Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all related characters, places, things, spells, etc. belong to JK Rowling. I've run out of comments.
Chapter 11: No Reason Not To
Sirius spilled an entire bowl of green Jell-O over James's apple pie, but both boys couldn't have noticed. Lily had her two hands over her mouth, her eyes wide. Remus had the same kind of look on his face. Chase, for the first time in basically her entire life, couldn't think of a sarcastic comeback.
Celeste put her hands on her hips. "Aren't any of you going to say anything?" she demanded.
"Er…Rewind?" Sirius asked.
Celeste glanced at him. "I said, Chase got the part of the princess in the play," she said, articulating each syllable. Then she turned to Chase. "Isn't that great? Don't you think it's great?"
Chase shook her head slowly. Sirius started to laugh. Moments after, Remus, James and Lily joined him.
Chase rolled her eyes. "To be totally honest," she spoke, "no."
Celeste blinked. "No? Why n--"
"Just think," Sirius interrupted her, a cheery tone in his voice. "Our Chase is starting to look like a real lady."
"And what does that imply?" Chase returned, narrowing her eyes. "You think puberty and adolescence will magically turn me into a self-contained bimbo who only thinks about what trendy clothes she would wear for the next few days and whose only excuse of going to the bathroom is to powder her nose?" she continued indignantly.
"We-ell…sort of," Sirius admitted. Then his face brightened. "At least you're going to be a lot cooler, and your way of speaking will change. Like…" He cleared his throat. "Help! I'm trapped in this big, stinky damp tower! Saaaave me, my love, my knight in shining armor!!!" he mimicked in a high-pitched voice. All of them, including Chase, laughed out loud. Celeste was the only one frowning displeasingly.
"Then it turns out that your knight in shining armor turns out to be Sir Cadogan!" Remus cried, tears of mirth in his eyes.
"Cometh, fair lady, and I shall restore your exquisite royal personage back to your imperial abode! Have no fear, my noble steed and I have trained far and wide for this moment! On, my prancing charger! On to the distressed princess!" James said in a tone that reminded everyone present of the mad knight.
"Noble steed?" Lily choked out.
"That fat excuse for a horse?" Remus asked.
Sirius cleared his throat again. "O, for the tower so lofty and reaches the skies so blue, I will still risk limb for protection of you! Alzena, Alzena, my elegant princess so fair! Let down your--"
"Vandyke brown hair?" James guessed.
"My hair's not that long," Chase said.
"I was going to say 'Let down your tresses and I shall save you from that horrendous lair,'" Sirius corrected. "Originality is important and most essential."
"But Rapunzel had blonde hair," James pointed out. "Chase's a brunette. So I didn't exactly copy the line."
"I hate that story. They make witches look ugly and antagonistic," Lily suddenly said moodily.
Sirius shrugged. "So what? At least we'll have the pleasure of watching Chase perform the role of the indefensible, naïve royal personage. I wonder who your knight in shining armor will be…"
"How can you be so sure that I'll take the part anyway? As you four have kindly specified in extremely hilarious ways, I don't exactly look the part," Chase said matter-of-factly. "Or act it," she added, glancing at her sister.
Celeste's frown deepened as she watched them making a joke out of all this. "Are you going to take the part or not?" she asked in a tone that lacked forbearance and sisterly sincerity in a more subterranean level.
"I already told you it's a thumbs-down," Chase told her firmly. "Just think of what will happen to the plot. 'The Princess and the Wicked Witch: Separated at Birth? What curse has befallen the kingdom that has caused the other twin to renegade against them? How did she learn the art of witchcraft? What purpose has she of holding her own sister captive in the confines of the Tower of Holocaust?" she narrated. Then she dropped her voice to its normal note. "See? It's impossible to use both of us as the protagonist and the antagonist of the same story. There's gotta be some sort of conflict of character in the plot if I come in."
"But the princess isn't the protagonist," Lily protested. "The detective girl who was caught in the witch's time warp and solved the mystery was."
"You're just saying that because you got that part," Celeste argued.
"And so? All the princess does is stay in her room, ringing the bell to summon servants to beautify her at all times of the day! Then she goes and gets herself kidnapped by a witch and she doesn't even have the guts to stand up to her and run away!"
"If that's the only things she does in that play, then it's even more reason for me to stay out of it," Chase said.
Celeste's eyes lit up. "I know! Why don't you play the part of the evil witch and I'll be the princess? You don't want that part anyw--"
"No way," Lily interrupted. She glared at Celeste. "I think I've figured out your game now. You just want Chase to fill in the vacant role so that if she doesn't like it, you'd be willing to get her part while she gets yours."
Celeste stared back at her defiantly. "It's up to Chase. She's the one who's getting the role anyway." The five of them looked at Chase expectantly.
"Well?" Sirius asked. "I'm dying with suspense."
Chase looked from her sister to her best friend. They must think I'm torn with indecision, she thought with a smirk. "Does the witch have to wear a fake wart on her nose or something like that?"
"No!" Celeste answered, shaking her head emphatically.
Chase looked at warily. "What costumes does the princess wear?"
Lily shrugged. "I dunno. Long silken gowns, I suppose--"
"With a tall, pointy cone-shaped hat on her head and a long piece of cloth going from the tip down," Sirius added with a snigger.
"Silk evening dresses in various colors and collar cuts, five in all, and a gold crown with an amethyst in the middle. Do you want the role of the witch or not?" Celeste asked impatiently.
Chase shrugged. "I'll take it."
*****
"You took it?!!!" Lily asked in disbelief an hour later in the girls' dormitory. "Professor Trelawney allowed you? But why? You didn't even audition for it in the first place!"
"I know. Professor Trelawney said something about acting potential or some other. Why are you so upset anyway?"
"It's not that. You know that Celeste will be dancing the halls tomorrow, telling everyone she knew about how she got the part of the princess in exchange for the evil witch. And have her say that her sister fell for it."
Chase laughed lightly. "Celeste can be as much a spoiled brat as she is, but she's nothing to worry about if I were you. Besides, I'd rather have that part than sitting around in a stuffy old tower, bawling my eyes out because no one will save me from the clutches of a baneful monstrosity."
"I guess you're right," Lily said reluctantly, "but I'm not going to take any more crap accompanied with triumphant little 'I-told-you-I'd-get-it' looks from your sister."
"No biggie," Chase replied, drawing back the hangings of her bed to signal that she was going to sleep. "I wouldn't see that as a threat."
Lily followed suit a few moments later. "What about Quidditch?"
"I can manage it. The next match's on the week before the play. I'll be a little late for practice, though, but I'm sure Mark and the others will understand."
"And school?"
"So I'll have a little less study time, so what? We don't have to take Potions anymore, and that's the worst subject. A big load'll be off our hands then, and we'll be exempted."
"Okay then, I just hope you don't turn into another Celeste Schoharie to make my life hell."
Chase smiled sadly, though Lily couldn't see it. "You know I won't." You don't even know half the story, she added silently. She hoped Celeste could come clean with it soon… She missed the days when the three of them were still together. She knew Celeste would do it already, but she was tired of waiting for her sister to say it. This was the first time Celeste had ever pulled a procrastinator act.
She could still hear her twin in the shower, long after Lily had fallen asleep. Celeste could really run a thirty-minute-shower in. Wasn't she aware that her skin would wrinkle up if she stayed in the water too long?
Chase rolled her eyes at her thoughts, knowing it was typical of her twin. She listened to the even sound of breathing of the three other girls and finally heard Celeste turning off the shower. Chase rolled off her bed and sat on the edge, waiting for her twin.
At long last the creaky bathroom door opened and Celeste stepped out in her silk nightgown. She looked at her sister in surprise. "I thought you had fallen asleep already."
"When are you going to tell her?"
"Don't worry, I've got it all set. I'll tell her tomorrow night."
"We can't wait any longer than that."
Celeste let out a sigh. "I know. I'm sorry if I delayed it any further."
"You should be."
"Yes, yes. Just hold it off a little longer. Minor slip-ups could be dangerous."
Chase smirked. "I can take care of myself. I just hope you can. Your mouth's capacity is greater than mine."
Celeste rolled her eyes as she walked past her to her bed. "Tomorrow morning. If I still don't do it then, I give you my permission to hex me with the Slovenly Curse of the Gully Dwarves and that's all there is to it."
"In that case, I hope you forget to tell her," Chase responded amusedly.
"Very funny. Good night, Chase."
"Sweet dreams, sis. I just hope he's not in your dreams or I'll be puking 'til December when we get together with our little sisterly telepathy ritual."
"Don't hold your breath. I'm not that hooked."
"Whatever you say."
"I say so," Celeste confirmed. "Good night, and that's the last time I'll say it."
"Good night."
*****
"I still can't believe she went for it," Remus said with a yawn the next day.
"You're not alone there," James added. "If she could pull that off, still be perfect at Quidditch and get good grades, then that's the time I'll be astounded."
"She's already perfect at Quidditch beyond existence," Sirius pointed out wearily.
"And she's been on the honor roll since our first year," Remus supplied.
"Of course she has. She's one of those mutants who never studies but aces everything anyway," Sirius said gloomily.
"I'm sure that's not all behind it, Sirius," Remus assured as they dressed up for classes.
"It's still not fair, though," Sirius ranted as they shuffled out of the dormitory. "How come she gets A's without so much as an effort while we work too hard to obtain what she can?"
"Well, I guess it's true what they say about geniuses having ninety-nine percent skill and one percent effort," Remus laughed.
"That was on one of our banners, wasn't it?" James reminded Sirius. "When we trashed Slytherin."
"Oh, yeah. No effort there," he snickered. They climbed out of the portrait hole and stepped into the hall.
"When's the next match again?" Remus asked them.
"Third Saturday of December, against the Hufflepuffs," James answered.
"Ravenclaw beat them on the first match, didn't they?"
"Yep, but it's typical. Hufflepuff loses all the matches ever since Quidditch was considered an extracurricular in Hogwarts, about half a thousand years ago," Sirius informed him.
"Wow," Remus said with a whistle. "Talk about losing spectacularly."
"Way past it," James agreed. "But I wish they could still fight back a little. 'Least they deserve it, not the stinking Slytherins."
His two friends nodded as they entered the Great Hall. They were actually quite early, since only a few people peppered the long House tables. Only the Gryffindor Quidditch team was present at theirs.
"What's up?" James asked in way of morning greeting, pulling up a chair, flipping it over and straddling it. He rested his folded arms on the backrest.
There was a chorus of hello's before the team focused their eyes back on the miniature playing field that Mark had assembled on the table.
Remus, feeling strangely out of place, edged away from the team a few chairs and ate his porridge in peace.
"S'that the new top-secret tactics that you said you were going to explain to us?" Sirius said in a loud voice. A few heads turned their way. Remus snorted into his porridge.
"Shhhh!" Erin shushed. Mark scowled at Sirius.
"Sorry," Sirius stage-whispered with a grin. As he glanced around at his annoyed teammates, he noticed that Chase wasn't among them.
"Where's Chase?" he asked.
Mark sighed. "I was going to ask you the same thing. Haven't you seen her around the common room somewhere?"
Sirius and James shook their heads.
"I came to their dormitory a bit before seven, but she wasn't there. Nor were Lily and Celeste," Erin offered. "The other two were fast asleep. I figured they already went down here because their beds were made, but I guess not."
Dione looked up from the mini-field. "I remember! I came there at quarter to seven and there was a note on her bed. This one," she said happily, thrusting a neat, folded piece of paper with cursive lavender ink at them.
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Mark said sternly, frowning as he unfolded the note.
Dione went pink. "I forgot," she said meekly.
Mark read it quickly and handed it to Sirius.
Went walking out on the grounds with Lily. We'll be having breakfast there. Sorry I can't come to the meeting.
Later,
Chase
"That's that, then," Mark said in an officious tone. "I'm surprised she even signed up for that school play--"
"She didn't 'sign up' for it," Erin explained. "Trelawney wanted her to play Jessamine's part, but her twin and her switched places. It isn't her fault that she got dragged into it. "
"I guess so," Mark said resignedly, "I just don't like the way it interferes with our Quidditch schedule. Are any of you in the production too?"
The team members looked at one another and shrugged.
Mark breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. We wouldn't want any more problems--"
Just as he was saying those words, Professor McGonagall, accompanied by a very sinister Ridgewood, stalked into the Hall.
"Black, Potter and Lupin," she said tersely, her voice echoing across the chamber. All eyes looked warily at the marauders.
"Uh-oh…" Sirius whispered to them. "I think I know what this is about…."
Professor McGonagall's nostrils flared as she and Ridgewood approached. Ridgewood looked like he was on the verge of shouting his lungs out, and his long, bony fingers were stroking the wand in his pocket, as if he was restraining himself from using the Avada Kedavra Curse on the three of them.
Ridgewood towered over them where they sat. His eyes glinted with loathing, and he alternately clenched and unclenched his free fist.
"Er--It's a nice day to be out, isn't it, Professor?" Remus began when Sirius nudged him.
"Absolutely," James prompted. "We were just thinking of taking a stroll out on the grounds."
Mark gave them a baleful, I-told-you-not-to-cause-any-trouble-right-before-a-match look. The look was right.
The marauders started to stand up.
"Stay where you are," Ridgewood barked. As much as he enjoyed giving harsh reprimands and punishments to them, more so in public, he looked particularly ominous today and no traces of sardonic triumph were on his lips.
"Please, Professor Ridgewood, do calm down," Professor McGonagall said sharply. "You three. In my office. Now."
*****
Lily and Chase walked down the wide expanse of lawn and trees, a light wind playing at their hair. They had been talking earnestly about the play for the past few minutes, but after that, a silence befell them. It was a peaceful sort of silence, one that wasn't awkward. The two friends were lost in their own thoughts.
"C'mon, let's sit over there," Chase told her, pointing to a large tingelid tree, a magical species whose leaves changed colors when the temperatures changed and replaced them only once every three years.
They sat underneath the now light blue leaves, making them hard to distinguish against the sky. They ate their buttered bagels, starting to talk again about the play and moving on to the winter ball.
"Who are you planning to go with, Chase?" Lily asked her as she sipped her apple juice.
Chase shrugged. "I don't know, maybe I'll just find somebody when we actually get to the Great Hall," she answered dryly.
Lily looked anxious. "Are you sure that'll work? Professor Trelawney said something about the participants in the play having a dance number…"
"Professor Trelawney's always saying stuff like that in class," Chase replied wearily. "And it rarely ever comes to be. Loosen up. You're going to get a partner."
"Ya think?" Lily looked up at the sky--no, the leaves of the tingelid. It was queer to look up and not be blinded by the sunlight. It was even more strange to find a large shadow surrounding them, whereas from afar any passerby would think they were just sitting under a dead tree with no leaves at all.
"I'm sure," Chase assured her. "And I've got a hunch who you've had in mind," she added in an offhand tone, though there was something behind it.
Lily suddenly felt a strange sense of déjà vu, remembering a flashback of their conversation weeks ago. "What do you mean by that?" she asked suspiciously.
Chase let out a hearty laugh, much to Lily's surprise. "You're saying what you said weeks ago all over again," she said.
"Hey, don't blame me, you were the one who got all serious that day."
"Yeah, but it was hard not to laugh, you were like a deer caught in headlights or something then," Chase chuckled. "You looked like a little kid caught stealing a cookie from the cookie jar." The ever-present smirk of uncanny amusement was shown on her face.
"You just caught me by surprise then, you know," she said defensively. "That had nothing to do with my relationship with J--"
"Yes, yes, I know. 'We're just friends,' 'We'd rather hex each other than do some of the really disgusting things that people in romance novels do,' 'I'd never date him if he was the last man standing on the face of the earth,'" Chase counted, rolling her eyes. "No need to get all mad about it," she added in a more serious voice. Then she broke into a grin again. "You had guilty written all over your face."
Lily felt her face getting hot. "Chase!"
"My lips are sealed," Chase said. "Oh yeah, and you shouldn't be too defensive, it makes you look even more obvious--"
"How can I not be defensive when you're making fun of me about something that never even really--"
"Okay! I'll shut up now. But before you launch in on your diatribe, I have to-- Oh, hi, sis."
Lily turned around. She was so busy arguing with Chase that she didn't hear Celeste walking toward them.
Celeste nodded in greeting. There was a solemn look on her face, a change in her usual cocky, confident attitude. Something about it was somewhat eerie, like she was going to drop a big bombshell any second.
"What did you come running here for?" Lily said irately, turning away from her 'ex' friend.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Chase and Celeste exchanging a look. Celeste sighed, Chase shrugged.
Chase sighed and cleared her throat. "Lily, Celeste has something to say," she stated.
An awkward silence followed. "You know, all you have to do is listen for a few minutes," Celeste said in a nervous voice. It surprised Lily. She had never heard Celeste talking in that tone before. She reluctantly turned around and crossed her arms over her chest. "What? Let's get this over with," she said flatly. No way she was going to let Celeste take the easy way out.
Chase leaned against the trunk of the tree, and Celeste opened her mouth to speak. She closed it again, exhaling sharply before plunging in.
"I don't know when to start…" she began apprehensively. "Chase and I were waiting for you in the dormitory sometime on the first week, remember?" Lily nodded tightly. "Anyway, Chase was telling me of--of how much you liked James and everything." Celeste avoided her eyes for just a moment. "She said that you liked him but you didn't want it to admit it to anybody, not even us. Chase suspected it all along. So she explained her plan to me…."
Lily was silent.
"When Chase told me what I had to do, I didn't want to do it at first. See, I knew that if we continued with it--" Celeste took a deep breath. "I knew you wouldn't think of me as your friend anymore."
Chase looked slightly detached but snapped to once she heard the end of Celeste's sentence. She looked Lily straight in the eye. "What Celeste is trying to say is, the whole fight was a setup. She did it on purpose. And… She never really liked James in the first place. We just wanted to push you in the right direction and confirm that you really liked him."
Lily's mouth dropped open. "What?"
Celeste blinked rapidly, as if she was trying hard not to let any tears fall. "I'm sorry, Lil. All I wanted was to help. Chase and I knew the consequences for it, but you really are important to us. More than any boy will ever be."
Looking from Chase's earnest expression to Celeste's barely audible sobs, Lily felt a lump in her throat…and the familiar feeling of wanting to cry.
Chase smiled. "I guess I ought to feel guilty," she admitted. "It was obviously hard for Celes… For the first few nights we always talked and wished that the three of us could be together without the 'fight' in between us…"
"It took all the acting skills I could muster," Celeste said, a small smile on her face despite her watery eyes. "It was hard pretending to like James, and I had to give up a lot, like my image--"
"Why didn't you just talk to me?" Lily whispered, a tear snaking down her cheek. The cold air stung her eyes. "You sacrificed all that, just to help me?" Her voice cracked, and she saw no point in holding the tears back.
Celeste took a few steps forward, hesitated, and hugged Lily. "I'm sorry," she said softly, starting to cry herself.
"Don't be," Lily answered. "It's all my fault. If only I wasn't so petty…"
Celeste wiped her tears on her robes' sleeve. "It's Chase's fault," she finally said with a full-fledged smile. "She never should have persuaded me to go through with the stupid plan--"
"Right. Lily would just be even madder if both of us told her straight out that she liked James. She'd just deny it and everything," Chase scoffed.
"I guess so. She never really was the open type," Celeste replied.
"Yeah. Or the straightforward one," Chase added with a smirk.
"Will you guys stop talking like I'm not here?" Lily demanded, blushing. "Not to mention the fact that it's rude…"
Celeste and Lily smiled at each other and hugged again. "Does this mean that we're friends again?" Celeste asked in a soft voice.
"Absolutely," Lily responded firmly, and she felt a new wave of tears spilling from her eyes.
Chase rolled her eyes as she leaned against the tree. "You two look like characters from a soap opera," she remarked in her usual sarcastic tone.
Lily glanced at her. "I still don't hear you saying that you're sorry," she teased.
Chase smirked. "Sorry, then," she said. Celeste pulled away from Lily so that Lily could hug Chase.
"You guys are the best," Lily told them both.
"Can you say 'melodrama?'" Chase asked.
Lily and Celeste clapped lifted their hands to slap her on the shoulder, but being a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team had its advantages. Chase dodged them both in a quick movement.
The three of them laughed. Chase looked at her watch. "I'd hate to break this teary reunion, but we have a class to go to," she informed dryly.
Lily could still feel tears at the back of her eyes. She never realized how much it hurt to lose her sweet, sensitive friend, and she was glad that Celeste was back. She felt like a large weight was lifted from her shoulders. As the tears--of relief, happiness, or mirth, she didn't know which--slipped freely down her face, she knew she was back where she belonged. She wasn't afraid anymore to open up to her friends.
She definitely had no reason not to.
*****
The three culprits trudged after their furious teachers. They fell back about twenty steps behind, muttering to each other. "I told you not to drop your big stinking finale in the Slytherin Tower until after the game," Remus whispered to Sirius.
"Is it my fault? I told you guys to do it sooner, most effectively after the game against those Slytherin losers. That'd be really cool. But 'nooo, it isn't potent enough yet. We have to wait a month later before we can use it. The dye for Snape's hair still isn't permanent. We still haven't found out the Slytherin password.' Now that it's too late, you blow up at me!"
"I'd like to see the look on Snape's face when he finds out he has pastel-colored hair," James said wistfully.
"If we could still live to see that then," Sirius replied. "Ridgewood would probably attempt to persuade Dumbledore to use Avada Kedavra on us. Or at least the Cruciatus Curse," he added with a grimace.
"Come on, Dumbledore would never let him. Those are two of the Unforgivable Curses. He can't just barge into Dumbledore's office and demand that he has the right to use it on us." James glared at Ridgewood's back.
"If he did, though, that'll put him behind bars for sure. I hope he'll rot forever in Azkaban," Sirius said plaintively.
"You guys, we don't even know what our punishment is yet," Remus reminded them. They reached Professor McGonagall's office where the two teachers had already entered.
A feeling of foreboding overcame the three troublemakers as they stepped into the room.
Professor McGonagall was seated in her overstuffed armchair, cross-legged and arms folded. Ridgewood's mouth was a thin, grim line, and as usual, he glowered at them with such intensity of abhorrence and loathing that Sirius wondered for a moment if he had a strange evil power to melt them on the spot with just one hard glare.
"As you are well aware of, and it would be better if you do not deny it," Professor McGonagall began sternly, "I have heard from Professor Ridgewood about your latest prank. It seems…" She paced around the room, never taking her eyes off them. "That what you did was quite serious, if not major. Snape still hasn't managed to find a spell to undo the hair dye that you put in his shampoo--"
"Oh, so he does wash his hair," Sirius interrupted loudly. Ridgewood gave him the look of death, and he closed his mouth.
"Even Professor Flitwick has not found an appropriate spell to remove it," Professor McGonagall went on, her voice rising. "He is working on the other Slytherins now, but it would take quite a lot of time if you three don't tell us what exactly you put into that Reeking Repellant to make it so…potent." Her nostrils went white again.
"What happened to them?" Remus and James asked simultaneously.
"A number of Snape's friends have been affected by the repellant. Clearly you used an Undetectable Spell on their toiletries to trick them--"
"So it's confirmed that they occasionally submerge in clean water, then," James told his two friends. Sirius smirked.
"Nah, they probably just--" This time it was Professor McGonagall who stared at him disapprovingly. The room fell silent.
"We have taken all this into consideration," Professor McGonagall said finally. "And we have decided to bring you to the Headmaster and talk to him. You have lost all due respect for your teachers, and I must say the same to you. Unless your behaviour changes, for real, I will have to punish you severely."
"You mean, this is only a warning or something?" Remus asked.
"No, but you are scheduled to go to Professor Dumbledore's office this afternoon at precisely two o'clock. The Headmaster has been tolerant of every single major 'prank' you have made in the past--but I warn you, all tolerance comes to an end. I suggest you be prompt and mature about all this. I see that he has become quite fond of you three…too fond, I presume. He has given you more chances than I advised…" Professor McGonagall muttered something vague, probably a comment about Dumbledore's strange ways of running the school and his students that she kept to herself.
She cleared her throat. "Very well then, you are dismissed. Professor Ridgewood only wishes you to each write detailed essays about the different potions containing dragon blood which can be found in our library. Each potion accounts for one essay, and there are twenty-three in all--"
"Twenty-three essays each?" Sirius exclaimed.
Professor McGonagall looked startled for a split second before her expression turned to mild ire. "He deems it a small price to pay for your rule violations. However, unless you want more…"
"It's okay, we can take twenty-three," James said quickly. "Er--when is it due then, Professor?"
"I want it next week," Ridgewood finally spoke up in a menacing tone. "Complete with summarized outlines and footnotes."
Sirius's mouth dropped open, and he was poised to rant about the injustice of it all. Remus cut him off before he could make their load more severe than it already was.
"We can do that. Um…we'd better get to class then, Professor," Remus said quickly, pulling his friends out of the room. Once they were out of earshot, Sirius burst into complaints of McGonagall's and Ridgewood's tirade.
"Twenty-three detailed essays! Twenty-three. Who does he think he is? This is injustice, this is! Unjustness! Inequity in favor of his dumb, tattletale, whipped, papa's boy students! They're probably crying their eyes out, bawling at the other professors to put them right! They can't even do it themselves. Stupid, stinking Slytherin!!!" Sirius yelled, kicking a nearby wall and causing a painting of foxes on the forest floor to scurry out of sight behind the trees.
"Let it go before you become berserk," James said crossly at him. "I'm not happy about any of this either, but sooner or later Ridgewood's gonna pop up again somewhere and blame us for disrupting peace and destroying castle property."
"I'm not even destroying it, James, it's called venting your frustration."
"Yeah, but leave it to Ridgewood to make anything worse than it already is," Remus piped up gloomily. The three of them entered their DADA classroom, where the whole class was already assembled and chatting energetically.
"Where's the Prof.?" Sirius asked Chase irascibly.
"You sure are a ray of sunshine today," Chase non-answered sardonically. Sirius sighed. He could do without the sarcasm.
"C'mon, Chase-er, all that you have to do is say the reason without inserting a side comment. Can't you cut a guy a break?"
Chase was apparently thinking for a moment. "No," she said finally, smirking as Sirius sighed exasperatedly. "But since you look so pathetic, I can make an exception." She looked at the door. "The Prof.'s late," she announced in a mock-solemn tone.
"Gee, thanks," Sirius muttered cynically. Jeez, her sarcasm was contagious. Chase chuckled, and he found himself laughing along with her.
"So, what exactly had you looking like your dog just died?" she asked.
Sirius drew a long breath. "It's Ridgewood. James, Rem and I kind of trespassed into the Slytherin Tower and--"
"Okay, I think I know where this is going," Chase said with a smirk, holding up a hand. "What punishment did he give you?" she inquired in an amused tone.
"I'm so grateful for your sympathy," Sirius shot at her, rolling his eyes.
Chase laughed again.
"What?" he asked, annoyed.
"You're starting to sound like a cynic," she said innocently.
"Well, at least I know where that came from," he mumbled. But he couldn't help but feel a little less down now that he had something to vent.
Chase raised her eyebrows. "You do realize that you have to pay for everything you did in the past, either good or bad."
"Oh? So now you're a theologian?" said Sirius, remembering that he hadn't done his homework yet. He flipped through his DADA book, looking for the page.
"Nah, I just preach quotable quotes to help lost causes," Chase replied. "It's on page 153," she added.
"So now I'm a lost cause?" Sirius answered, setting his book on the right page and reading the first question. Which Dark creature has been known to rule the fathomless seas of Middle Earth? He frowned. He never really was that good in identifying monsters in that period.
He looked to the left to ask Remus the answer, but something else made him freeze. There were Lily and Celeste, and they were talking to each other! They sure didn't look like they were clawing the other's eyes out…
"What're Lil and Celes doing?" he asked Chase, who knew them both best.
Chase looked up from her sketch of a weird-looking Dark creature. She glanced at her best friend and her sister casually, as if she didn't notice something very wrong about them. "Conversing, what else d'you think they're doing?" she answered, shaking her head as she went back to drawing.
"But they're supposed to be fighting, right?" he pressed.
Chase sighed. "Do you live to observe best friends fighting everyday? Because if so, then you really are a lost cause," was her response before putting the finishing touches on her troglodyte, which Sirius had identified already.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Is it this hard to get a straight answer out of you?"
Chase put down her art materials. "Fine then. As you are so annoyingly inquisitorial, then I'll have you know that they are friends again," she explained, putting her things back into her bag.
"Friends again? When?" Sirius asked curiously.
Chase sighed again. "Why don't you ask them?" she suggested, gesturing at her friends. "I mean, don't you have anybody else to talk to?"
"What, you want me to walk all the way over there and demand the answer from them?" Sirius countered.
"Precisely," Chase smirked.
Sirius shook his head. "Has anybody told you lately that you're insane?"
"No, I believe that's the right term to fit with you. And forgive me if I have to cut this friendly chat short, but I'd like to point out that you still have two pages of homework to answer."
Sirius had forgotten all about his assignment. "Damn," he muttered. Maybe he really should copy Rem's answers.
"It's the Eye of the Deep," Chase supplied.
Sirius raised his eyebrows at her. "Thanks," he said, scribbling the answer. Being a helping hand with assignments was not a usual Chase thing to do.
He answered the rest of the questions easily, and by the time he had finished, Professor Lyndell still hadn't come in.
The class, having nothing to do, grew increasingly noisy, talking about the upcoming dance, who to ask, what to where, etc. Sirius had no time for small talk. He still had to do those stupid essays for Ridgewood…
"--still don't know, okay?" Chase was saying impatiently to Celeste, who had occupied the empty seat on Chase's left. Sirius was on Chase's other side.
Celeste smirked then glanced around the room. "Looks like you don't have a lot of options here," she said dryly.
"Tell me about it," Chase answered. "And speaking of plays and dances, I still blame you for dragging me into that stage act. You know that three classes more than last year's and Quidditch is more than enough, but nooo, you want me to be overloaded with things I don't care about, like rehearsals and makeup and rehearsals and costume adjustments--"
"You're whining," Celeste pointed out.
"Because I have the right to," Chase shot back. "It's a good thing that we patched things up with the plan, because if you piled any more stress on my back then I'd have to disown you as my sister."
"You and stress? It doesn't show," Celeste said nonchalantly.
"Well, thank God for that," Chase said. "You know, dad and mom are still considering which surname we're supposed to use."
"Obviously it's going to be Schoharie," Celeste remarked, flipping her hair over her shoulder.
"No way. We're supposed to use our biological dad's surname, and that's Tarlise."
"Schoharie."
"Tarlise."
"Schoharie."
"Tarlise."
"Schoharie!"
"It's stated in Wizard Law. Unless you don't have the proper papers then you can't use our stepdad's name--"
"Mom does have the proper papers."
"No she doesn't, she told me when I stayed over at your house last summer."
"She told me there were!"
"Oh, will you two shut up?" Lily's voice said loudly.
The twins turned around. Lily sat down in the desk behind Chase's.
"So, what exactly do the souls sisters have a fight about?" Lily asked, her eyes sparkling with interest.
Chase looked bored. "Same old, same old. We're still deciding which surname is official. Why don't you tell us your honest opinion?" she asked sarcastically.
"Well, to tell you the truth, I think you should use Mr. Tarlise's name," Lily answered.
Chase gave Celeste an I-told-you-so smirk.
"No fair! Just because we haven't been friends for half the school year because of Chase's stupid plan--" Celeste started to protest.
Sirius yawned and tuned out. He still didn't know what that 'plan' was all about, but right now he was too worried about other stuff to care. He had a lot of things to do. Like planning how to concoct the most venomous poison to put in Ridgewood's tea…
*****