~Damonna's notes:  Second chapter.  It's much longer than the first, but just keep reading.  New character this chapter!  Like I promised, it's first person.  And trust me, there IS a plot here somewhere…It's just hiding. ~

Chapter 2- Live through Today

*Damonna*

"Damonna!"  I can hear the bathroom door swing open and slam shut.  I immediately try to silence my crying.  I can tell by the voice who it is.

James.  He must've followed me when I ran out of the great hall.  And after what Severus and my brother did, I know he doesn't blame me.

"James?"  Two nervous voices hiss as the door opens and closes again.  One female, one male.  It was Lily and Sirius.

"You're not supposed to be in here!  This is a girl's bathroom!"  Sirius says sternly, glaring at James.

"Like you have room to talk!"  Lily shot at Sirius, crossing her arms and glaring at both of the boys.

"Shhh…"  And James points at me.

"Oh."

I can feel their eyes on me, noticing the differences.  I've grown at foot, at least.  My robe is over my knees now, though some of that is because I'm sitting on the floor.

I'm also a bit thinner, my face is more pointed, and my eyes are bigger.  But the most obvious change are my ears.

They stick out about six inches in both directions.  Not even my long, messy raven hair can cover them.

"Why, she's an elf!"  Sirius exclaimed, smiling.

Lily and James look back at him.  "Thank you.  We could have never figured it out without your help."

Sirius smiles, showing his teeth.  "I try."

Lily sighs and turns her attention to me.  "Well, she is an elf…But of the noble kind."

James and Sirius turn and look at her.  "How can you tell…?"

"If she were anything else, she'd be short."  Lily says, mater-of-fact-ly as she bends down and looks me in the eyes.  "We're gonna have to take you to see Madam Pomfrey." 

I nodded and took Lily's hand.

*Sirius*

I grinned, eyeing Damonna's prostrate form, all seven feet of it, stretched out on the hospital bed. She was asleep, and didn't realize in what a position she was laying in. Her big, elvish feet were extended at least a foot over the edge of the bed, and her long green-tinted toes were hanging like pull-cords from the balls of her feet. She didn't realize I was in here, she being unconscious, which was a good thing.

There was no reason I should be in her hospital room alone, especially since I had just visited an hour ago. But that time I had been with James, Remus, Peter and Lily, and had no chance to talk to her alone. We really had never talked alone, you know, privately. The last chance we had was Trelawney's classroom, when we were paired together for tea-leaf reading. She was a hoot, if you excuse my grown-up-type slang. She was hilarious, the friendly sarcasm spilling from her mouth in every sentence. She reminded me of myself, actually…and maybe that's why I was drawn to her.

But she was a Ravenclaw, and I'm a Gryffindor, so of course any talk outside of schoolwork would arise suspicion, and pretty soon the whole school would have us coupled. Not that it would be a bad thing…but definitely not good. Not this soon. I sat on a chair beside her bed, and stared at her, putting my elbows on my knees, and my chin on my palms.

I knew why Snape had turned her into an elf, of course. Because she was too much like me. She too played pranks on Snape, and apparently this time he had taken revenge. I grinned; remembering the time Snape had gotten revenge on me. Notice I say time not times. Only once he got me. Once was enough. I couldn't get my hand unstuck from my hair for a week, but fortunately, I stopped the awful habit of running my hands through my hair.

*Audia*

I blinked my eyes open as I propped myself up on my good elbow, and took a good look at the new character they had brought into the hospital wing. I bit my tongue to hide a smile as I examined her, from her messy raven hair to her awkward elfish toes. What had happened to her? I couldn't wait to find out…if only she would wake up!  Guess Pomphrey wanted her to sleep or something.  I dunno.  I've been asleep for nearly two hours, so…

I sighed after a moment of staring at her and flopped onto my back, being ginger with my right arm. So I had forgotten the staircases moved. It wasn't even totally my fault. At the exact moment that the staircase moved, the cutest boy had walked past! I grinned, remembering. And then I felt my neck and cheeks flushing, because I remembered what had happened next. Ten feet is a long way to fall, especially if you land on your right arm… And especially if the cute boy who saw you fall marched right into the hospital wind with this new girl, practically hanging off her arm! I hadn't had time to watch what happened next though, as I had promptly fainted from the pain. Of my broken arm, I mean.

"You hot or something?" I heard a voice say. I started, and sat up quickly. And, of course, I suffered from blood rush and wasn't able to see who was talking to me, or even if they were talking to me, for a few more seconds.

When I opened my eyes, I saw two very large blue eyes staring back at me. And my blush grew worse.

"Um…what?" I asked smartly, forcing the half of my attention that wasn't staring at her ears to work on calming down my burning face.

"Your face is very red. Are you hot?" She repeated slowly, her furry eyebrows raised.

"Well yes," I attempted a grin, and brushed my hair off my shoulders, "thanks for noticing."

She rolled her eyes, and then smirked. "I'm Damonna," she stuck out a huge hand, looked down, and pulled it back in, laughing. "Sorry 'bout that. Guess Pomphrey still hasn't had time to fix me."

"No, she was probably fixing this," I held up my tender arm, and examined it. It looked good as new, but it didn't feel like it. From all the magic pumped into my system, it felt like a rubber stick glued to my shoulder. I looked up at her, to find her eyebrows raised again dubiously at my arm. "It was broken," I explained, feeling my cheeks grow warm again.

"Uh huh," she smirked, "who are you?"

I blinked at her bluntness, but smiled, "Audia."

"Well, nice to meet you Audia. I would shake your hand, but, well, you know what happened last time…" she smiled and glanced down at her hand.

"Right," I smiled back, "and I wouldn't want to risk hurting my injured arm with a handshake."

She laughed, and rolled onto her side.

"So what happened to you anyway?" I asked, propping myself back onto my good arm and looking at her.

She looked skyward, "Long story."

*Damonna*

"I was at breakfast."  I started simply.  "And I had just played a prank on Serverus." 

"Who?"  Audia asked inquisitively.  Her right arm flopped back and forth.  Apparently, Madam Pomfrey was still perfecting regrowing bones.

"He's in Slytherin.  And he's the meanest, most stuck up, self-absorbed, sarcastic, greasy…"  And I used several other adjectives that made Madam Pomfrey look at me and raise her eyebrow.  "Aha…Sorry…"  I blushed a bit.  "I didn't know you were there…"

She nodded and walked past us.

"So anyways.  I was in the Great Hall for breakfast and he comes walking in like he owns the place!  So then Corbin comes sauntering in.  And the girls are fainting and everything…"

"Who's Corbin?"

"My twin brother.  He's a Slytherin as well and, naturally, thinks he owns the world."  I smiled.  "You should keep well away from him.  He's a lady-killer."

She nodded absently like she didn't listen. 

"Well…So I enchanted a glass of water…And it kind of dumped itself on his head…"  I shrugged.  "You know, juvenile stuff."

She nodded like she wanted me to continue, but had no idea why I'd do something like that.

"And my aim was a bit off, and I guess I got too into the charm casting…Yeah."  I broke off.  The next part was too embarrassing.

"So what happened?"

"Next thing I know, he's standing there in Corbin's underwear.  And I know they were his because mum had his initials stitched along the waistband…"  I stopped ranting.  "And his robe's hovering over above him- So the idiot jumps around hollering for his robe to get back down, and Corbin's yelling for his underwear.  It was all very funny."

"I'll bet."  She said, a bit dryly.  If I didn't do something fast, she might go acid on me.  She's acting like I took away her birthday or something.

"And then he kind of tried to turn me into a house-elf, but that didn't work so well, so then I ran off to the girl's bathroom."

She smiled a little.

"And then Sirius came into the bathroom and found me…Eh…You don't know who that is, do you?"

She shook her head.

"Sirius Black?  In Gryffindor?"  I was getting nowhere.  "Black hair, kind of messy…alright, really messy.  Long, kind of?  Not as long as mine…but long.  Bright blue eyes?  He escorted me here?"

That struck a chord.  "Ah…umm…Yeah.  Him." 

I thought I saw her blush.  But I guess it was just my imagination.

"So anyways- And then James…No.  Wait.  James came in first, and then Sirius.  So Sirius and Lily followed me in.  And then they dragged me down here."  I shrugged.  That was about all I had to tell.  I sighed and collapsed back onto my bed.

 I know I shouldn't have done it, but messing with Serverus is more fun than should be legal.  He's just so easy to push around.

I could hear a sigh from Audia's bed.  And then a slight gasp.

"Damonna, you have a visitor."  Madam Pomfrey said quietly.

"Hm?"  I opened my eyes and saw Sirius smiling at me.  "Oh, hey."

"Hey."  His tone was more excited than usual.  "I've come to take you away!"  He said, posing dramatically.

"Uh-huh.  Gonna take me to your castle, Mr. Knight-In-Shining-Armor?"

He stood back up and looked down at me.  "Well, not quite.  Dumbledore wants to see you."

"Ah.  Got it."  I stood up and stretched.

"You know, we have to get you back to normal height.  You tall is just…My neck's hurting just looking up at you."  Sirius said sarcastically.

"Yeah, right.  What if I stay this way forever?"

"Then I'll umm…cry.  Yeah."

"You?  Cry?  I'd pay to see that."

As I was walking out, I turned and looked back at Audia.  "Hey, seeya around."

But she was too busy looking depressed and blushing.

*Audia*

I sighed and layed back down on my pillow. Well, some day this was turning out to be…I fall in front of a cute guy, only to have him come in and wisk away my only chance of a friend! I sighed again. Classic, wasn't it? Girl meets guy…well okay, girl falls off the stairs, and prays the guy doesn't see, and then the guy comes and takes the girl's only friend. Well, actually, not friend…more like: only person girl has had a fairly long conversation with. It's not like I didn't try to have friends…I was just very shy. You have to get to know me first to really understand my character.

Anyway, I was basically feeling sorry for myself, when another cute guy comes into the hospital wing to see my pitiful state! He glanced first at Pomphrey's desk, saw that she wasn't there, and then strode over to the rows of beds. Me, being slightly hidden behind a curtain, kept silent, hoping he would go away. Like I need another cute guy to see my rubber arm. But, of course, he decided to check behind every curtain, looking for something, or someone.

I immediately began haphazardly running my fingers through my hair, and smoothing down my awful hospital shirt. By the time he whipped open my curtain, I thought I was looking pretty good for hospital state. (I had tucked my arm under the covers, just in case.) He jumped back a bit at the sight of me, and then stepped forward again. My cheeks, of course, flushed.

"Who are you?" he asked, and I couldn't help but notice the beautiful deep tone of his voice.

"Why would you care to know?" Charming, aren't I?

"I don't," he snarled. "I'm looking for someone, maybe you've seen her. She's about seven feet tall, ugly, and an all-around bitch. Seen her?"

Ah ha. Either this was Corbin, or Severus. "Not anyone to that description, no. I just met a very friendly seven foot elf, if that's who you were referring to."

He scoffed. "She's very deceiving. I wouldn't trust her if I were you, she's more evil than good." He sat on the edge of my bed, and a new look came across his face; a smirk, only more friendly. "What did she tell you?"

"That an awful boy named Corbin was harassing her, and so she hexed him, but unfortunately, the hex hit another boy, who ended up in Corbin's underwear, which I heard were pink and frilly. Then I heard that they hexed her, for no good reason, and she ended up here," I smiled. Paraphrasing was a wonderful thing.

His eyes flashed, but he smiled. "She said that? She lies. Don't believe anything she says. Someone as cute as you," he moved closer to me, "shouldn't fall under the deception of my sister. You're too sweet for that."

Corbin, I thought, and winced. The first boy ever to call me cute, and he's my only friend's enemy. I sighed. Wasn't life grand?

I tried to ignore the flushing of my cheeks, and the slight dizziness I felt when I did it, and sat up farther. "You're right," I smiled, and leaned forward, "I'll have to watch out for her. But, if you'll excuse me, I must retire to my…" And then, I passed out. Pain medication is hell.

*Damonna*

"I met your little friend."

I turned to see Corbin's teasing blue eyes.  He smiled.

"Yeah, so?"  I shrugged and sighed.  Corbin pretends to be a bad-ass and hate me, but we're actually pretty close.  "You made a pass at her, didn't you?"

He smiled and gazed up at me.  After my meeting with Dumbledore, becoming human again was the least of my worries.

"Actually, I did."

"So what's new?"  I was angry, I didn't even care to hide it.

"And she fainted!"  He laughed.  "Looks like I've still got my touch."

I rested my hand on his shoulder.  "I have to go."  I turned to walk away.

"Hey!  I'm kind of sorry about the whole elf-thing!"

I smiled and laughed.  "Kind of?"  I waved as I walked away.

*Audia*

I fainted. I actually fainted. I slapped my hand to my forehead, my good hand that is, and groaned. Why is this happening? And in one day, too! I get a friend, finally, only to have the boy of my dreams come in and practically declare his love to her, and then have my friend's brother come in and flirt with me, practically the only action I've ever had in my life!

Maybe this happens to him all the time. Maybe girls swoon in his presence all the…oh, who am I kidding? No one actually faints nowadays! I mean, sure, it was attractive in the medieval time period, but now? Heh, I don't think so!

I wonder where she is…probably never coming back. Oh well though, it's okay. Not like I need a friend. I mean, I kind of like being alone. No one can hurt you that way.

I reached over and grabbed my diary, the only other friend I had. I grabbed a quill, and began writing. Dear Diary, my only fiend in the world,

Hey! Well, today was a great day, let me tell you! As a sequel to yesterday's wash bin incident (I swear Madoline knocked that stupid thing onto herself…she just likes to have someone to blame), I fall in love. Twice! Firstly, I fall in love with this amazing Gryffindor (who, by the way, has no idea I exist), named Sirius Black, and secondly, I fall in love with this really sly player kind of guy named Corbin…something. I don't remember his last name. Anyway, I'm more likely to have a chance with Corbin than Sirius.

So what's been happening in diary world? Much? Right, well I'm leaving now…going to nurse my other arm, or faint again. : )

Audia