Chapter Three: Exploding Snap
"Sirius! Sirius where are you?!"
"James!" A boy with thick, black hair, gleaming blue eyes, and a mischievous grin dashed into the room, bowling James over. "Jamsie-boy! You came and visited your old buddy, ME."
"Sirius, get off me. I need to tell you something, something important, actually strange, strange and important. Well, more like. . . "
"James!" Sirius interrupted. "Just tell me what you wanted to say."
"Sorry, OK, so, I woke up this morning and decided to go flying. I ate breakfast, got my broom, and started to fly over the forest. While I was flying I noticed these two strange dots on the ground. I flew down to investigate, and found two leopards, one black, one white. I put them to sleep, and flew them back with me to my house. Well, I told my mum and she said they were either escapees from a muggle zoo, whatever that is, or animagi. Now, remember when we had to do that report last year on animagi?" Sirius nodded, "I looked up all the known animagi, and there were only five a cat, snake, sparrow, bear, and eagle. No leopards. Mum performed this spell that transforms animagi back into their human selves, and the two leopards turned into a boy and a girl our age. We brought them into the house and fed them. The girl, Lily, explained their 'story', which was a complete lie. My mum doesn't know that though. Now, they are staying at our house until the big storm passes. You have to see them, Sirius." James ended his story, watching his friend carefully. Sirius just stood there for a moment, staring at James.
"Are you o.k., James?" Sirius asked cautiously, putting a hand to his friend's forehead..
"I am fine! Just come on. It's almost dinner time anyway, you can see them then." James pulled Sirius over to the fireplace, threw a handful of Floo powder in, yelled "Figulus Domus," and yanked Sirius into the fire.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily and Archer crept out of James's bedroom. They had rigged a balloon of water to fall on James when he walked through his door, and then another one to hit him when he got into bed. As a final touch Lily had spelled the water to turn him a different colour every time it fell on him. As they slipped past the fireplace, three figures fell out, landing on Archer and Lily.
"Get off me!" Lily yelled at the figure now lying on her back.
"Oops, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to land on you." Strong arms pulled Lily up, turning her around. She looked up into an unfamiliar face. It was a boy about 16 with sandy coloured hair, kind grey eyes, and a couple inches taller than her.
Completely caught off guard, she stared into his eyes, losing herself in their depths.
*~*~*~*~*~
Remus had just stepped out of James's fireplace, in search of his friend, when he had fallen onto someone.
"Get off me!" a girl's voice yelled.
"Oops, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to land on you." He said as he jumped off her back, and helped her up. Remus then turned the girl around to apologize correctly. He looked down into her emerald eyes, and forgot what he was going to say. She was enchantingly beautiful. And her eyes . . . they held a determination, and wild spirit that he had never seen before. He was completely astonished, to say the least. She was . . . gorgeous.
"Lily, Archer we are so sorry for landing on you. We didn't see you. Are you alright?" James inquired. At those words Remus snapped out of his thoughts.
"I'm fine, mate, just a bit shocked," replied Archer cheerily.
"Are you ok?" Remus asked her softly. Lily blinked and shook her head slightly, clearing it.
"Oh, I'm fine. You just startled me." Taking a step back, out of his arms, Lily added, "My name is Lily Evans."
Smiling, Remus replied, "I'm Remus Lupin. It's nice to meet you." Lily smiled back at him.
"Now that we are out of that mini dog-pile, maybe you would care to introduce us," Sirius poked at James.
"Sorry you guys. Remus, Sirius, this Lily and Archer. Archer, Lily," James said, "These two are Remus and Sirius."
"How polite. So proper. Just a spiffy kind of . . . "
James punched Sirius in the arm, "Shut it, Sirius."
"Now, now James. Sirius probably has a very sensitive arm. You shouldn't be so hard on it," Lily teased. James stared at her.
"She does have a point," Remus and Archer added seriously.
"Dinner time!" Mrs. Potter walked into the room, and, after looking around, sighed. "Well, I guess I am going to have to set more spots. Wash up, dears, dinner will be ready in about 2 minutes." Once Mrs. Potter had left the room, everyone save James fell to the floor laughing.
"You should have seen your face James, when Lily told you to be nice to Sirius. It was classic." Archer laughed, gasping for air.
"Oh, it was just sooooo amusing," James replied. "Get up you guys. I'm hungry, and my mum made her special turkey and lasagna." At the last sentence every single one of the teens leapt up and raced to wash-up, and then jump into their seats.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ One month later the five friends were sitting in James living room. Lily and Archer were still at the Potter's house. The Potters had given one excuse after the other as reasons for the two to stay longer. Lily and Archer were slightly frustrated, but they didn't mind staying. It was fun at the Potter Mansion.
Everyone was lounging on the carpeted floor and comfortable couches when Sirius said, "Hey, anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?"
Exchanging a confused glance with Archer, Lily asked, "Um, mates, what is Exploding Snap?" The three boys gaped at her and Archer.
"You've never heard of Exploding Snap?! Merlin! Where have you been? Everyone knows about Exploding Snap! What house are you in that you didn't here about Exploding Snap?" Sirius exclaimed, astonished.
"House?" Archer asked, confused.
"You guys don't go to Hogwarts?" Remus inquired. Suddenly very afraid of giving away their secret, Archer and Lily slowly shook their heads.
"Then where do you go to school? Beauxbatons? Durmstrong? Salem Institute?"
"We didn't go to school. We lived in an orphanage." Lily said.
"An orphanage? You said that you were visiting your cousin Joe." Oh no! What are we going to do? God, why did I have to let that slip?! Lily looked over at Archer for a bit of help. Though his face was emotionless, she could tell that he was doing some extremely fast thinking.
"Well we did live in an orphanage," Archer quickly interjected. "Kal and I were visiting our cousin that we had just found existed. We didn't know about him until just recently." I am going to get Kal when, and if we get out of this. Archer was not happy that Lily had let that slip.
* ~~~~ * ~~~~ *
James had had enough of the two's lying. I am going to get them to tell the truth. He thought to himself. "How can you guys not know about Hogwarts?" James asked innocently.
"We just never heard of it before," Lily explained.
"Everyone knows about Hogwarts, Lily. The only way that you would not know what Hogwarts was is if you aren't magical."
"It's just that . . . we . . . um . . . " the two fell silent.
"What's a muggle, Archer?" Sirius inquired. Archer didn't answer.
"What is going on you guys? And why did you call Lily Kal?" Remus asked.
"You two have a lot of explaining to do," James stated. Lily and Archer looked at the three boys sitting resolutely in front of them.
"I . . . I can't tell you," Lily whispered.
"God, Lily! I know that you two are magical. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of my school, contacted my mum about a week after you arrived. He said that he had been searching for you guys for six years. You're letters never arrived in your hands for some reason, and he couldn't locate you. He didn't say why it was such a big deal though. You guys must know that all of us are magical," James said. "What aren't you telling us?"
"Sirius! Sirius where are you?!"
"James!" A boy with thick, black hair, gleaming blue eyes, and a mischievous grin dashed into the room, bowling James over. "Jamsie-boy! You came and visited your old buddy, ME."
"Sirius, get off me. I need to tell you something, something important, actually strange, strange and important. Well, more like. . . "
"James!" Sirius interrupted. "Just tell me what you wanted to say."
"Sorry, OK, so, I woke up this morning and decided to go flying. I ate breakfast, got my broom, and started to fly over the forest. While I was flying I noticed these two strange dots on the ground. I flew down to investigate, and found two leopards, one black, one white. I put them to sleep, and flew them back with me to my house. Well, I told my mum and she said they were either escapees from a muggle zoo, whatever that is, or animagi. Now, remember when we had to do that report last year on animagi?" Sirius nodded, "I looked up all the known animagi, and there were only five a cat, snake, sparrow, bear, and eagle. No leopards. Mum performed this spell that transforms animagi back into their human selves, and the two leopards turned into a boy and a girl our age. We brought them into the house and fed them. The girl, Lily, explained their 'story', which was a complete lie. My mum doesn't know that though. Now, they are staying at our house until the big storm passes. You have to see them, Sirius." James ended his story, watching his friend carefully. Sirius just stood there for a moment, staring at James.
"Are you o.k., James?" Sirius asked cautiously, putting a hand to his friend's forehead..
"I am fine! Just come on. It's almost dinner time anyway, you can see them then." James pulled Sirius over to the fireplace, threw a handful of Floo powder in, yelled "Figulus Domus," and yanked Sirius into the fire.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Lily and Archer crept out of James's bedroom. They had rigged a balloon of water to fall on James when he walked through his door, and then another one to hit him when he got into bed. As a final touch Lily had spelled the water to turn him a different colour every time it fell on him. As they slipped past the fireplace, three figures fell out, landing on Archer and Lily.
"Get off me!" Lily yelled at the figure now lying on her back.
"Oops, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to land on you." Strong arms pulled Lily up, turning her around. She looked up into an unfamiliar face. It was a boy about 16 with sandy coloured hair, kind grey eyes, and a couple inches taller than her.
Completely caught off guard, she stared into his eyes, losing herself in their depths.
*~*~*~*~*~
Remus had just stepped out of James's fireplace, in search of his friend, when he had fallen onto someone.
"Get off me!" a girl's voice yelled.
"Oops, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to land on you." He said as he jumped off her back, and helped her up. Remus then turned the girl around to apologize correctly. He looked down into her emerald eyes, and forgot what he was going to say. She was enchantingly beautiful. And her eyes . . . they held a determination, and wild spirit that he had never seen before. He was completely astonished, to say the least. She was . . . gorgeous.
"Lily, Archer we are so sorry for landing on you. We didn't see you. Are you alright?" James inquired. At those words Remus snapped out of his thoughts.
"I'm fine, mate, just a bit shocked," replied Archer cheerily.
"Are you ok?" Remus asked her softly. Lily blinked and shook her head slightly, clearing it.
"Oh, I'm fine. You just startled me." Taking a step back, out of his arms, Lily added, "My name is Lily Evans."
Smiling, Remus replied, "I'm Remus Lupin. It's nice to meet you." Lily smiled back at him.
"Now that we are out of that mini dog-pile, maybe you would care to introduce us," Sirius poked at James.
"Sorry you guys. Remus, Sirius, this Lily and Archer. Archer, Lily," James said, "These two are Remus and Sirius."
"How polite. So proper. Just a spiffy kind of . . . "
James punched Sirius in the arm, "Shut it, Sirius."
"Now, now James. Sirius probably has a very sensitive arm. You shouldn't be so hard on it," Lily teased. James stared at her.
"She does have a point," Remus and Archer added seriously.
"Dinner time!" Mrs. Potter walked into the room, and, after looking around, sighed. "Well, I guess I am going to have to set more spots. Wash up, dears, dinner will be ready in about 2 minutes." Once Mrs. Potter had left the room, everyone save James fell to the floor laughing.
"You should have seen your face James, when Lily told you to be nice to Sirius. It was classic." Archer laughed, gasping for air.
"Oh, it was just sooooo amusing," James replied. "Get up you guys. I'm hungry, and my mum made her special turkey and lasagna." At the last sentence every single one of the teens leapt up and raced to wash-up, and then jump into their seats.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ One month later the five friends were sitting in James living room. Lily and Archer were still at the Potter's house. The Potters had given one excuse after the other as reasons for the two to stay longer. Lily and Archer were slightly frustrated, but they didn't mind staying. It was fun at the Potter Mansion.
Everyone was lounging on the carpeted floor and comfortable couches when Sirius said, "Hey, anyone up for a game of Exploding Snap?"
Exchanging a confused glance with Archer, Lily asked, "Um, mates, what is Exploding Snap?" The three boys gaped at her and Archer.
"You've never heard of Exploding Snap?! Merlin! Where have you been? Everyone knows about Exploding Snap! What house are you in that you didn't here about Exploding Snap?" Sirius exclaimed, astonished.
"House?" Archer asked, confused.
"You guys don't go to Hogwarts?" Remus inquired. Suddenly very afraid of giving away their secret, Archer and Lily slowly shook their heads.
"Then where do you go to school? Beauxbatons? Durmstrong? Salem Institute?"
"We didn't go to school. We lived in an orphanage." Lily said.
"An orphanage? You said that you were visiting your cousin Joe." Oh no! What are we going to do? God, why did I have to let that slip?! Lily looked over at Archer for a bit of help. Though his face was emotionless, she could tell that he was doing some extremely fast thinking.
"Well we did live in an orphanage," Archer quickly interjected. "Kal and I were visiting our cousin that we had just found existed. We didn't know about him until just recently." I am going to get Kal when, and if we get out of this. Archer was not happy that Lily had let that slip.
* ~~~~ * ~~~~ *
James had had enough of the two's lying. I am going to get them to tell the truth. He thought to himself. "How can you guys not know about Hogwarts?" James asked innocently.
"We just never heard of it before," Lily explained.
"Everyone knows about Hogwarts, Lily. The only way that you would not know what Hogwarts was is if you aren't magical."
"It's just that . . . we . . . um . . . " the two fell silent.
"What's a muggle, Archer?" Sirius inquired. Archer didn't answer.
"What is going on you guys? And why did you call Lily Kal?" Remus asked.
"You two have a lot of explaining to do," James stated. Lily and Archer looked at the three boys sitting resolutely in front of them.
"I . . . I can't tell you," Lily whispered.
"God, Lily! I know that you two are magical. Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of my school, contacted my mum about a week after you arrived. He said that he had been searching for you guys for six years. You're letters never arrived in your hands for some reason, and he couldn't locate you. He didn't say why it was such a big deal though. You guys must know that all of us are magical," James said. "What aren't you telling us?"