Chapter 1 - Entrée Madame Dubois
Madame Dubois was a small, plump, jolly woman of around seventy - which was, when counting in wizard years, not all that old yet. Not old enough, by any means, to be considering pension. And as the wizarding world was filled with all kinds of strange things, she didn't even blink when James Potter entered the divination classroom, his short, usually raven black hair dyed a bright, neon pink.
She was generally considered one of the more pleasant teachers by most of her pupils. She was kind, patient, good-natured and, most importantly, hardly ever dealt out house point penalties, since she considered the whole house competition business a means of training the young towards petty rivalry. In her country, she would often proclaim, such a thing would be considered abominable and beneath contempt.
If there was one thing about Madame Dubois that her pupils considered nerve-racking, it was her effusive nature. She would often be over-excited about one subject or another, wildly gesticulating with her large hands that seemed quite out of proportion to the rest of her body.
And it was such a state she was in that particular morning. Fanning away at the air she greeted the class with a cheery smile.
"Ah, mes chers, it is only two weeks until le jour de la Saint-Valentin! Monsieur Potter 'ere is right to rejoice at such a day, though he is a little early!"
'Monsieur Potter' (or Pottair, as it sounded when Madame Dubois said it, which had led Peeves the Poltergeist to compose a strange song with quite unrelated reference to potatoes) responded by turning a crimson shade quite unbecoming his hair colour while the rest of the class - especially the other three Marauders - snickered. Peter, who had some artistic talent, quickly drew a sketch of pink-haired James in a pink bunny-rabbit suit (suspiciously reminding the others of James' plush toy which he kept hidden under his pillow during the day), holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates with the word 'Lily' written on it, while Sirius softly chanted Peeve's newest song, 'Potter the Pink', under his breath. The Slytherins - for this was a Slytherin-Gryffindor mixed class - merely threw obscene gestures and evil grins in poor James' general direction.
"It iz such spirit zat we need for our lesson today! We start today with an art zat even ze muggles have discovered. Zough, as always, zey 'ave made it wrong. Le test de compatibilité!"
Though Madame Dubois tended to mix her native tongue with English, everyone in the class understood what she meant by this. There were loud groans all around, and some delighted chuckles. The chuckling coming mostly from those without a current love interest, as they gleefully awaited the results of the other people's quizzes. Groans from all the rest - amongst them James Potter -, who were anxious as to what the results might say. What if the person they were interested in wasn't compatible to them? What if they were, and the whole school would find out? What if their girl- or boyfriend was better-suited to someone else?
"Do we have to?" Peter finally moaned. He'd been eying a Slytherin girl in their year for some weeks now, much too shy to do anything about it, certain that she would mock him terribly in front of the entire school before cursing him to Antarctica or beyond.
"Ah, but where iz *your* esprit, Monsieur Pettigrew? Of *course* you must!" Her big hands were, once again, waving about madly. "And, as special treat for ze most compatible couple, zey will 'ave a beau dîner together, in 'ogsmeade. I 'ave already arranged it all with ze 'eadmaster. All my sixth and seventh years pupils are doing it."
"What if they don't like each other at all?" Lily Evans chimed in. James' heart sank as he thought he had seen her head turning ever so slightly towards him.
"But zat will not 'appen! Zey will be compatible, so zey will enjoy it!"
Madame Dubois waved some similar doubts away with her hands. There was no arguing with the woman once she'd set her mind on something.
"Now, we will start practicing. Open your books, please, mes chers!"
***
The atmosphere was in part subdued in the dorm of the four Gryffindor boys, as it was in some other dorms throughout the school. While Remus unperturbedly read an article in "The Warlock" - a dreadfully tiresome newspaper filled with politics and economy and scientific essays and little else - and Sirius merrily made fun of the two other occupants of the room, James and Peter vied with each other in what could possibly go wrong during the next couple of Divination lessons.
"Why does it have to be a Love Match spell?" James groaned, not for the first time that evening. "What if I don't get paired with Lily? What if the test says I'm most compatible with, hum, dunno, Melissa Trotter or someone?"
Melissa Trotter was a small, pig-tailed Hufflepuff girl in their form who had admired and tagged after James for almost one and a half years now. She was a nice girl, all in all, but overly prone to hero-worship of a certain Quidditch captain.
"Don't worry about Melissa, Jamie," Peter clapped his back good-naturedly. "Think about being paired off with Snape or something!"
Sirius halted his twenty and fourth tirade of "Pink Potter" that evening, much to the delight of the other boys, stopping dead in his tracks. He had tried to find suitable dance steps to the atrocious song, an endeavour everyone, especially James, hoped he would not succeed in.
"That can *happen*?" he asked, dumbfounded. Though he was undoubtedly brilliant in most school subjects, he had never bothered much with reading up on charms, especially love charms, claiming them stupid fancies of air headed teenage girls. Never mind he himself could, at times, be a quite air headed teenage boy. "I mean, aren't those spells supposed to pair boys with girls or something?"
"Doesn't really matter. As far as I know," Peter continued, "they work independently from gender. I seem to remember reading today that the Love Match charm considers only who would be best matched, with no actual consideration for age, single interests, fancies or sex."
"But... but..." Sirius seemed quite shaken by Peter's lecture, so much so that even Remus lifted his head from his book curiously.
"Does that bother you so much then, Padfoot?" the werewolf asked him with an air of amusement, but also with an underlying anxiety.
"Well... not really, I suppose. I'm just trying to get the thought of being paired with Snape out of my head."
"Ah, if it's only that, don't worry yourself too much. I don't really think you two are compatible in *any* way possible, much less so in a love match."
"Yeah... you're right," Sirius agreed, trying to sound light-hearted. He did not, however, continue with his ludicrous dance, and the other boys were spared yet another revival of Peeves' song all evening.
Something was obviously troubling Sirius.
Madame Dubois was a small, plump, jolly woman of around seventy - which was, when counting in wizard years, not all that old yet. Not old enough, by any means, to be considering pension. And as the wizarding world was filled with all kinds of strange things, she didn't even blink when James Potter entered the divination classroom, his short, usually raven black hair dyed a bright, neon pink.
She was generally considered one of the more pleasant teachers by most of her pupils. She was kind, patient, good-natured and, most importantly, hardly ever dealt out house point penalties, since she considered the whole house competition business a means of training the young towards petty rivalry. In her country, she would often proclaim, such a thing would be considered abominable and beneath contempt.
If there was one thing about Madame Dubois that her pupils considered nerve-racking, it was her effusive nature. She would often be over-excited about one subject or another, wildly gesticulating with her large hands that seemed quite out of proportion to the rest of her body.
And it was such a state she was in that particular morning. Fanning away at the air she greeted the class with a cheery smile.
"Ah, mes chers, it is only two weeks until le jour de la Saint-Valentin! Monsieur Potter 'ere is right to rejoice at such a day, though he is a little early!"
'Monsieur Potter' (or Pottair, as it sounded when Madame Dubois said it, which had led Peeves the Poltergeist to compose a strange song with quite unrelated reference to potatoes) responded by turning a crimson shade quite unbecoming his hair colour while the rest of the class - especially the other three Marauders - snickered. Peter, who had some artistic talent, quickly drew a sketch of pink-haired James in a pink bunny-rabbit suit (suspiciously reminding the others of James' plush toy which he kept hidden under his pillow during the day), holding a heart-shaped box of chocolates with the word 'Lily' written on it, while Sirius softly chanted Peeve's newest song, 'Potter the Pink', under his breath. The Slytherins - for this was a Slytherin-Gryffindor mixed class - merely threw obscene gestures and evil grins in poor James' general direction.
"It iz such spirit zat we need for our lesson today! We start today with an art zat even ze muggles have discovered. Zough, as always, zey 'ave made it wrong. Le test de compatibilité!"
Though Madame Dubois tended to mix her native tongue with English, everyone in the class understood what she meant by this. There were loud groans all around, and some delighted chuckles. The chuckling coming mostly from those without a current love interest, as they gleefully awaited the results of the other people's quizzes. Groans from all the rest - amongst them James Potter -, who were anxious as to what the results might say. What if the person they were interested in wasn't compatible to them? What if they were, and the whole school would find out? What if their girl- or boyfriend was better-suited to someone else?
"Do we have to?" Peter finally moaned. He'd been eying a Slytherin girl in their year for some weeks now, much too shy to do anything about it, certain that she would mock him terribly in front of the entire school before cursing him to Antarctica or beyond.
"Ah, but where iz *your* esprit, Monsieur Pettigrew? Of *course* you must!" Her big hands were, once again, waving about madly. "And, as special treat for ze most compatible couple, zey will 'ave a beau dîner together, in 'ogsmeade. I 'ave already arranged it all with ze 'eadmaster. All my sixth and seventh years pupils are doing it."
"What if they don't like each other at all?" Lily Evans chimed in. James' heart sank as he thought he had seen her head turning ever so slightly towards him.
"But zat will not 'appen! Zey will be compatible, so zey will enjoy it!"
Madame Dubois waved some similar doubts away with her hands. There was no arguing with the woman once she'd set her mind on something.
"Now, we will start practicing. Open your books, please, mes chers!"
***
The atmosphere was in part subdued in the dorm of the four Gryffindor boys, as it was in some other dorms throughout the school. While Remus unperturbedly read an article in "The Warlock" - a dreadfully tiresome newspaper filled with politics and economy and scientific essays and little else - and Sirius merrily made fun of the two other occupants of the room, James and Peter vied with each other in what could possibly go wrong during the next couple of Divination lessons.
"Why does it have to be a Love Match spell?" James groaned, not for the first time that evening. "What if I don't get paired with Lily? What if the test says I'm most compatible with, hum, dunno, Melissa Trotter or someone?"
Melissa Trotter was a small, pig-tailed Hufflepuff girl in their form who had admired and tagged after James for almost one and a half years now. She was a nice girl, all in all, but overly prone to hero-worship of a certain Quidditch captain.
"Don't worry about Melissa, Jamie," Peter clapped his back good-naturedly. "Think about being paired off with Snape or something!"
Sirius halted his twenty and fourth tirade of "Pink Potter" that evening, much to the delight of the other boys, stopping dead in his tracks. He had tried to find suitable dance steps to the atrocious song, an endeavour everyone, especially James, hoped he would not succeed in.
"That can *happen*?" he asked, dumbfounded. Though he was undoubtedly brilliant in most school subjects, he had never bothered much with reading up on charms, especially love charms, claiming them stupid fancies of air headed teenage girls. Never mind he himself could, at times, be a quite air headed teenage boy. "I mean, aren't those spells supposed to pair boys with girls or something?"
"Doesn't really matter. As far as I know," Peter continued, "they work independently from gender. I seem to remember reading today that the Love Match charm considers only who would be best matched, with no actual consideration for age, single interests, fancies or sex."
"But... but..." Sirius seemed quite shaken by Peter's lecture, so much so that even Remus lifted his head from his book curiously.
"Does that bother you so much then, Padfoot?" the werewolf asked him with an air of amusement, but also with an underlying anxiety.
"Well... not really, I suppose. I'm just trying to get the thought of being paired with Snape out of my head."
"Ah, if it's only that, don't worry yourself too much. I don't really think you two are compatible in *any* way possible, much less so in a love match."
"Yeah... you're right," Sirius agreed, trying to sound light-hearted. He did not, however, continue with his ludicrous dance, and the other boys were spared yet another revival of Peeves' song all evening.
Something was obviously troubling Sirius.