Disguised as a Good Girl: Chapter 2
Before long, the train had reached its destination. Immediately, a crowd of students swarmed out of the door, fighting their way to get into the carriages. James grabbed Lily's elbow as as she was being jostled about, and led her forcefully to the nearest carriage. The other Marauders followed them closely.
James held the door open for Lily like a gentleman. He even extended his hand to help her in, but she stepped up without even glancing at it. It was a tight fit inside the carriage, with James, Remus and Lily on one side, and Sirius and Peter on the other. For a minute, it looked as though James was going to offer her his lap as a seat, but thought the better of it. Lily gazed out the window for most of the ride, taking pleasure in the beauty of her surroundings. She pressed her nose against the glass of the window, ignoring the rumble of the carriage, and the way James fell into her at every turn in the road. It was sunset, and the lake was glistening in the dim light. She could see the tentacles of the giant squid curling above the waters surface occasionally. In the distance, the Forbidden Forest looked safe and friendly, a velvety mass of soft green.
The ride didn't last long. Within minutes, everyone tumbled out of the carriages and into the Great Hall. That is, everyone but the Marauders and Lily. She trailed after them as they made their way to the kitchens. They seemed to have forgotten her presence. Over the years, Lily had found out that being quiet and shy could be more useful than any magic to make herself invisible. People simply forgot that she was there. She probably knew more about the lives of everyone at Hogwarts than Bertha Jorkins, the notorious gossip of the school.
Right at the picture of the fruit bowl, the group stopped. James fished around in his pocket, and brought out an Invisibility Cloak. Lily worked hard to supress a gasp; she had to be quiet if she didn't want to boys to pay any attention to her. In fact, it would be best if they didn't even realize that she was there. For this purpose, Lily slipped under the cloak next to Peter, who seemed to be too preoccupied watching his feet to notice any of his surroundings. But poor Lily paid for this decision; her toes were black and blue for days afterwards because of Peter's clumsy footing.
Lily had never been in the kitchens before. At first, she was stunned by the sheer size of it. It was at least as big as the Great Hall, with ceilings so high that she wondered how the Great Hall could fit above it. House elves were hustling about, preparing food for the night's feast. Everyone had something to do. Despite the Invisibility cloak, Lily felt unusally conspicuous, and not only because she was a few feet taller than everyone else. They seemed to be the only people there who weren't busy.
The group worked their way through the kitchen to the table which held the Slytherins' food. Lily watched closely as Sirius produced a bottle from his pocket, which presumably held the coughing potion. He then proceeded to spread it liberally over the food, while the others watched and snickered.
"This is going to be so good!" Sirius whispered, before leading the group back out of the kitchen.
As the Marauders headed back to the Sorting, Lily ducked out from under the cloak and stepped back into the shadows, holding her breath. If this part of her plan didn't succeed, then she would have to give up on the whole thing. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice her absence. The boys chattered on about the look on Snape's face without a thought about her. In a way, Lily was a bit disappointed. "Even your boyfriend doesn't notice you!" she thought sadly. But it was better this way. She quickly said the words for an invisibility charm, and felt her body disappearing into thin air. She tingled all over from the magic. The charm was terribly hard; in fact, it was so advanced that it wasn't even taught at Hogwarts, although that could have been because of the havoc it could cause. But Charms had always been Lily's best subject. She had spent almost a year working on that particular spell.
She slipped quietly back through the protrait hole, tickling the pear just as Remus had done. She strode over to the Slytherins' table, and extracted the vial from her pocket. She fingered it lovingly for a minute before she opened the bottle. Lily had invented this potion herself, in her fourth year, while she had stayed over for Christmas vacation. Out of all of the potions that she had invented, this was her favorite.
She was jarred out of her reverie when a nearby house-elf bumped into her. The house-elf looked dazed for a minute, but picked himself up and proceeded on his way. Once he was gone, Lily wrenched the cap off of the vial and poured its contents onto the food. It shouldn't have any flavor at all, and the Slytherins would eat their food without any suspicion. It took approximately five minutes for the potion to work. Finally, the potion was all used up. Lily gazed at her work for a moment, before placing the vial back in her pocket and exiting the kitchen. Once outside, she muttered the countercurse for the invisibility spell, and headed towards the Great Hall.
By the time that she slid into her seat, the Sorting was almost over. She received a couple of curious looks, but for the most part, people ignored her as usual. She waited eagerly until the food would appear on their plates.
Snape was the first of the Slytherins to shove a forkful of potatoes into his mouth. The instant that the food touched his lips, he started coughing uncontrollably. Some of his friends patted him roughly on the back, thinking that he was choking. But as soon as they started to eat, the same thing happened to them. Snape managed to point a shaking finger at the Gryffindor table, before collapsing again in another fit.
Lily looked over at the Marauders. They were laughing as if it was the funniest thing that they had ever seen in their life. Sirius was literally rolling on the floor in hysterics. Actually, they looked almost as bad as Snape did; the noise that they were emitting was almost equal in volume to the coughs that were coming from the Slytherin table. The girls that were cuddling up next to them were tittering too, but they were getting some weird looks from the rest of the hall.
It was almost time for Lily's potion to start working. She waited with baited breath, her fingers crossed under the table. But just as she was starting to become nervous that something had gone wrong, Snape's nostrils started to twitch. His ears quivered, and they looked a bit larger and pinker than they had a minute ago. Lily peered around to get a view of his behind--there it was, a fluffy little cottonball sticking out of the seat of his pants, and growing larger every minute. Lily couldn't help herself; a giggle escaped her mouth in spite of all of her efforts to remain silent.
Some of the other Slytherins were starting to be affected now. Lucius Malfoy had a pair of beautifully floppy, furry ears that hung past his shoulders. On the other hand, Avery's ears were standing tall, and they stiffened every time someone coughed. The Marauders were sitting straight up in their chairs now, watching in disbelief as the Slytherins were miraculously transformed.
Snape watched in horror as he and his friends morphed into cute, huggable bunnies. The Marauders had done some pretty awful stuff to him before, but this was the worst. These were the Slytherins, the most mighty house of Hogwarts, revered by all that knew them! They were not supposed to be rabbits! He would not have minded so much if the Marauders had picked any other animal, but a bunny?! 'Well, it could have been worse,' he consoled himself. 'We could have been made into worms.' He tried to smile grimly, but his muzzle refused to stretch into that unfamiliar position. When he looked down, he noticed that he had started sprouting whispers, one at a time.
As if that was the last straw, Snape suddenly bounded out of his chair, and sprinted straight at the Maruaders. He opened his mouth, and half of the people in the hall covered their ears, preparing for what was to come. But all that came out of his mouth was a loud cough. And another. With that, Lily abandoned all attempts at restraint, and laughed along with the rest of the Great Hall. Even Dumbledore couldn't keep a straight face, and his guffaws echoed throughout the room.
"Professor Vane," he finally managed to get out, wiping tears from his eyes meanwhile, "Why don't you take our rather-erm-afflicted students to the Hospital Wing." The Head of Slytherin rose accordingly and swept out of the Great Hall, with the Slytherins hopping merrily along behind him.
It was at least five minutes before the laughter in the Great Hall died down. Even then, there would be an occasional chortle from one part of the room or another. Lily smiled. The prank had gone wonderfully. At least, her prank had. Across the room, the Marauders were deep in conversation. The girls that had been with them before had been sent back to their own seats, and were now pouting. Sirius appeared to be stupefied, while James was gesturing wildly about him. Remus seemed to be hiding a smile, and Peter looked as if he wanted nothing so much as to dive under the table and stay there.
'I want to do this again,' Lily decided. But how? She had only known of this prank beforehand by a piece of amazing luck. It would be too much to hope that it would happen again.
Thank you for all of those wonderful reviews! I was so very happy when I got all of them. The next chapter should have a bit more from James's point of view.
Please Review!
Before long, the train had reached its destination. Immediately, a crowd of students swarmed out of the door, fighting their way to get into the carriages. James grabbed Lily's elbow as as she was being jostled about, and led her forcefully to the nearest carriage. The other Marauders followed them closely.
James held the door open for Lily like a gentleman. He even extended his hand to help her in, but she stepped up without even glancing at it. It was a tight fit inside the carriage, with James, Remus and Lily on one side, and Sirius and Peter on the other. For a minute, it looked as though James was going to offer her his lap as a seat, but thought the better of it. Lily gazed out the window for most of the ride, taking pleasure in the beauty of her surroundings. She pressed her nose against the glass of the window, ignoring the rumble of the carriage, and the way James fell into her at every turn in the road. It was sunset, and the lake was glistening in the dim light. She could see the tentacles of the giant squid curling above the waters surface occasionally. In the distance, the Forbidden Forest looked safe and friendly, a velvety mass of soft green.
The ride didn't last long. Within minutes, everyone tumbled out of the carriages and into the Great Hall. That is, everyone but the Marauders and Lily. She trailed after them as they made their way to the kitchens. They seemed to have forgotten her presence. Over the years, Lily had found out that being quiet and shy could be more useful than any magic to make herself invisible. People simply forgot that she was there. She probably knew more about the lives of everyone at Hogwarts than Bertha Jorkins, the notorious gossip of the school.
Right at the picture of the fruit bowl, the group stopped. James fished around in his pocket, and brought out an Invisibility Cloak. Lily worked hard to supress a gasp; she had to be quiet if she didn't want to boys to pay any attention to her. In fact, it would be best if they didn't even realize that she was there. For this purpose, Lily slipped under the cloak next to Peter, who seemed to be too preoccupied watching his feet to notice any of his surroundings. But poor Lily paid for this decision; her toes were black and blue for days afterwards because of Peter's clumsy footing.
Lily had never been in the kitchens before. At first, she was stunned by the sheer size of it. It was at least as big as the Great Hall, with ceilings so high that she wondered how the Great Hall could fit above it. House elves were hustling about, preparing food for the night's feast. Everyone had something to do. Despite the Invisibility cloak, Lily felt unusally conspicuous, and not only because she was a few feet taller than everyone else. They seemed to be the only people there who weren't busy.
The group worked their way through the kitchen to the table which held the Slytherins' food. Lily watched closely as Sirius produced a bottle from his pocket, which presumably held the coughing potion. He then proceeded to spread it liberally over the food, while the others watched and snickered.
"This is going to be so good!" Sirius whispered, before leading the group back out of the kitchen.
As the Marauders headed back to the Sorting, Lily ducked out from under the cloak and stepped back into the shadows, holding her breath. If this part of her plan didn't succeed, then she would have to give up on the whole thing. Fortunately, no one seemed to notice her absence. The boys chattered on about the look on Snape's face without a thought about her. In a way, Lily was a bit disappointed. "Even your boyfriend doesn't notice you!" she thought sadly. But it was better this way. She quickly said the words for an invisibility charm, and felt her body disappearing into thin air. She tingled all over from the magic. The charm was terribly hard; in fact, it was so advanced that it wasn't even taught at Hogwarts, although that could have been because of the havoc it could cause. But Charms had always been Lily's best subject. She had spent almost a year working on that particular spell.
She slipped quietly back through the protrait hole, tickling the pear just as Remus had done. She strode over to the Slytherins' table, and extracted the vial from her pocket. She fingered it lovingly for a minute before she opened the bottle. Lily had invented this potion herself, in her fourth year, while she had stayed over for Christmas vacation. Out of all of the potions that she had invented, this was her favorite.
She was jarred out of her reverie when a nearby house-elf bumped into her. The house-elf looked dazed for a minute, but picked himself up and proceeded on his way. Once he was gone, Lily wrenched the cap off of the vial and poured its contents onto the food. It shouldn't have any flavor at all, and the Slytherins would eat their food without any suspicion. It took approximately five minutes for the potion to work. Finally, the potion was all used up. Lily gazed at her work for a moment, before placing the vial back in her pocket and exiting the kitchen. Once outside, she muttered the countercurse for the invisibility spell, and headed towards the Great Hall.
By the time that she slid into her seat, the Sorting was almost over. She received a couple of curious looks, but for the most part, people ignored her as usual. She waited eagerly until the food would appear on their plates.
Snape was the first of the Slytherins to shove a forkful of potatoes into his mouth. The instant that the food touched his lips, he started coughing uncontrollably. Some of his friends patted him roughly on the back, thinking that he was choking. But as soon as they started to eat, the same thing happened to them. Snape managed to point a shaking finger at the Gryffindor table, before collapsing again in another fit.
Lily looked over at the Marauders. They were laughing as if it was the funniest thing that they had ever seen in their life. Sirius was literally rolling on the floor in hysterics. Actually, they looked almost as bad as Snape did; the noise that they were emitting was almost equal in volume to the coughs that were coming from the Slytherin table. The girls that were cuddling up next to them were tittering too, but they were getting some weird looks from the rest of the hall.
It was almost time for Lily's potion to start working. She waited with baited breath, her fingers crossed under the table. But just as she was starting to become nervous that something had gone wrong, Snape's nostrils started to twitch. His ears quivered, and they looked a bit larger and pinker than they had a minute ago. Lily peered around to get a view of his behind--there it was, a fluffy little cottonball sticking out of the seat of his pants, and growing larger every minute. Lily couldn't help herself; a giggle escaped her mouth in spite of all of her efforts to remain silent.
Some of the other Slytherins were starting to be affected now. Lucius Malfoy had a pair of beautifully floppy, furry ears that hung past his shoulders. On the other hand, Avery's ears were standing tall, and they stiffened every time someone coughed. The Marauders were sitting straight up in their chairs now, watching in disbelief as the Slytherins were miraculously transformed.
Snape watched in horror as he and his friends morphed into cute, huggable bunnies. The Marauders had done some pretty awful stuff to him before, but this was the worst. These were the Slytherins, the most mighty house of Hogwarts, revered by all that knew them! They were not supposed to be rabbits! He would not have minded so much if the Marauders had picked any other animal, but a bunny?! 'Well, it could have been worse,' he consoled himself. 'We could have been made into worms.' He tried to smile grimly, but his muzzle refused to stretch into that unfamiliar position. When he looked down, he noticed that he had started sprouting whispers, one at a time.
As if that was the last straw, Snape suddenly bounded out of his chair, and sprinted straight at the Maruaders. He opened his mouth, and half of the people in the hall covered their ears, preparing for what was to come. But all that came out of his mouth was a loud cough. And another. With that, Lily abandoned all attempts at restraint, and laughed along with the rest of the Great Hall. Even Dumbledore couldn't keep a straight face, and his guffaws echoed throughout the room.
"Professor Vane," he finally managed to get out, wiping tears from his eyes meanwhile, "Why don't you take our rather-erm-afflicted students to the Hospital Wing." The Head of Slytherin rose accordingly and swept out of the Great Hall, with the Slytherins hopping merrily along behind him.
It was at least five minutes before the laughter in the Great Hall died down. Even then, there would be an occasional chortle from one part of the room or another. Lily smiled. The prank had gone wonderfully. At least, her prank had. Across the room, the Marauders were deep in conversation. The girls that had been with them before had been sent back to their own seats, and were now pouting. Sirius appeared to be stupefied, while James was gesturing wildly about him. Remus seemed to be hiding a smile, and Peter looked as if he wanted nothing so much as to dive under the table and stay there.
'I want to do this again,' Lily decided. But how? She had only known of this prank beforehand by a piece of amazing luck. It would be too much to hope that it would happen again.
Thank you for all of those wonderful reviews! I was so very happy when I got all of them. The next chapter should have a bit more from James's point of view.
Please Review!