Chapter 8: Christmas Day
When Sirius woke up he couldn't work out where he
was. It was definitely too uncomfortable to be his bed, either at school or at
home, and he was very hungry, a feeling he didn't like. Blearily he opened his
eyes.
"Why am I in the common room?" he thought to himself.
Then the night before came back to him, and he assumed they must have been too
tired to go up to bed. He could see Remus, still sleeping sweetly, in the chair
opposite, and Peter curled up on the floor.
"I'm hungry!" Sirius said loudly.
"Wha-at?" Remus said
sleepily.
"What time is it, Remie?"
"11 o'clock."
"My god! No wonder I'm so
hungry!" Sirius wailed.
"So hungry that you
haven't even noticed our darling friends?" Remus grinned evilly, indicating the
chair next to Sirius, who turned and then matched Remus' grin with one of his
own.
"Camera?" said Remus
"I think so."
Suddenly very awake, the
two boys darted up to the common room, grabbed their cameras and tip toed back
down again.
By the time they got back to the common room Peter
was awake. "I woke up earlier," he said, "but you were so fast asleep I
couldn't wake you and I fell asleep again."
"Sshhhh!" Sirius scolded.
"You'll wake them up."
Lily and James were lying asleep in the same chair,
curled up together, identical happy smiles on their faces. Sirius grinned gain
at the horror the photos would cause, then both boys clicked their cameras and
the pictures were taken.
"Make a cute couple, don't they?" Sirius said evilly.
"Thought you knew that?"
Remus asked in surprise. "You're always teasing them."
"That's just 'cos I know
they don't like it! I never really thought about it 'til now."
"I'll wake them up." Remus
said. "LILY! JAMES! WAKE UP!" he yelled. Lily murmured something then opened
her eyes.
"AGGGHHHH!" she screamed. Sirius and Remus laughed.
Lily jumped up and shook James awake.
"What?" he asked groggily.
"Kill them!" she replied.
"They've got pictures!"
"Of what?" James was
confused. It really was too early in the morning.
"We were all curled up
together and they got pictures!" Lily shrieked.
"AGGHH! With you?"
"Get them!" Lily and James
dived for Sirius and Remus, while Peter scrambled away.
And so Christmas Day started with play fighting.
****************************
Sirius shot down to the Great Hall, bumping into
people on the way, including Professor McGonagall who shouted angrily after
him.
"BLACK!" she yelled.
"DETENTION!" Sirius was already out of earshot.
His only thought was food. He needed food. He was
desperate for food. He hadn't eaten in over twelve hours and he needed food. He
flew into the Hall and didn't even bother to sit down before stuffing his face
with food.
Minutes later Remus and Peter entered, laughing at
the scene before them. Sirius was eating so fast he could barely stop to
breathe, whilst Professor Dumbledore was bellowing "Excellent, Sirius,
excellent. The chefs will take it as a great compliment!" from the teacher's
table, looking highly amused. The two new arrivals sat down, and tucked in.
But something was missing, thought Remus. Where were
James and Lily? They were just as hungry as Sirius and it was unlike them to be
late for a meal. Just as he was getting really worried, the doors opened they
walked in, miraculously not arguing.
"Mr Potter, Miss Evans, so glad you've joined us!"
Dumbledore beamed, without the slightest trace of sarcasm in his voice. They
beamed back. "I hope you are having a good day?"
"Excellent, Professor!"
they chirruped together. "The same to you!" They sat down and started eating,
as Professor Dumbledore turned to Professor Dunworthy, the Deputy Head and
their own Head of House.
"Watch those two,"
Dumbledore murmured. "They're up to something." Dunworthy smiled back; he
couldn't help but be amused at the fives pranks and he knew Dumbledore was too.
"Ok." He whispered.
The meal progressed with happy chatter, loud
explosions and laughter. To the boys' delight, Lily won her own set of Wizard
Chess Pieces, while Remus won a kitten, both from Wizard Crackers. "Hello
Toots!" Remus cooed at the kitten while the others sniggered.
The clock struck two. Everybody had been eating for
an hour, and Dumbledore was just beginning to think he had been wrong about
Lily and James when the entire hall burst into laughter. Looking around for its
cause, he saw Professor Dunworthy fall off his chair with laughter and
McGonagall wiping her streaming eyes. His gaze flickered to the Gryffindor
table.
What he saw there made him choke. That was the most
advanced piece of magic he had ever seen first years perform! Remus Lupin and
Sirius Black stood face to face, screaming at each other. Each was recognisable
by their hair only. Remus' face had been transfigured to look like that of
Severus Snape, and Sirius was now a dead ringer for Argus Filch, the caretaker.
If that wasn't bad enough, neither was aware that their own faces had changed,
and they were shouting too loudly about Dark Magic for anyone to tell them.
Lily and James were backing slowly towards the doors and Dumbledore couldn't
help it. His serious face cracked and soon he was laughing just as hard as
everyone else.
Dunworthy was the first to control himself, and as
they boys' Head of House, it was his duty to sort it out. He pulled himself up
off the floor and poured himself a whisky, which he downed in one gulp. Still
fighting the urge to laugh, he stumbled to the two hysterical boys and put a
Silencing Charm on them. They blinked and shut their mouths, whilst Dunworthy
conjured up two mirrors. The rest of the school, especially the Slytherins,
were still hysterical. When Remus and Sirius saw their own faces they both
looked furious. This made them look even funnier and the school laughed even
louder. By this time there was no sign of Lily and James at all, Dunworthy saw
to his relief. He removed the silencing charm and the two boys yelled, as one,
"Lily! James! I'll bloody kill them!"
Dunworthy then attempted to reverse the spell, which
was incredibly difficult, as he had no idea which spell had been used. It
wasn't Polyjuice Potion, Sirius still had jet-black hair and Remus' was still
dark blonde. He was baffled. He couldn't reverse the spell.
Dumbledore appeared beside him, red faced and
grinning, but otherwise in control of himself. "Any idea what they used?"
"No," Dunworthy said, "I
think its something the little buggers thought up themselves."
At this Peter spoke up. "Professor, I swear I didn't
know what it was!"
"Oh Peter, what it is?"
Dumbledore replied calmly.
"They gave me a note."
Peter's hand trembled as he held it out. Dumbledore unfolded it and grinned. It
said:
"It wears off after two hours.
Don't tell them this, please!
They were mean to us!"
He handed the note to Dunworthy, who also grinned. "There's
nothing we can do," Dumbledore said heavily. "The note just says it wears off
eventually." Scowling, the two boys walked from the hall, while the Professors
let out their laughter again.
***********************
Of course Remus and James went to try and find
their friends, but Lily and James had hidden themselves so well that it was
only two hours later, when the faces had finally worn off, they managed to find
them.
Lily and James had hidden themselves up a tree. Sirius
and Remus had walked straight past and only realised the two conspirators were
above them when they were pelted from behind with snowballs. Lily and James had
jumped down out of the tree, and they had a furiously happy snow fight.
Supper was even better than lunch, certainly in the
opinion of Remus' cat Toots, who ate James' new mice. Again, they were full and
sleepy and didn't even make it into the tower. They went to the Secret Room
just to get a book Lily wanted, but all fell asleep seconds later on the same
bed to end a very happy Christmas.