~*~ April, Brigette And Juliet ~*~

~Don't wanna go with the crowd -

~I wanna go with the flow

~Don't wanna rush through life -

~I wanna take it pretty slow

~And steady

~Don't wanna spend my time gettin' high -

~I like me best when I'm low

~Don't wanna race to the end -

~I'll just take my time

~Wanna be able to speak my mind

~Never wanted to mime

~My life

~Nothing wrong with individuality

~Differences are sublime

~I refuse to wear a mask -

~I'll be who I wanna be

~I won't hide my heart away

~Not scared to let you see

~Who I am

~So I'm gonna stand tall

~And I'm always gonna be

~Me.

April Hopeturn. Brigette Welde. Juliet Vern. Christina Morgan. These were the names of the four girls Hilary, Bella and I happened to be on detention with.

How did we get a detention? Let's just say that being fifteen minutes late to McGonagall's class isn't a great idea, and that 'we didn't realise what time it was' isn't a great excuse.

And the other four? A whole stack of reasons - a combination of incomplete homework, back chatting teachers, talking in class and wagging lessons altogether. Or so we assumed, from their conversation.

April I had already met, and was relatively surprised to see her in detention. Then again, I'd never really expected to be in detention myself. She clicked her tongue and tapped her foot impatiently.

Brigette was tall, slim, blue eyed and blonde. Although her eyes weren't anything like James's - they were more of a soft, baby blue compared to his blazing sapphires.

Juliet was short, petite and brunette. I got the idea from her attitude, though, that she wasn't as frail as she looked. In fact, she seemed to be quite feisty. Everything about her - the way she stood, slouched back and to the side, hands on hips - seemed to be daring someone to get her started.

Christina had spunk - I knew it the minute I had been put in a room with her. She was cool, laid back and reserved, but she had a sharp tongue and ironic sense of humour. She looked like a common teenage rebel. Her hair was cropped short, so it bounced around her ears. It was impossible to tell what colour it was, since it was a mix of black, blonde and red streaks. Her eyes were a chocolate brown, her eyebrows thick and black. She had a black beauty spot above her lip to the left of her mouth, and her nose was pierced with a diamond.

What we were doing for our detention we didn't know - McGonagall had told us to go to the charms class after dinner, and that some second years would be there. Apparently we'd be told what to do when we got there. So far, we hadn't been told a thing.

Christina leaned back against a wall, watching me. She was chewing gum in a lazy way, an amused look in her eyes.

'So what did you first years do to land yourselves with a detention?' she asked after eyeing me for a moment.

'Five minutes late for class,' Bella shrugged. 'Big deal. Stupid McGonagall.'

'It was more like fifteen,' I pointed out. Juliet laughed.

'She's a dag, that one. We reckon she's married to Santa Claus.'

Brigette's mouth twitched. Bella rolled her eyes.

'Pity she doesn't go and live with him. At the North Pole, I mean.'

'That'd ruin Christmas, that would,' Christina snorted. 'She'd run him off his feet so quick he wouldn't have the time to deliver presents. The name's Christina. You can call me Chrissy,' she said, extending her hand to Bella, who shook it.

'Bella.'

'My name's Juliet, and that's Brigette and April. What's yours?' she asked me.

'Lily.'

'Would you look at that, Morgan. Another Camelot maiden for you,' April laughed. 'Hi, Hilary - by the way. You know everyone, don't you?'

Hilary grinned and nodded.

'I'd thought I'd been forgotten. But what's this about Camelot?'

'Oh,' April said, exchanging glances with Chrissy. 'Have you read about King Arthur and all that rot?'

We all nodded.

'When we first came her, Chris was a loner, and we used to call her names,' she laughed.

'Morgana,' I said slowly, nodding. 'Morgan Le Fay?'

'Yeah,' she grinned. 'Clever. Juliet and Brigette and I all already knew each other, but not Chrissy. But she's part of the crowd now. Although the Morgana thing stuck.'

' 'Welde' means 'supreme goddess' in Celtic, so they call me Hera, who was the queen of the gods in Greek Mythology,' Brigette continued. 'And Juliet is, wait for it - Juliet Capulet.'

'Still waiting for my Romeo,' Juliet added.

'And I'm boring old April,' April grinned.

'Nope,' argued Brigette. 'As much as you hate it, you're Aurora Hopeturn.'

'Who's Aurora Hopeturn?' Bella asked.

'Sleeping Beauty,' I murmured. 'She was real, wasn't she?'

'They all were,' Hilary said. 'So were you - Laine of the Lilies.'

I laughed.

'So what are we supposed to be doing for this detention?' I asked.

'Well, we were busted by McGonagall, too - and she told us we were meeting freaking Filch here, but I guess he's a no-show,' April shrugged.

'We could sneak out,' Bella said, peering out of the door.

'Nah. What the heck. There's only fifteen minutes left until curfew, so we can survive, I'm sure,' Hilary said dryly. 'Saves us getting busted again.'

'Hilary! Those aren't words of a Potter!' April gasped with a laugh. 'If you were James, he'd want to get caught. He loves detentions.'

'Well, I'm not James. Besides, he'd probably opt for no detentions so he could spend more time with Paige,' she said, rolling her eyes. April narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.

'You've noticed that too, huh? He's been acting weird lately.'

'I mean, nothing against Paige, but he hated her,' Juliet agreed. When Bella and I gave her a strange look, she laughed. 'Oh, you guys hate her too, huh? She gets a lot of that.'

'Well, Paige is my friend, but James is my cousin,' April said. 'I think she's up to something. And let's face it, those two don't go together.'

Chrissy spoke up again.

'Have you ever noticed how James has lapses when he couldn't care less? Always around lunch. Then he's right back to the rose-coloured glasses.'

We all nodded.

'You should have seen them in potions,' Juliet agreed. 'It's gross. And Griggio always puts them together because they're top of the class.'

'Paige is good at potions?' Bella asked. 'She doesn't seem the type.'

'Yeah - but she's into mostly the beauty side of things. You know, hair colouring potions and stuff,' Chrissy shrugged.

'Or love potions,' I said softly, something dawning on me. Everyone looked at me.

'You're joking, right?' Bella laughed quietly.

'It all fits,' Hilary said slowly.

'Right in front of our eyes the whole time,' Bella added.

'But would Paige do that?' April asked.

'Yes,' Hilary, Bella, Juliet and I all answered together. 'We don't have proof. You could get in deep hippogriff dung if you accused her and you were wrong. It's a big thing to accuse something of. Love potions are illegal, aren't they?' Chrissy asked doubtfully.

'We need to frame her,' I said. 'But how?'

'Well, finding out the potion that's she's using is a start, so you can break the enchantment. It's probably something weak that wears off - that's why he has lapses.'

'How do we find out what she's using though?' Juliet asked.

Bella looked at her.

'You guys are in her dorm. You must be able to do something.'

Chrissy raised her hands.

'I'm not getting involved. Paige can turn nasty, and if she finds us snooping...'

'It's like betraying her,' Brigette said. 'She's our friend, even if she is doing something wrong.'

'And James is my cousin,' April said stubbornly. 'Blood's thicker than water. I'll help you guys out,' she said to us.

'Me too,' said Juliet. 'I've never liked Paige anyway.'

'Never would have guessed,' Brigette laughed. 'You two fight about nothing. Anyway, I guess I'm in - even though James isn't exactly my favourite person. I'll see what I can find out, but that's it.'

Juliet and April nodded.

'We'll do some ferreting, but you'll have to do the rest. We're not siding; James and Paige are our friends.'

'OK,' Bella nodded. 'Thanks.'

Hilary looked at the clock.

'Time to go.'

'Right. Can you guys see what you can find out, and get back to us in two days?' Hilary asked. April gave her a playful shove.

'Sure, cous'. We'll sort it out.'

'And it was nice meeting you three,' Juliet grinned. 'We can see why the guys like you so much. You're pretty cool for first years.'

'Thanks,' Bella laughed. 'You're pretty cool for second years.'

I smiled.

'Come on. I'm dead on my feet. This whole mystery has been keeping me awake.'

'Yeah, well, this mystery is on it's way to being solved,' Bella sighed, linking arms with me and Hilary. 'So you can sleep easy.'

* * *

One week later, Juliet came running up and knocking on our dorm door.

'Let me in, first years!' she yelled, laughing.

Bella opened the door and Juliet slipped in.

It was a Sunday morning, and we were all doing our homework at the last minute. I took off my glasses and looked up from my Transfiguration essay. Juliet's face was flushed, her normally perfect hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. She was wearing some grey slacks and a t-shirt. She had one knee raised with a very large book resting on it, and a pair of reading glasses sliding down her nose.

'We've found it. Paige has always taken a flask with her to lunch - she puts some concoction in her juice that makes it like wine or something. She puts it in James's, too - but Brigette says that Paige never drinks any of her juice anymore. Which means she must have replaced her stuff with a potion so no one gets suspicious. And - here's the cool bit - we found this in the wastepaper basket.'

Juliet pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket and handed it to me. On it were scrawled names of what seemed to be potion ingredients.

'But you said she makes a lot of potions. How do you know this is it?'

'Well, April and I looked in her books and this is the only one that has matching ingredients.'

She dropped the large book on the bed in front of me. I put my glasses on again and read it aloud.

'The Penscale Potion is a weak love potion of medium difficulty that lasts anywhere between one and three days, depending on the brewed strength and the drinker's willpower.' I skipped through the next couple of paragraphs that explained how to make the potion. 'The Penscale Potion has few symptoms, the most obvious being dullness of the drinker's eyes. It is seldom used brew due to the fact that it can easily broken, if the drinker is kissed by another other than the object of the potion's affection.'

'We have to get him kissed? No one would kiss James while he's dating Paige! It's like signing your own death warrant!' Hilary said.

'Yeah, well, it's got to be done,' Juliet said.

'I bags not,' Bella said. 'I'm taken. Sort of.'

'I'm his sister,' said Hilary.

'I'm taken,' said Juliet. 'Plus April's his cousin, and Brigette doesn't particularly like James.'

Everyone looked at me.

'No. No! No, no, no! I am not kissing James! There is no way!'

'Come on Lily,' Bella said.

'Do it for James.'

'Do it for us.'

'Do it to piss Paige off,' Juliet added.

I whined.

'Why me?'

'Because. Besides, you're the closest to James. Other than me, that is,' Hilary said. 'He'll understand, too. You two are always hugging and stuff. You can do something like that then kiss him when no one's looking.'

'Fine,' I said grumpily. 'But you owe me big time.'

'Yeah, we do. Kissing one of the hottest guys in the school, poor you,' Juliet teased.

'It will be poor me if Paige murders me.'

'I've got it!' Bella said suddenly.

'What?' we all asked, looking at her strangely. She blushed.

'Well, you know that Paige hates how close you and James are. So, you hug him and stuff in front of her, then you full on pash him. In the Common Room or something, so she can't do anything drastic. Then the spell will break and everyone will see it happen.'

'Great plan. One thing. I AM NOT PASHING JAMES!'

'Whoa, Lily. Cool it tiger. This is for James, remember?' Hilary asked. Bella narrowed her eyes mischievously.

'Yeah, Lily. I dare you.'

My eyes opened wide. I never refused a dare. Damn it!

'Damn you, Bella Figg!'

'Well, good luck Lily,' Juliet laughed. 'You'll need it. I've got to fly and get this book back to the dorm before Paige does. See you guys around.'

'Bye!'

'Bye Juliet.'

'Yeah,' I grumbled. 'Bye Juliet.'

Hey everyone, just since everyone's said that it wouldn't let them review the last chapter: this would be because I deleted a chapter (the 'Help Me' one, regarding the fifteen reviews thing) and several chapters got moved back one, so it means you've reviewed the one before it, not that one. Sorry! It's just that the homework thing isn't an issue any more, so I thought I'd get rid of it :) It should work when you review this chapter. And I only got 9/15 for that chapter, so no kiss yet. :( See if you can get 15 reviews for this chappie! *I drive a hard bargain*

Well, I gotta fly. Yay to Amelia Bedelia for guessing the plot - *piece of virtual cake for you* By the wya, what happened to my original reviewers like luv-jinxy and Candace and lizmarauder4eva??? Where you guys go? ;( If you're still out there, drop me a line, OK?

Well, bye byes.

Mind if I skip the thanks yous again? He he. Sorry. I just wanted to get this chapter out soon as poss.

*hugs and kisses to all*

Toodles!

SezZie