Chapter 2

Lily lay silently, still asleep. Darcie grinned and grabbed her pillow, creeping towards her as quiet as she could. After waiting just a moment to make sure she was asleep, Darcie raised her pillow and brought it down on Lily.
"Ahh!" Lily screamed, then scrambled madly as she tried to stay on the bed. It was no use, as she was so entangled in the covers that she could hardly move. A loud clunk signaled her falling.
Darcie collapsed on the bed, laughing like the world had no end.
"Darcie!" Lily said, hands on her hips.
"It's time for you to get up!" Darcie panted.
Lily glared one final time and grabbed a towel and a black robe, walking towards the showers. (A/N: I'm not sure if they actually have showers..)
An hour later, Darcie, Mei Long, and Lily ran downstairs, covered in stray feathers.
"You're not touching my pillow!" Mei Long said, pointing at Darcie.
"What happened to you? Have a fight with a chicken?" Sirius asked.
"I'll bet it won!" James put in.
"Just ignore them," Lily muttered and walked out of the portrait hole. Mei Long couldn't resist sticking out her tongue as she followed Lily, and Darcie raised her wand before being pulled out by the other two.
"Chickens," James and Sirius muttered. Lupin just shook his head. Peter just shook everywhere.
"They're mean," he said.
~@~

Lily was laughing at a joke Darcie made about the four guys, but she stopped laughing when James came into sight.
"Speak of the devil," she muttered to her friends. They all watched as the four approached and took the seats directly across from them.
"Bug off, Lupin," Mei Long said airily. "We have better things to do than look at you."
"Oooh, insult," Sirius said, grinning at Lupin.
"Yeah, it's the best they can come up with," James added.
Lily's eyes flashed and she grabbed a strawberry. "Can it," she said.
"What'd you say, Carrot?" James asked. "Rather, Liliane."
Lily lobbed the strawberry at James, which made a bulls-eye in his open mouth.
"Thanks," he said after a moment of shock. "It's good."
Darcie raised her wand, but Mei Long tugged on her sleeves. "Darcie! The teachers," she hissed.
"Yeah, Darcie," Sirius picked up "The teachers!" he waved his wand absentmindedly and her eyes went to fluorescent pink.
Lily glared. "Don't worry, Darcie," she said, grinning. "I've got a plan for him."
She grabbed Mei Long and Darcie, dragging them out of the hall. Her breakfast lay forgotten on the table.
"Look here," Lily said, pulling a book out of the library shelf. "Useful charms."
She flipped through the index and smiled, holding up the book for Darcie and Mei Long to see.
"How to turn your hair colors," it read. Darcie grinned.

~$~

James walked to Charms, falling into step with Sirius.
"They're really mad," Peter squeaked.
"Oh, who gives," James said. "They're just girls."
He walked into the classroom and sat in the back. The girls eyed him and Lily muttered something.
The class began, and the girls were already passing notes and giggling.
"I am Professor Flitwick," the tiny man squeaked in a voice higher than Peter's. "Now that I've introduced myself, let's find out who you are."
He began to call roll, and James drew little Quidditch figures on his parchment.
Half of the class was looking at him and giggling. "What is wrong with them?" he thought.
Then Sirius turned to him and let out a guffaw of laughter.
"Potter, when did you color your hair?" he laughed.
"I didn't!" James protested.
"Look!" Lupin roared, and handed him a pocket sized mirror.
James looked into the mirror and turned bright red. His hair was now completely pink and purple!
He looked around the room and his eyes came to rest on Lily, who had turned and was laughing helplessly.
"What is all the fuss about?" Flitwick demanded, then caught sight of Potter. "Oh dear," he sighed and waved his wand. James' hair went back to normal color, but everyone was still laughing.
"Now, please, back to Levitating Charms."
James hardly listened to the lecture. Instead, his thoughts were on Lily. "I'm going to get her back for this!" he scribbled and passed the note to Sirius.
"You'll have to find something really funny to top this ," Sirius wrote.
I'll do it!" James promised.
"Mr. Black? You partner Ms. Phillips," Flitwick said, looking at the roll. Darcie glared at Sirius.
"And Mr. Potter, that leaves you with Ms. Evans."
James and Lily both looked at each other, horrified.
"Professor, isn't there someone else left?" Lily asked hurriedly.
Flitwick didn't seem to hear. "Now, please sit with your partner and practice levitating larger objects together."
Lily beckoned for James to come over to her, but he sat and refused to move.
"Oh, fine," she snapped, bringing her things over to sit with him.
Professor Flitwick handed them a cushion and told them to get to work.
Lily and James glared at each other.
Darcie and Sirius had already managed to levitate their cushions, and were now trying to get it to hit the other person. Mei Long and Lupin were fighting over who got to make it levitate next.
Without looking at her, James said, "We'd better get started."
"Yeah," Lily replied, in the same manner.
She pointed her wand at the cushion and said, "Wingardium leviosa!"
The pillow flew up in the air.
"Now you try," she suggested.
James eyed the cushion and repeated her words. The cushion went up a few inches, then flopped down to earth.
Professor Flitwick came around. "Just point your wand at it and I'll do it!" Lily said quickly. The pillow zoomed up in the air just as the Professor turned their way.
"Excellent!" he squeaked. "Very nice!"
When he had turned away, James sighed with relief. Suddenly, something hit him.
Lily had turned away, so it wasn't her... the pillow hit him again, flying around him and refusing to go away.
"Carrot!" he said, menacingly.
"What?" she asked innocently. Flitwick announced that class was dismissed.
He lifted his wand and she darted out of the room, laughing up a storm.
James flung the pillow away and glared at the door.

"Now we've got Transfiguration," Mei Long said, checking her schedule.
Lily groaned. "I tried a spell out over the summer and I couldn't get it to change in the least!"
"Don't sweat it," Darcie said. "Nobody will be able to do it the first time!"
They took seats in the middle of the classroom and waited for it to start.
Professor McGonagall jumped right into telling them about certain types of transfiguration and wanted them to try turning a match into a needle.
"Like anyone will be able to do it?" Darcie whispered.
"No way!" Lily said.
"Professor? Since we have to split into partners, can't we use the same ones Professor Flitwick assigned?" a Hufflepuff girl asked.
Nononono! Lily thought.
"I don't see why not," Professor McGonagall answered.
Lily put her head in her hands and moaned.
"It can't be that bad," Mei Long said.
"You'd be surprised," Lily answered.
"C'mon, Carrot!" Jame said. "We've gotta get started!"
"You're actually excited to do this?" Lily asked.
"Transfiguration is cool!" he said defensively. "I'll go first."
He pointed his wand at the match and concentrated. Lily yawned and looked around the room. Sirius was trying to light the match while Darcie told him off, and Mei Long was arguing with Lupin over who got to go first.
She stole a glance at James' match and wished she hadn't. His was completely silver, and the tip was getting pointy. The bottom part had a whole in it already.
"Switch!" McGonagall called out. Mei Long and Lupin looked up wide-eyed from their argument, and Mei Long pointed her wand at the match. Lupin grudgingly let her go.
"Your turn!" James announced.
Lily looked like doomsday had come. "No, it's okay, you keep on going!" she said. "You've almost got it."
"It's okay, it's your turn," James insisted, grinning. If she really didn't want to do this...He handed her the match. "See if you can get it the rest of the way."
Lily stole a glance in Darcie's direction. She was laughing at Sirius' bent match.
She gave on more futile try. "Oh, go on, James. I don't want to accidentally ruin it."
"No, I insist," he grinned. "Transfigure all you like."
Lily glared at him and got to work.

~@~

"Don't worry, Lily," Mei Long consoled. "They'll forget about it soon."
"I absolutely HATE James!" Lily said fiercely. "Blood loser!"
Darcie looked at Lily's attempt at transfiguration. "Don't worry," she said. "Mine was just as bad!"
Lily fumed on, as Mei Long attempted to comfort her. She only stopped for breath when someone knocked on the door.
"What?" Darcie asked irratibly.
James poked his head in, causing all three girls' jaws to drop. "Don't worry, Carrot," he grinned. "We'll forget someday. It really was an admirable attempt." He had to stop because of laughter.
"GET OUT!" Darcie screamed, waving her wand.
"Darcie, no!" Mei Long and Lily shouted, knowing what she would do next.
"Signiousta!" she shouted. There was a loud bang, but nothing happened. "He was supposed to be thrown out," she admitted.
James had doubled with laughter.
"Oh, let me do it," Lily said, eyeing James. "Wait..what's that?" She waved her wand in circles and James turned around (A/N: She studied her Charms book over the summer and learned a bunch of spells). There was a large kick me sign on his back. "Go Darcie!" Mei Long giggled.
"Banishio!" Lily said, and Darcie closed the door. They heard James banging on the walls with a reverberating, "Ouch!" and into the common room.
"It's a good thing your spell went wrong, you know," Lily giggled, her spirits greatly raised. "Who knows what could have happened."
"It wasn't supposed to do that," Darcie said. "But its' fine with me that it did."
The three headed down to their next class, but Lily told them to wait in the common room.
She walked up behind James, nobody had noticed the kick me sign yet.
Lily drew her foot back and kicked him from behind.
"Ow!" James said crossly, turning his back on Sirius to face her. "What was that for?"
"Um, James? You had this on your back," Sirius said, stifling a laugh as he passed the sign to his friend.
"Carrot!" James shouted, reaching out to grab her.
Lily shrieked and ran out the portrait hole, slamming it shut in his face.
"When I catch her I'm going to hex her!" James yelled furiously, running after her.
Lily, Darcie, and Mei Long had already disappeared down the hall towards the Ravenclaw entrance.
James caught up with them as they neared there.
Mei Long beat on the entrance.
"Leila!" she shouted. "Let us in!"
The statue moved aside and Leila poked her head out. "What?"
"Hurry!" Darcie said.
Leila caught sight of James running after them and pulled the three in without another word.
James got a good sight of the statue as it shut in front of him.