Disclaimer: same as usual. Enjoy the story. Review please!
I never imagined that it could take so much time to type. It took a lot of my time to piece this story together, so please do not copy it. And if this story looks like someone else's, then I am sorry, it was a coincidence, and not intentional.
*~*~*~*~*
A visit to Hogwarts
By Ola
*~*~*~*~*
A week later, in the same little room, in the dead of the night, the marauders were finishing the last preparations for the" most wonderful prank ever." Remus, with the neatest handwriting, was finishing a letter, James was drawing an arch on the wall, and Sirius was jumping up and down like an exited little kid. They had previously decided on a name they had found in a muggle phone book: Alex Westwood, a guy from the East coast of America. With a bit of magic, they found out his age, and the place he would be at the time they would do the trick: somewhere named Middletown.
"Ready? Ready?!!" said Sirius.
"As ready as we will ever be," said Remus, handing
him the sealed envelop.
Taking their wands out, the boys pointed at a diagram drawn on James's arch, and said "Americanus Complicatus Extraordinarus." And then, things happened very fast. The arch opened into the view of a closed rectangular box, narrow, and as high as them. It was full of books, and a dark gray coat hung on a peg, but everything was blurry. As soon as Sirius dropped the letter on a book, the back of the box opened, and the blurry image of a person stood there. He had short black hair, a pale complection, and wore dark blue jeans with a yellow T-shirt.
"What's taking him so long?" said Sirius,
frustrated, and he struck his hand into the image, but got stuck partway there.
He had obviously bloated himself with chocolate frogs on the way to their
secret room. James and Remus would have laughed at the grunting Sirius if the situation
wasn't so important. With Sirius blocking the view, they didn't see anything
until he was falling back into the room… with a muggle boy. Except that it
wasn't a boy at all, but a pretty girl with shiny gray eyes.
*~*~*~*~*
"What are we going to do with her?" said Sirius. "It was supposed to be a boy, so we could hide him in our dorm. Where are we going to put her now?" He was babbling, and he knew it, but he didn't care. Their "terrific prank", also known as TP, wasn't so perfect after all.
"I know," said Remus in a flash of genius. "We can tell Lily. She will come up with something."
"No way!" said James, spluttering. "She will go to McGonogal (A/N spelling?), then we will be expelled!" "We could leave her" pointing at Alex, who was getting angry at being ignored "here, and bring her blankets and food."
"Out of the question!" said Alex, fuming, with her fists on her hips. "I am not staying here alone, in this cold and dark little cubicle!" She was now glaring at them, her eyes flashing stele Gray in the moonlight.
"Did you have to pick HER, of all people?" whined Sirius. Alex shot daggers at him.
"Shut up, padfoot. YOU picked her! Now let me think." Said James.
"Prongs, face it. We have to get Lil on it. She's a girl so she will know what to do with, euh… Alex," said Remus calmly.
"All right," said James after a few minutes of reflection, grinding his teeth. "But I hate her, and she hates me right back. So if she does ANYTHING to endanger this prank, I will personally make sure that she finds herself in the Hospital Wing, with a cleared memory!"
"Great!," said Sirius, with a glint in his eyes.
*~*~*~*~*
When Remus, under the invisibility cloak, came looking for me, I was curious, and when he said it was top secret and that it involved the marauders and a TP (a terrific prank J), I couldn't stand in place. I just had to know what was going on. So of course, I followed him. After dozens of staircases, twists and turns, and endless hallways, we reached the little room he told me about. Someone, whom I first took for a lanky boy of a slight build with strange clothes, was sleeping on a dusty sofa, and Sirius and James were looking at him curiously.
"We're back," said Remus in a soft voice, but it wasn't soft enough.
The sleeping form turned a little and woke up. And I found myself staring into the sleepy, shiny gray eyes… of a girl of my age. Now that she was uncurled, there was no mistaking her for a guy, especially since she was wearing a rather tight T-shirt. But her very short hair, cut in a boy's manner, did suggest a tomboy personality.
But who is she? How did she get here? And what do the guys have to do with her? I didn't have to wait long, as Remus sat down on the floor and told me everything in a shushed voice. By the end of it, I was rolling on the floor, laughing at the stupidity of "the greatest pranksters of Hogwarts." The girl, Ales, was smiling too, but I could tell that she was tired and still a little unsure of what was really happening. Well, so would I if I were her!
"So POTTER, your fabulous plan backfired?" I sneered. I just couldn't stand him. He was obnoxious, self-centered, conceited, … well, you get the picture. But he was cute. Eww! Did I just think that? What's wrong with me!?! "And now you need my help." That was more a statement than a question.
"Yes" "No" said several voices at the same time.
"Yes we do Lil," said Remus again. "We can't leave her here, and we can't take her to our dorm, obviously, although I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind at all." He said, with a grin toward his friend. "So we thought you could maybe come up with something." He said hopefully.
Potter just glared at me as if he wouldn't ask for my
help if his life depended on it. Well, I'm sure he wouldn't… And neither would
I. And right now, I had a perfect little idea that would make him think twice
before pulling a prank on me. That is, of course, if he doesn't die of a
hard attack first! Ha ha!
"That's obvious guys," which it wasn't, really, but I just couldn't pass such a great occasion to torment Potter some more. "I make her look like me so she can go on Hogwarts's grounds without anyone asking who she is," I said with a smile of satisfaction, which turned into a grin at the sight of James's face. His eyes were bulging with disbelief, and his jaw hung open, making him look like a fish stranded on land. He looked quite silly. Alex glanced at him and hid her smile behind her hands. I could see the glint of mischief in her eyes. Girl, we're definitely going to become friends. I thought with satisfaction.
"There's no time to lose if you want to be alive for double potions tomorrow morning, or rather in a few hours," said James, trying to get the upper hand.
"Since when do you care about classes, POTTER?" I snapped. Then I turned toward Alex and asked her in a friendlier tone "do you give me the permission to spell you into a copy of myself?"
"And since when do you care about other people's feelings, when performing a charm? By experience, I can say that you just grab your victim and do whatever you do to her right there on the spot!" said James haughtily.
"W…wait. I can't just stay here for a month. It's not that I wouldn't like to, but people are going to look for me back home and get worried," said Alex in a worried tone.
"No prob," said Sirius, showing her an old scrapbook. "The spell we made will bring you back home after a month of time spent HERE. But there, no time will have passed."
"All right" she smiled, then whacked Sirius in the head with the same scrapbook. "But you, you DIDN'T ask my permission before bringing me here." Then, grinning, she came over to me.
"Myselfamus, Lilyamus, Alexamus, Copitus!" I said, swinging my wand between us in a weird pattern. When I opened my eyes again, I saw… myself. Well, I WAS good at charms, and I prided myself in it. Alex blinked, looked at her new self, and hugged me.
"I believe we're going to be great friends," she said, and we giggled.
As for the guys, they were bewildered, looking from one to the other. "How are we going to know who is who?" asked Remus.
"Ah!" I said in a wise tone, "that is for us to know", and I smiled.
*~*~*~*~*
What? As if one wasn't enough! I'm going to go crazy! She will attempt to kill me twice as often now! But well, now I will have two pairs of beautiful emerald eyes to look int. Wow, did I really think that? There must be something wrong with me if I am beginning to be interested in Evans. I told myself, surprised. I yawned and realized how tired I was. The moon was slowly sinking into the Forbidden Forest. Time to go.
Before I made more than a step toward the invisible cloak lying at Evan's feet, she snatched it, threw it over herself and her copy, and ran out of the room, leaving us stranded. Shit! She WOULD do that, too. It was exactly like her to do just that. I can't BELIEVE she abandoned us here.
"We're screwed,' said Sirius matter of factly, twisting his wrists in a muggle manner to accentuate how REALLY screwed we were.
An hour later, we were huffing and puffing in our common room, glad to be still alive. On the way here, we had ran into Filtch and his stupid cat at LEAST a dozen times, ducking into empty rooms at the last second to save us from being discovered. I swear, he was tracking us like a hound! And I swear too that Evans will pay for this dearly.
"If you want a revenge," said Sirius with a smile, as if reading my mind, "you will have to make sure you figure out which one is Lil and which one is that Alex girl. You wouldn't want to have another one like Lil on your case, trying to kill you too. Now, would you?" A grin.
"Well, theoretically, she's guilty by association," said Remus, always the scholar. "But Sirius is right. If she takes to dislike you too, you won't live pass this year." He too added with a grin.
*~*~*~*~*
We went up to our dorm to try to catch some sleep before the double potions with slimy Slivering. Both I and Remus were already in our four poster beds, not even bothering to fold our clothes neatly but letting them lay on the floor until the newt time we would need them, when we heard James growl "Evans."
"What? You dream of putting your hands around her neck and squeezing, or putting your hands there and kissing her?" I asked him mockingly.
"She was in our room. She brought the cloak back," he said with disgust. Obviously it was for Lily, and not the cloak. But then, you never know with James.
"How nice of her, can you shut up and go to sleep now, like every normal person?" mumbled Remus between two snores, almost asleep.
"Yea, right. And she added a 'nice' message to it: 'Here you go POTTER. I hope you loose this little marvel somewhere for me to find, or even better, that you hang yourself with it. Then it would look as if you levitate, AND it would be a great riddance. Sincerely not yours, Lily.'"
"Ha ha ha" I was laughing. I love this girl. She and James would make a great couple. They have the same personality, and they don't even recognize it. The same mischievous/friendly/proud streak. I will have to do something about getting them together… tomorrow. I couldn't keep myself from adding "good night Jamsie, I hope you dream of your dear Lily. And by the way, you talk in your sleep… about her… in a GOOD way!" I mocked. And it WAS true, too. But I only got whacked by James's pillow for my pain at being nice and telling the truth for once. Well, I DIDN'T know if he was thinking nice things about Lil or not, but I greatly suspected the first, especially when his face became an earnest smile instead of his usual mischievous grin. No matter. I will make these two like each other like DECENT people. I promised myself with a smile before sleep took me in its sweet embrace. (When did I become such a poetic, sweet guy? Wink.)
*~*~*~*~*
The two girls arrived to the Common Room, out of breath, but happy.
"So, you really don't like James, hein?" said Alex with a knowing smile on her lips.
"He is the most annoying person I ever met. Plus, he is stubborn, conceited, and his ego is way too big for his own good," she said hotly. But a certain twinkle never left her eyes.
"Yea, he seemed exactly that, but he does have beautiful eyes, and the way his jet black hair flops into his eyes is irresistible. You can't deny that."
"Well, you're right," she whispered. "But I won't be like every other girl in this school, following him like flies," she said fiercely. "I won't be lowered to their fluffy-headed level. Especially no by POTTER!"
Green eyes met gray ones, and something special passes between the two. Both girls looked the same, but they also knew how each other felt. Sitting in front of the flickering fire, they enjoyed each other's presence, like best friends do.
"You still have your original eye color," said Lily, surprised.
"My mom once told me that eyes are window to the soul," said Alex in a whisper, after a few minutes of friendly silence. "I guess it means I am still me." She smiled into the empty room. "It was a pretty impressive thing you did, back there, by the look on the guys' face." She giggled, remembering that moment.
They talked for some time, about both their worlds, their differences and similarities, until they heard the boys' footsteps, at which time they hurried into Lil's dorm, giggling at the memory of their faces as they had left them.
*~*~*~*~*
Note: This is where I stopped writing. I don't have anything else in my journal for now. Ideas are welcome. VERY welcome!!
And so are reviews! Thank you Ariana and firebolt7 knm1207. You are the only two that wrote reviews!!!
For all the rest of you out there, I am sad to say that I thought the fan fic community was better than that. This is pathetic. One review out of 43 people reading my stories! You could at LEAST say "great" or "it really stinks". Typing into that little box at the bottom of the story only takes a few seconds!!
~Ola~.