a dog that had been yelled at, probably to get dressed. Lily finally turned her emerald eyes to Gail and seemed to become quite a bit softer, "do you have to deal with that every morning?"

"Times two- Sirius does it, as well," Gail joked, gesturing at the table before moving to reclaim her seat, "have a seat."

"I was rather hoping we could go out, today," Lily sniffed shortly, eyeing one of the chairs as if it was contagious with some disease, "shopping or something. You could probably use some girl time. Where are the others?"

"Remus had to go back home to help take care of his sick mum. I heard she has recurring dragon pox. Then again, Remus might have been pulling my leg about that," Gail commented offhandedly, "oh- and Sirius is probably still asleep. I think Peter came to visit yesterday- but you probably don't care about that, right?"

"You definitely need some time away from them. You're even starting to talk like Potter," Lily snapped, "come for a little shopping. We could get some ice cream and look into some new Hogwarts robes, before Diagon Alley gets really busy."

"Don't have school lists yet," Gail yawned behind her hand and stood up. She made to grab her shoes.

"Doesn't matter. I know what ingredients I need to restock for Potions, and we'll need robes regardless," Lily explained quietly. The redhead pretended to ignore James' reentry into the kitchen, but was really watching him, unblinkingly, out of the corner of her almond shaped eyes.

"Goin' out?" James asked, returning to his attempts to save whatever he could of his toast.

"Yes, we are. Do you need me to pick anything up?" Gail asked calmly as she fastened the buckle on her brown shoes. Without looking up, she continued, "that doesn't include dungbombs or other joke products."

Lily laughed, causing Gail to look up. James had opened his mouth to respond, and was promptly shut down.

"He was- and then you-" Lily gasped after a bought of merry laughter, "you know him well, Gail!"

"Sure, sure. Come along, Lily," Gail ushered Lily back out through the door and turned back to James, who was waving peacefully, "be good, James. We'll be back in a bit."

Lily was still laughing merrily after they had apparated to the entrance of Diagon Alley. It took her a few good minutes to stop herself and by that time her face was scarlet and she was breathing heavily.

"That was marvelous, Gail," Lily confided, prodding some of the bricks with her wand.

"You really do think James is funny, don't you?" Gail questioned.

"I suppose," Lily answered weakly, leading the way through a crowd of elderly witches. Traces of romantic happiness still on her face, "his humour seems to have improved quite a bit."

"Or you've just warmed up to him?"

"Warmed up?" Lily turned on Gail, wand still in her hand. The redhead wasn't trying to look intimidating, she just was.

"Yes, you always seem a bit harsh to those you're not sure about, and really harsh to those you don't like." Gail stated, watching the shadows grow on Lily's face, "you used to treat me like a parasite, remember?"

"But you were- I mean," Lily spluttered frantically.

"I was an oddball and I never tried to get anyone to like me." Gail finished Lily's sentence, "and you were just unsure about me until- when was it? Oh yeah, Care of Magical Creatures, in our third year."

"You were brilliant at it," Lily remarked sadly, "still are- even if your work sounds like a bit of a dead-end cause."

"What? You mean that "preserving the life of the creatures, and thus the culture of our ancestors for future generations" is a dead-end?" Gail joked pausing outside of the Quidditch store to examine the brooms for a second. None that she could pinpoint as 'extraordinary'.

Lily, refusing to comment about the Ministry's work and uninterested in the brooms, took Gail by the arm and hauled her into the apothecary store. It was unpleasant smelling, by all standards, and made Gail quite glad she wasn't taking potions in her final year at Hogwarts.

"It's a shame you didn't pass your potions OWL," Lily remarked, "last year, we made several fantastic brews and..."

The rest of Lily's speech was drowned out by a combination of noises, voices and Gail not wanting to hear anymore. She still thought that Slughorn was a Slytherin-loving git. The redhead continued talking, as if she didn't know that her companion was tuning her out. As they shuffled through the store, Lily would stop to pick at some ingredients. She seemed absolutely enthused when she came across a crate of freshly dried scarabs.

Gail, on the other hand, was busy reading some of the jars. Wormwood, sage, garlic, griffin claw, dragon horn... That last one was rather expensive, and rightly so. It was quite hard to get a good clipping, not to mention dangerous. A person was more likely to end up barbecued as the dragon's dinner if they weren't careful.

There were some large vats in the shop, as well. The putrid brews were rolling happily over little blue fires. Apparently, the store had taken to selling pre-brewed potions, as well as ingredients. Of course, the sign said that the store would not sell the potions to any students, as it would be considered cheating.

"All done," Lily said loudly after paying for her potion ingredients. The two girls made their way out of the muggy store, to Gail's relief. There was no rest for Gail, though, not with Lily wanting to get a set of new robes. Nothing would stop the redhead, not even if Gail dug her heels in.


James sat at the table, staring around the room with a sigh. He promised to be good, even if he was bored. The house elf, bustled in with an armful of dirty clothes. It looked like Flink was going to wash Gail's clothes today. On top of the pile was a pair of, bloody hell, one of the tawny haired girl's panties. The sight made James turn his head away. Flink didn't even notice. Instead, she cradled the clothes and carried on with her chores.

Shuffling the load into one arm, Flink cleared the dishes out of the sink with a snap of her brown, wrinkly fingers. Another snap caused the sink to fill it up with hot water. Not caring who saw, Flink happily tossed the first few garments into the water and began scrubbing vigourously with a bar of soap. She seemed cheerful to be scrubbing Gail's unmentionables. The thought was almost creepy.

"Mornin'," Sirius grunted, shuffling his feet as he entered the kitchen. Blearily, the dark haired teen turned his eyes to the brown creature. Instantaneously, his jaw dropped and his eyes shot open. Without a word, Sirius sunk into the chair next to James. It took Padfoot a few minutes to find his voice, "bloody hell, washing her underwear in the same sink where we wash our dishes. That's just disgusting."

Flink didn't hear him or even pay attention to the boys who were eyeing Gail's panties.

"Gail does have good taste in unmentionables, though. Cute patterns," Sirius continued after a few seconds. This comment caused Flink to hazard him a glare before furtively shoving the underwear back under the water.

"Nasty little brats," Flink muttered, "not polite at all. Wicked little boys."

Sirius grumbled grouchily. He didn't even bother to respond to the elf. This was likely because Sirius had a bit of a habit of looking down on elves- especially those that reminded him of the nasty creature that served his mother.

"I'm bored," Sirius huffed, digging the nail on his thumb into the corner of the table, effectively chipping small bits of paint off.

"Let's go exploring. Bet there's something interesting around here- not a lot of people around," James responded, leaning forward to examine Sirius. His hazel eyes twinkled with mischief, perfectly mimicking Sirius' dark grey eyes.

"Great idea, let's go. Padfoot needs to stretch his legs out," Sirius agreed amiably. He pushed the chair out behind him carelessly and strolled over to the door.

"See you in a bit, Flinky," James tossed a handsome smile at the house elf as he stick his feet in a pair of shoes, "we'll get out of your- er- hair, for a bit."

Before closing the cottage's door, James could have sworn that Flink was muttering about her small tuff of hair. In a most remarkable cute way, the strange little creature was attempting to smooth the strands of white hair against her own wrinkly head. Snickering, James turned to find himself standing in front of a huge, black dog. Padfoot's tail was twitching impatiently, and his eyes were saying "hurry up, Prongs, I want to run around."

"Impatient mutt," James joked, folding his arms across his chest, "no wonder Gail didn't stick."

Sirius wasn't happy with that statement. With two barks and a growl, he was displaying his displeasure and his white canines. Padfoot pawed at the ground impatiently. His tail continuously twitched, as if it had a mind of its own. Sirius had admitted that his tail twitched more when he was aggravated. Of course, it only made him look like a good tempered dog. It really wasn't wagging, as most people would think.

"Should make the change permanent," James muttered, knowing that Sirius could hear him, "at least you look friendly like that."

A yelp answered James right away. Sirius continued playing charades with his eyes, "you wish, Prongs. The only way you could get women to chase after you is with me out of the picture, right mate?"

James heaved a sigh and couldn't help but agree with Sirius' eyes. He quickly looked around for any stray muggles and, seeing no one, transformed into a stag. It took him a few moments to allow his eyes to adjust to being so far apart. It was like developing an eye problem in a matter of seconds. The light of the sun also seemed to become more powerful, even though he was standing in the shade of the building. Taking in a quick breath, James sniffed at the ground. He could tell where Gail walked frequently, her scent was distributed more strongly in some areas. He was checking for different smells though, smells caused by wild plants, animals and other things. Sirius' nose was more effective for tracking things, but James was better at finding distinct differences. Making his way over the lush ground and around trees, James found the smells becoming more crisp. A fox had passed here earlier, carrying a rabbit for a meal.

Prongs stopped to tap the ground. He noticed that Padfoot was trailing behind him slowly, checking for anything that James might have missed. He caught the fox's scent quickly and jutted around the trees as he followed the scent. Slower than his friend, Prongs checked the surrounding area for other changes. The rock seemed to become harder as they got further away from Gail's cottage. He could feel it through his hooves, all the way into his muscular shoulders and thighs. The area remained sparsely covered in trees and didn't seem like very good farmland. Undoubtedly, the trees had been left because it wouldn't even make a good pasture. James had to be careful where he stepped. One wrong move and he would easily break his leg in several places because of the rocks.

Sirius had it easy. Dogs had far more manoeuvrability than deer, because of their build. Of course, they weren't as cool and they didn't have antlers. James caught the smell of another animal. He didn't know exactly what it was, but it was running, or moving quickly. Its prints were moving the the opposite direction of the fox, which Sirius was following. It was easy to get carried away when following other creatures. James allowed himself to become overly cocky and wasn't paying attention to where he was stepping. Prongs didn't realize his error until it was a second too late. As soon as he stepped down with his front legs, he knew something was wrong. The area looked deceivingly mossy.

With his front legs slipping, James jerked himself backwards. Too late. He felt himself falling through what he had thought was moss covered ground. He hadn't been paying enough attention and should have noticed the hidden opening of the hole. All James could do was transfigure himself back into a human form, split seconds after he knew that he couldn't stop the fall. It was a short fall, but that didn't stop the pain when his leg hit the stone ground. His right arm followed his leg, slapping the stone harmlessly.


Author Note:

Crunch.

The dangers of exploring, right? But it's what the boys do.
This chapter had a lot happening. I hope you caught everything. Leave a review if you have any questions.
Needless to say, I'm happy about the pantie humor.

-Rue

Apocolips: Ah, yeah! I was testing your memory. Thanks. I'm doing my best to make the story interesting. Summer- oh, I wish it was summer.

XxGrimmy: Angry and passionate Remus are delicious, right? Totally. Ah, I must have a grey hair fetish, or something. Nothing more attractive, I must say. On young guys, that is. But enough about that- haha. Yeah, the work was so much fun to write. Gail finally had her revenge on the boys. FINALLY. Bwahaha- Nothing better than Sirius shovelling dung. Nothing.