(Disclaimer: I own nothing.)
Chapter Three
"I'll do it," said Andrea. "But you owe me big."
The rest of the class was awfully boring but Lydia was relieved to find that they wouldn't get to see what was in the cage. That, told the professor, was for an entirely different matter.
As they left class, Lily laughed at how happy Lydia seemed. "See, it wasn't a dragon and it didn't jump out and bite you!" The other girl looked at her seriously.
"That's because he obviously changed his mind, the creature was just too dangerous." Lily shook her head and laughed.
"Lily! Lydia! Wait for me!" yelled a voice. They turned around. Gwen elbowed her in the stomach. "I mean, wait for us!" said Hallie, and then to Gwen she said, "Don't be so violent, it's not at all appealing."
"How's the prank coming along, Hal?" asked Lily with a grin. The other girl smirked.
"We still didn't tell you two about it yet, did we?" she asked. Lydia shook her head in response.
"Nope."
"That's because Lily was cuddling with James and Lydia was cowering in her seat over the thing we didn't get to see," retorted Gwen. The two girls glared.
"I was not snuggling! I was, talking with him! And besides, I'm twelve, and we're –"
"Just friends," finished Hallie impatiently. "Anyways, back to the prank. What we're going to do is…"
~*~
Their next class was potions with their least favorite teacher, Professor Rosier. He was the head of house for Slytherin and favored them most conspicuously. Gwen and Hallie finished telling Lily and Lydia the rest of the information making the girls burst into laughter.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, I will not have disorderly behavior in my classroom," proclaimed Professor Rosier. Lily averted her eyes from the man who seemed to loom over her. He wasn't that tall of a man but there was a power that radiated from him, casting an aura of immense greatness. She shuddered involuntarily. He walked away to the head of the classroom and faced his student who were sitting and looking back at him, half with hate, and the other half with amusement. Those facing him with entertained eyes were the students of his house, and they were the only ones that ever looked at him with a sense of real respect and interest. The others didn't give a hoot about what he said.
He placed the large black cauldron onto the desk but away from the exhibition of ingredients. "You all had better listen closely to this because the steps are quite difficult, but of course," he added sarcastically, "You all will be able to pass with flying colors because of your above average intelligence." He glared around the room. "Get out your cauldrons and take notes on this."
"Now, what is the best thing to use to set the potion to flame so it bubbles?" Hallie shot her hand up into the air.
"Sirius' filibuster fireworks," she said. The class laughed as Sirius glared at her and she smiled back. He then spent half the class explaining everything before he put them in partners.
James sat before Severus Snape with a glare. "Glaring at me won't make time go faster, Potter." He said the last word in a vicious hiss, which made James scowl all the more ferociously.
"Just put all the stuff in that I tell you to," he told the other boy with a deathly calm voice. As always, his emotions were displayed upon his face. At the moment, he bore looks of resentment, frustration, aggravation, and loathing.
"Why should I listen to you?" asked Snape. James fought down his sudden urge to rip out all of the other boy's greasy hair. Remus, from James' side put a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Just ignore him," he told James. Under his grip on the boy's shoulder, James relaxed slightly but still glared at the boy across from him before turning to his friend.
"But if he does anything, I'm going to rip off his unusually large nose." Remus grinned.
Lily said, "I don't know why you both hate each other so much, you're a bit the same in some ways." The two boys turned to look at her in alarm. "What? Tell me a reason how you aren't and I'll shut up."
"Do you promise?" She smiled at him.
"I know you don't mean that, Severus. Now, give me the reason."
James responded with, "I'm better looking than he is, and I'm smarter than he is, and -," but Lily cut him off with a look. He shut himself up with a mumbled, "and he's a slimy-headed git." Remus covered a smile and turned to look at his notes.
~*~
He looked across the table and found a glare to welcome him. Sirius glared right back. "Of all people, I get paired up with you," he murmured with frustration.
Hallie looked at him with a restrained expression while forcing a smile. "Oh, yes, and I'm having a field day with you as my partner." He rolled his eyes heavenward and got the list from the professor.
"Of course you are, you're with me after all." She choked in indignation.
"You are such – you're such a – a –"
"I'm such a what?" She closed her mouth and folded her arms across her chest. "Wow, I never thought I'd see the day when Miss Know-It-All Forester became speechless."
"You're a nitwitted b-," but she silenced herself with the look Lydia was giving her from beside Sirius. He saw her lips form a strained line from trying to shut herself up.
Wow, an improvement on her part, he thought.
"Give me the directions," she ordered in a soft, steady voice. He grinned wickedly.
"What's the magic word?"
"Now." He chuckled and looked at the list. "Wow! Blood worms! He turned to the side that wasn't occupying Lydia. "Peter, do you know how long those things are?" The other boy paled and Sirius turned his gaze to the worm the other boy was holding. Clapping a hand on the Peter's shoulder he said, "Good for you!"
Hallie then took the paper out of the boy's grasp. "Put in an ounce of bubotuber pus," she told Sirius in the same quiet and controlled voice. He looked at her.
"Why don't you do it?"
"Because I don't want to touch that stuff. I bet you've touched a million disgusting things so you get to put the ingredients in." He sighed and with a smile, crossed his arms over his chest while leaning back in his seat.
"Well, I'm not going to." She just blinked at him with her large sapphire blue eyes.
"Professor Rosier, may I please be partnered with someone other than – than – that?" she asked as she pointed at Sirius, who had a small smirk upon his face that made her want to slap it off.
The professor said, "No, get to work." She looked at him with her large sapphire blue eyes and took her seat. Smiling, she looked to Sirius.
"Can you please put the bubotuber pus in the cauldron?" she questioned. He looked at her for a moment before doing as asked.
"Can I put the worms in now?"
"No, next is…the batwings."
"Are these the batwings?" he asked. She nodded and he put them in. "Can I put in the worms now?" Hallie looked up from the piece of parchment.
"You're trying to annoy me." He looked at her innocently. "Next is a stirring spell."
"What is it?"
She took her wand out from an inside pocket of her robe. "I'm doing that one."
"Why?"
"Do you always answer with a question?"
"What makes you think I do?" She bit down on her lip and he almost laughed at how hard she was trying to restrain herself. After chanting the words of the spell, she went back to the list. "Is it the worms now?"
"Put in the toad horns, five of them," said Hallie.
Sirius said, "What, no please?"
She blinked at him.
"Please."
He did so. "Can I put the worms in now?" At this, she smiled sweetly.
"Alright, Black, put them in." He smiled and picked up the worms in not noticing the mischievous gleam in her eyes.
"Do you know why they're called blood worms? Do they really have a lot of blood in them?" he asked as he gathered the insects into a handful from the soil. She just shrugged and smiled.
Sirius dropped the bugs into the cauldron. Nothing happened…at first. Then it started to boil and turn green. It was then that the potion erupted shattering the cauldron to shards. He fell backwards in his chair from the impact. When the smoke cleared, he was staring up at Professor Rosier's scowl.
"Why Professor, you would never think such bloody creatures would have such an impact on a potion, would you, sir?" The teacher's scowl intensified.
"You put the blood worms in before the griffin feathers, didn't you?" he demanded.
Sirius smiled weakly. "Griffin feathers?"
"Foolish boy, twenty points from Gryffindor." Then the bell ran. Sirius saw the professor walk away in disgust and a smiling Hallie take his place.
She looked down at him in amusement. "Smooth move, Black." He glared at her.
"It's your fault. You're the one who said to put the worms in." But she just shook her head at him.
"No, no, you've got it all twisted around. You asked if you could put the worms in. I said yes, but I never said you should." He thought about this as she stepped over, never mind, stepped on him on her way out. Peter knelt down beside his friend.
"My friend, you've been gypped by none other than 'Miss Know-It-All Forester.'" Sirius turned to him and took the offered hand. When standing, he glowered over the plump boy.
"Shut up, Peter."
~*~
"What did you do?" asked Lydia with raised eyebrows. Hallie looked at her with her famous angelic smile.
"Nothing, he was the one who put the worms in the potion, not me." And at Lily's glare she added, "It was Gwen's idea." At this, Gwen scowled at her.
Rolling her eyes, Lily said, "And that wasn't even your prank." She sighed. "How did I ever come upon such friends?" she asked herself in a voice used by former witches in distress. Lydia laughed and hugged her friend around the shoulders.
"You know you love us." Lily looked at all three of them.
"Yes, I suppose I do, but why, is the question."
~*~
During lunch that day, Sirius turned to James. "I need your help. You're the best with charms, right?" The other boy looked at him with a strange look.
"Er – I – I"
"Good, come with me." Sirius grabbed James by the arm and hauled him away. They arrived at the Fat Lady's painting.
"Well hello, dears!" she greeted pleasantly. Then she squinted at them. "Oh, it's you two."
"Hello, Miss Fat Lady," said Sirius with his handsome mischievous grin. James flashed his charming smile and pushed a strand of his untidy black hair out of his eyes.
"Good afternoon," said James. The lady smiled.
"How delightful you both are today…what's going on?" The two boys shared a look.
"Nothing at all, we just need to get some books we left in the dormitory. Blubber Worth," said Sirius. The painting swung open and she waved them goodbye with a troubled expression upon her face.
Both boys stepped in hearing, "Violet! Potter and Black went into the room! They had that look!" The two boys laughed as James followed Sirius to the girls' dormitory.
"Sirius, what're we doing here?" The boy grinned at him and counted the seventh bed from the doorway on the left.
"I just need to get something is all." James took notice of a periwinkle pillow on the mantle. "You know what I noticed?" asked Sirius. "The girls' dormitory is much nicer than ours." James grinned.
"Well, if you remember, ours was just as nice before you started with, 'let's see if we can make a bigger window for our dormitory!' attitude." Sirius grinned back at him.
"It's actually a rather good philosophy on account our window is about this wee size," he said putting his forefinger and thumb and inch apart. "I like big windows, like this one!" He pointed to the window next to Lily's bed. "Now that's a nice window, plus, it overlooks the lake!" Sirius then dropped on all fours and looked under the bed. He pulled out a book covered in periwinkle fuzz and then immediately droped it. "Here's where you come in handy, can you take the electricuting spell off of it?" James looked at him. "Please?"
Sighing with a mumble of, "what I do for friendship", James did as was asked. Sirius bent to pick it up but dropped it once more.
"Can you do the counter spell of the burning –"
James chanted and the spell was cleared. Sirius bent to pick it up but dropped it once more. After about half an hour of counter-cursing the spells on the book, the boys left.
~*~
"You like him."
"I don't."
"You like him."
"I don't so bugger off." Hallie grinned at Lily's annoyed expression.
"Alright, whatever you say, dear friend." She started to hum while rearranging the pattern her food was in and then her eyes lit up. "Lily! Listen!" Hallie hummed the beat once again.
Lily smiled, "That's a good one!" Beaming, Hallie wrote the notes onto a spare piece of parchment.
"You're my inspiration, thanks a bunch, Lil," thanked the other girl. Lily just waved her hand away. She saw James and Sirius walk towards their table and waved them over. Hallie looked at her friend and then turned around. "Lily! Don't wave them over!" She put her head in her hands and muttered under her breath. The other girl just laughed at her friend.
Down at the other end of the table. Remus, Peter, Gwen, and Lydia were playing a game of Exploding Snap…or…they were. Gwen was now laughing and pointing at Remus with Lydia doing the same for he had blotches of ash upon his face and in his hair from the explosion of the cards. Peter was trying to hide a smile but started to chuckle at some comment Remus then made.
Sirius, with James, walked over to where Lily and Hallie were seated. James took a seat next to Lily and gestured to Hallie with a grin. "Something the matter with that girl?"
Lily smiled but the other girl said, "No, there is nothing the matter with this girl, I just don't want to look at the awful sight beside me." At this, Sirius glared at her. "And don't you glare at me, Sirius Black." James and Lily laughed at the astonished expression upon the boy's face.
