Simply Sirius
Chapter 3
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything here, because all of these characters belong to the people who created them!!!! All of this material is not mine, and I do not own it. (Well, except for the characters I created. I do own those.) Thank you!
Without the girls around, we had a terrific vacation. We were free to go into the common room whenever we wanted, without worrying that the Unicorns would be there. James was thrilled; he didn't have to worry about arguing with Lily.
We also had plenty of time to plan new pranks for the girls when they got back. All in all, we had a really great time during Christmas vacation.
My family sent me 10 galleons and a wizard camera so I could take pictures for them. James gave me a Zonko's All-Purpose Prankster's Kit, and I got him the same thing. (We were glad, because now we had double the prank-pulling materials.) Remus gave me a book called Quidditch Through the Ages (because I completely love quidditch) and I gave him a book on super spells for defense against the dark arts. (I know, it seems boring, but Defense Against the Dark Arts was his best subject, and he loved doing extra credit work. I figured this book could help him.) I got a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from Peter, and gave him a bag of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
The rest of break was actually pretty uneventful. We played pranks on other Gryffindors and first-years from other houses, but they were all minor. Nobody seemed to mind too much other than one Slytherin and his pals.
This Slytherin was quite possibly the most disgusting wizard I had ever met. He had greasy, oily black hair, pale, waxy skin, and a nose that resembled a toucan's beak. His name was Severus Snape, and he was the leader of a group of Slytherin goons. (Now, THEY were goons. Like, their tricks were just plain mean. OURS, on the other hand, were playful. I think.)
From the moment I saw Snape at the Christmas Feast, I knew he was a perfect enemy, at least twice as good of a target as the Unicorns. While James, Remus, and Peter pigged out, I took a few moments to measure him up. He was busy eating and talking to his friends, so at first he didn't notice me. But then, James noticed how quiet I was and said, "Sirius? You okay, buddy?"
Snape looked at us and noticed me looking at him. He glared at me, and I glared back. After another minute, he turned away. I grinned wickedly and glanced at James.
"He is going down," I whispered.
And, as I said, we did get him. Well, actually we ourselves didn't, but, rather, were the ones responsible for him being gotten. In truth, our prank wasn't all that brilliant. It was meant to be something stupid, but luckily, got taken quite seriously be a certain someone……
You see, all we did was write a message on Snape's back. Okay, so we did it with spit balls during breakfast one day, but still…it wasn't a big deal. We did it more to amuse ourselves, for it was incredibly hilarious to see little white dots stick to his robes. Then, Peter (can you believe it?) came up with the idea to write a message with them. We had Remus do it, because he was the best aim, and he knew how to use his wand to guide them.
After about an hour, Severus had "drive me crazy" written on his back. It really wasn't a horrible thing, it just made us suffocate with laughter whenever we saw it. (Fortunately, none of his friends saw it, and the only people who did didn't tell him.) Now, the best part came when Snape went into the hall to go to Potions.
You see, there is a poltergeist at Hogwarts. His name is Peeves, and he loves havoc and chaos more than anything. And when he saw the words on Snape's back, he went absolutely all out.
Peeves did everything possible to harass Severus. He threw things at him, dropped things on him, made up uproarious rhymes about him (and chanted them ceaselessly), and did all sorts of other things. It was hysterical; Remus actually said that Peeves was almost a better annoyer than me and James. (James whacked him one for that, but then Remus reminded him that he had said ALMOST.)
Snape was furious, which only made him look funnier, but he didn't know that we did it. (He was remarkably thick for someone who knew more advanced curses than our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.) So, we let him be (for the time being). The rest of our break passed uneventfully.
When it was over back, and the Unicorns returned, life reverted to the way it was before they had left. We (meaning the girls and our group) had developed such an enmity that the teachers noticed and tried to get us to get along. It didn't work, of course. We went about our pranks as before.
Actually, I must say, I think Remus was occasionally nice to them. Sometimes, we would catch him talking civilly to them. They appeared to be polite back, so we didn't go over and harass them. But we did harass Remus a bit. (Well, wouldn't you?)
The end of the year approached quickly. All of a sudden, it was the end of the year, and we had to actually STUDY. There were end-of-year exams, of course, and our group actually didn't want to fail them. We took a bit of time off pranks especially for the occasion.
Just a few days before the end-of-year feast, we decided to pull a grand finale trick on the Unicorns.
"It has to be something memorable," said Remus, actually getting in the spirit of prank pulling.
"Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't want them to forget us over the summer, now would we?" James said with a grin.
"Especially that Lily," murmured Peter, thinking about how she had humiliated him in Charms, his worst subject and her best. (Okay, what happened was we were learning how to do Cheering Charms, and Peter hadn't quite gotten the hang of it while Lily had. She told him what to do, but told him to wave his wand "extra-hard" at himself for good measure. Peter, being on the rather stupid side of dumb, did this, of course. The result was a ridiculously hyper Peter grinning and laughing for the next 2 classes, all the while cursing Lily between laughs.)
"So, what are we gonna do?" I asked. "I'm out of good ideas."
"Me too…." James frowned.
Remus was quiet for a moment. "Well, I'm not the one who told you this, but I heard that the Unicorns are planning on wearing matching hair ribbons to the feast. I dunno, but maybe you guys cant think of how to use that bit of info….." he trailed off.
James thought hard for a moment, as did I. (Well, as hard as I could, because James's face when thinking is REALLY funny.)
About ten seconds later, James yelled, "I got it!"
"What?" we asked as one.
"Well, don't you think frogs look absolutely great on lily pads?" James questioned with a wicked grin. We all exchanged glances, and soon, even Peter was wearing a smile similar to James's.
"Frogs on their hair……they'll SO love it!" I said with typical prankster sarcasm.
"Wait, we can't do just that. It's not really that much. I think we should change their pumpkin juice into swamp water, because won't the frogs need something to stay in once the girls throw them off their hair?" Peter suddenly voiced.
James and I looked at each other.
"Bloody brilliant, Pete!" I breathed.
"Yeah, it's perfect! I can't believe you got such a great idea!" James added.
"Now, to find a spell that can do that," Remus said, pulling out his Transfiguration book.
James, being best a Transfiguration, studied the spells we had found until it was time to do them. Testing it for quite possibly the 38th time on my quill and ink, he leaned back and grinned.
"Well, Siri, I can do it. Let's just hope it goes as well tomorrow," he sighed to me.
"Don't worry James, you can do it. Now, just change it back please, because I really need to finish my History of Magic homework," I replied.
The next day, we were hyper with nervousness. James had his wand at the ready, and we were sitting in the common room, waiting for the girls to go past us. (We wanted to do it from behind them.)
After what seemed like an hour, they came down, each wearing the expected matching ribbon. We smiled (as innocently as possible) at them as they passed.
"Well, what are you gonna do to us today?" said Rika cheerfully.
"Probably turn us into bats," said Juniper with a sarcastic giggle.
"Well, then we could fly better, and I could beat Josh at quidditch!" piped up Quinn enthusiastically.
"Oh, girls, we'd never do anything to you," said Remus, winningly polite.
Lily glared at me and James. "Remus, I could believe you, but I don't trust those two," she said.
"Hey, we are right here, you know," James objected. "We have feelings too."
"Yeah, just because we aren't girls….."I started.
"Doesn't mean that we can be stupid too," Peter finished.
"NO," James said quickly, glaring at Peter who then shrunk away. "It doesn't mean that we can't be nice for a change."
All four girls just looked at us.
"Excuse me, do you think we've already forgotten Christmas?" said Rika.
"And Halloween," added Juniper.
"And your year-round jerkishness," put in Quinn.
"Why would this be any different?" interrogated Lily. We looked at each other, then at Remus, who seemed to have a way with the girls more so than us.
"Um, well….uh, since it's the end of the year, we, uh….think that it would, be, uh, good to, uh, be nice to you four?" he tried.
They exchanged glances. I knew they didn't buy it.
"You guys are so obviously up to something," started Lily.
"And we know it for sure, so don't deny it," continued Juniper.
"But we've got something of our own up our sleeve," resumed Quinn.
"So bring it on," finished Rika with a grin almost as wicked as mine. I caught her eye and stuck out my tongue. She rolled her eyes, and said, "I just hope it's not as immature as you all are."
"Hey! I resent that," I yelled at her.
"Siri, she was being sarcastic," Remus pointed out.
"Yeah, well, her sarcasm bites like a Cornish pixie," I retorted. The girls snorted with laughter at us (or at least me) and with that, they left the common room. After a minute, we got up and followed them.
James, our Transfiguration expert, was to do the dirty work. He brought his wand and held it under his robes as we walked. Just as they were about to enter the Grand Hall, he whipped it out and muttered, "Chamelo Toadiliaos!" while pointing it at each girl's hair ribbon.
Within seconds, each of the Unicorns had a fat, warty brown toad perched on her ponytail. (In truth, the toads actually reminded me of my brother Warren's best friend Vernon, only smaller and better looking.) It took a moment for the girls to realize what had happened. They kept on chatting until they sat down, whereupon Quinn felt a difference in the weight of what was on her head.
"Hey, June, is my……." she started to say, but trailed off at the sight of Juniper's toad. "Oh………my……..god……."she said faintly.
"What?" asked Juniper quizzically. At that moment, Lily and Rika turned to look at Juniper's hair too.
Lily shrieked. "BLOODY HELL IT'S A FROG GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She then attempted to jump out of her seat and make a run for it, but Rika held her back and screamed, "Lily, stop! You've got one in your hair too!!!!!!"
After that, total chaos ensued. The girls, after realizing that they had TOADS in their hair (toads, Lils, not frogs), began shrieking and pawing like rabid cats at their hair. We were on the floor with laughter, as was at least ¼ of the other students. Everyone was laughing, save the Unicorns. While they were busy getting the toads out (which took a while because they were in such panic), James ran to the table and transfigured their pumpkin juice into swamp water.
Once the toads were all out (and had unnoticeably hopped into the fresh swamp water), the girls, now a rather interesting shade of furious red, glared at us.
"If we didn't have a little prank of our own all set, I would kill you right here and now," hissed Rika through clenched teeth. She glared at me with her bizarre black eyes, and I was once again reminded of her secret. But, once again, I didn't have too much time to think about it.
Professor Dumbledore entered the Grand Hall and we scrambled for our seats. By this time, order had more or less been restored to the Hall, and we all sat up to listen. (We were located as far away from the Unicorns.) He gave a closing speech and announced the winner of the House Cup, who was, much to our disappointment, Slytherin. (I think our group's huge loss of points may have had something to do with the fact that we were in third place.)
At any rate, we had a great time at the feast. The food was better than usual, if that was at all possible, and we talked about everything that had happened during the year. I gathered last looks of everyone, from a quiet Gryffindor girl (also in our year but not one of the Unicorns – she had her own group) named Joanne Rowling to a loud, rambunctious Slytherin seventh-year named Larsen Malfoy. (Incidentally, Larsen had a younger brother named Lucius who was a prefect in Arthur's year.) We were having such a good time that we didn't even notice that the girls had gone back to the common room before us. (Hey, we didn't even get to see their reaction to the swamp water!) But, at that time, we didn't really care.
So, about an hour and a half later, we went back to the dorms, happy, full, and pleased with the outcome of our final (for the year) prank. Walking into our room, I let out a huge sigh. James, however, let out a huge burp.
"Eeewwww…….that was gross, James," remarked Remus, wrinkling his nose.
"Yeah, well, I ate a lot," James shrugged,
"We noticed," muttered Peter.
Sniffing the air, I commented, "Geez, James, WHAT did you eat? It smells like perfume in here!"
"Gross perfume, too," added Peter.
"Hey, that's not me! I swear!" James said innocently (this time, it was sincere innocence).
"Ooooohhhhh, this must be that prank that the girls were talking about," groaned Remus.
"I don't know…..it's kinda stupid, even for the girls," said Peter slowly.
"It's more than stupid, it's pathetic…but what do you expect? The Unicorns aren't exactly first-class pranksters, like us," James said.
I frowned. "You know, Rika seemed pretty pissed at us for the toads. I don't think they'd let that go this easily."
"Well, nothing else is happening," Peter said after a moment.
"Let's just get on with our business, and…..**yawn**…….worry when something happens," James said, sounding tired. Actually, now that I thought about it, I was tired too.
I looked at Remus and Peter, and they yawned too. "Guys, let's go to bed," Peter said after a huge yawn.
"But it's still early……oh well, I guess I'm tired too," James said. So, changing into our pajamas, we got into bed and slept.
I don't know how long we slept, but it was noon when we awoke. The smell of rotten perfume was gone, and the day seemed perfect. We didn't have classes, because we were leaving later that afternoon, so I just lay there for a minute, thinking about my year.
After a while, I heard the other guys waking up. I sat up and looked over at James. This time, it was my jaw that dropped in horror. He was busy rubbing his eyes, so at first he didn't notice.
"Siri, what are you gaping at?" he said when he first looked at me. Then, he said slowly, "Those girls…..it's bloody brilliant….."
"What are you talking about? LOOK AT YOURSELF!" I started to yell, shock gaining control over me.
"What, me? Look at YOU!!" he replied, laughing. I heard Peter and Remus laugh too, and looked over at them.
After about half an hour of pure pandemonium, the four of us realized that we were all covered in heavy layers of witch make-up. And, to add to this new knowledge, we knew (coming from wizarding families) that witch make-up doesn't come off unless you use a spell on it. Another great thing we found out was that absolutely none of us knew that spell.
"James, you should know it, doesn't your mum use make-up?" I asked pleadingly.
"Well yeah, but I never listen to her when she takes it off! I mean, your mum does too, Sirius, so do YOU know the spell?" James retorted in frustration.
"URGH, I cannot BELIEVE they did this to ME!" yelled Remus from the other side of the room. Actually, they had been rather nice to him (compared to us). He only had a light layer of blue eyeshadow, gold mascara, and plain red lipstick. (In case you're wondering, which you must be, Peter had on vivid orange eyeshadow, bright pink blush, thick black mascara, and neon purple lipstick. James was wearing dark red blush, silver mascara, lime green eyeshadow, and deep blue lipstick. I was decorated with shiny magenta eyeshadow, mocha-brown blush, turquoise mascara, and white lipstick. All 3 of us were covered in a generous layer of body glitter.)
We spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do. None of us had any books that could help, and none of us would dare to venture out and ask a girl for help.
Finally, James twitched. I knew that twitch; it was what James Potter did when he knew what to do but didn't know if he should do it.
"James, spill," I said in a no-nonsense voice that I would normally never use. (Okay, it REALLY wasn't like me, but this was an extreme situation!)
At this, he looked at me a bit nervously and said, "I, uh, think I have something that can help us." Remus and Peter instantly appeared at our side.
"Well, James, my best friend! TELL ALL," said Remus.
"And quickly! I can't stand this……stuff…..for too much longer!" Peter said, sounding as if he very much would have liked to call it something else, but was too scared to use the word.
"Well, I have….an…..invisibility cloak," said James haltingly. We gasped.
"And you never told me!" I said in shock.
"Well, I only got it at Christmas, and I really haven't used it yet, so I didn't really think it was that big of a deal, and-" James said hastily, but was cut off by Remus.
"Never mind all that! One of us, I'm assuming you James, because it's your cloak, must wear the cloak and sneak into the girl's dorm and steal a book on make-up, or whatever will have the spell in it. Then, you must come back here so we can, er, get clean," he declared.
And that's just what we did. Actually, Peter did it for us, because James was didn't want to go into ~THE GIRL'S DORM~, and he got a book for us. We found the spell, used it, and spent our remaining time finishing packing. It was almost time to go.
We go onto the train sighing. We were leaving; it was real. I couldn't believe I was going…..home. Now that I considered it, Hogwarts had become my home. I knew I would miss it.
Choosing a compartment as far from the Unicorns as possible (for we were now quite wary of them), we settled down and prepared for the places we had left behind.
Yeah, I know, wimpy ending AGAIN, but sorry! I can't think of anything else. Ok, you read it, now review it please!!!!! If enough people like it, I'll write the next chapter ASAP!!!! Also, if you want, you can email me at unicorn726@admin.balita.org but make sure that you make the subject "fanfic" (or at least include that in it). Thanks!!!!
~Tora Q.
Chapter 3
DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything here, because all of these characters belong to the people who created them!!!! All of this material is not mine, and I do not own it. (Well, except for the characters I created. I do own those.) Thank you!
Without the girls around, we had a terrific vacation. We were free to go into the common room whenever we wanted, without worrying that the Unicorns would be there. James was thrilled; he didn't have to worry about arguing with Lily.
We also had plenty of time to plan new pranks for the girls when they got back. All in all, we had a really great time during Christmas vacation.
My family sent me 10 galleons and a wizard camera so I could take pictures for them. James gave me a Zonko's All-Purpose Prankster's Kit, and I got him the same thing. (We were glad, because now we had double the prank-pulling materials.) Remus gave me a book called Quidditch Through the Ages (because I completely love quidditch) and I gave him a book on super spells for defense against the dark arts. (I know, it seems boring, but Defense Against the Dark Arts was his best subject, and he loved doing extra credit work. I figured this book could help him.) I got a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans from Peter, and gave him a bag of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
The rest of break was actually pretty uneventful. We played pranks on other Gryffindors and first-years from other houses, but they were all minor. Nobody seemed to mind too much other than one Slytherin and his pals.
This Slytherin was quite possibly the most disgusting wizard I had ever met. He had greasy, oily black hair, pale, waxy skin, and a nose that resembled a toucan's beak. His name was Severus Snape, and he was the leader of a group of Slytherin goons. (Now, THEY were goons. Like, their tricks were just plain mean. OURS, on the other hand, were playful. I think.)
From the moment I saw Snape at the Christmas Feast, I knew he was a perfect enemy, at least twice as good of a target as the Unicorns. While James, Remus, and Peter pigged out, I took a few moments to measure him up. He was busy eating and talking to his friends, so at first he didn't notice me. But then, James noticed how quiet I was and said, "Sirius? You okay, buddy?"
Snape looked at us and noticed me looking at him. He glared at me, and I glared back. After another minute, he turned away. I grinned wickedly and glanced at James.
"He is going down," I whispered.
And, as I said, we did get him. Well, actually we ourselves didn't, but, rather, were the ones responsible for him being gotten. In truth, our prank wasn't all that brilliant. It was meant to be something stupid, but luckily, got taken quite seriously be a certain someone……
You see, all we did was write a message on Snape's back. Okay, so we did it with spit balls during breakfast one day, but still…it wasn't a big deal. We did it more to amuse ourselves, for it was incredibly hilarious to see little white dots stick to his robes. Then, Peter (can you believe it?) came up with the idea to write a message with them. We had Remus do it, because he was the best aim, and he knew how to use his wand to guide them.
After about an hour, Severus had "drive me crazy" written on his back. It really wasn't a horrible thing, it just made us suffocate with laughter whenever we saw it. (Fortunately, none of his friends saw it, and the only people who did didn't tell him.) Now, the best part came when Snape went into the hall to go to Potions.
You see, there is a poltergeist at Hogwarts. His name is Peeves, and he loves havoc and chaos more than anything. And when he saw the words on Snape's back, he went absolutely all out.
Peeves did everything possible to harass Severus. He threw things at him, dropped things on him, made up uproarious rhymes about him (and chanted them ceaselessly), and did all sorts of other things. It was hysterical; Remus actually said that Peeves was almost a better annoyer than me and James. (James whacked him one for that, but then Remus reminded him that he had said ALMOST.)
Snape was furious, which only made him look funnier, but he didn't know that we did it. (He was remarkably thick for someone who knew more advanced curses than our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.) So, we let him be (for the time being). The rest of our break passed uneventfully.
When it was over back, and the Unicorns returned, life reverted to the way it was before they had left. We (meaning the girls and our group) had developed such an enmity that the teachers noticed and tried to get us to get along. It didn't work, of course. We went about our pranks as before.
Actually, I must say, I think Remus was occasionally nice to them. Sometimes, we would catch him talking civilly to them. They appeared to be polite back, so we didn't go over and harass them. But we did harass Remus a bit. (Well, wouldn't you?)
The end of the year approached quickly. All of a sudden, it was the end of the year, and we had to actually STUDY. There were end-of-year exams, of course, and our group actually didn't want to fail them. We took a bit of time off pranks especially for the occasion.
Just a few days before the end-of-year feast, we decided to pull a grand finale trick on the Unicorns.
"It has to be something memorable," said Remus, actually getting in the spirit of prank pulling.
"Yeah, I mean, we wouldn't want them to forget us over the summer, now would we?" James said with a grin.
"Especially that Lily," murmured Peter, thinking about how she had humiliated him in Charms, his worst subject and her best. (Okay, what happened was we were learning how to do Cheering Charms, and Peter hadn't quite gotten the hang of it while Lily had. She told him what to do, but told him to wave his wand "extra-hard" at himself for good measure. Peter, being on the rather stupid side of dumb, did this, of course. The result was a ridiculously hyper Peter grinning and laughing for the next 2 classes, all the while cursing Lily between laughs.)
"So, what are we gonna do?" I asked. "I'm out of good ideas."
"Me too…." James frowned.
Remus was quiet for a moment. "Well, I'm not the one who told you this, but I heard that the Unicorns are planning on wearing matching hair ribbons to the feast. I dunno, but maybe you guys cant think of how to use that bit of info….." he trailed off.
James thought hard for a moment, as did I. (Well, as hard as I could, because James's face when thinking is REALLY funny.)
About ten seconds later, James yelled, "I got it!"
"What?" we asked as one.
"Well, don't you think frogs look absolutely great on lily pads?" James questioned with a wicked grin. We all exchanged glances, and soon, even Peter was wearing a smile similar to James's.
"Frogs on their hair……they'll SO love it!" I said with typical prankster sarcasm.
"Wait, we can't do just that. It's not really that much. I think we should change their pumpkin juice into swamp water, because won't the frogs need something to stay in once the girls throw them off their hair?" Peter suddenly voiced.
James and I looked at each other.
"Bloody brilliant, Pete!" I breathed.
"Yeah, it's perfect! I can't believe you got such a great idea!" James added.
"Now, to find a spell that can do that," Remus said, pulling out his Transfiguration book.
James, being best a Transfiguration, studied the spells we had found until it was time to do them. Testing it for quite possibly the 38th time on my quill and ink, he leaned back and grinned.
"Well, Siri, I can do it. Let's just hope it goes as well tomorrow," he sighed to me.
"Don't worry James, you can do it. Now, just change it back please, because I really need to finish my History of Magic homework," I replied.
The next day, we were hyper with nervousness. James had his wand at the ready, and we were sitting in the common room, waiting for the girls to go past us. (We wanted to do it from behind them.)
After what seemed like an hour, they came down, each wearing the expected matching ribbon. We smiled (as innocently as possible) at them as they passed.
"Well, what are you gonna do to us today?" said Rika cheerfully.
"Probably turn us into bats," said Juniper with a sarcastic giggle.
"Well, then we could fly better, and I could beat Josh at quidditch!" piped up Quinn enthusiastically.
"Oh, girls, we'd never do anything to you," said Remus, winningly polite.
Lily glared at me and James. "Remus, I could believe you, but I don't trust those two," she said.
"Hey, we are right here, you know," James objected. "We have feelings too."
"Yeah, just because we aren't girls….."I started.
"Doesn't mean that we can be stupid too," Peter finished.
"NO," James said quickly, glaring at Peter who then shrunk away. "It doesn't mean that we can't be nice for a change."
All four girls just looked at us.
"Excuse me, do you think we've already forgotten Christmas?" said Rika.
"And Halloween," added Juniper.
"And your year-round jerkishness," put in Quinn.
"Why would this be any different?" interrogated Lily. We looked at each other, then at Remus, who seemed to have a way with the girls more so than us.
"Um, well….uh, since it's the end of the year, we, uh….think that it would, be, uh, good to, uh, be nice to you four?" he tried.
They exchanged glances. I knew they didn't buy it.
"You guys are so obviously up to something," started Lily.
"And we know it for sure, so don't deny it," continued Juniper.
"But we've got something of our own up our sleeve," resumed Quinn.
"So bring it on," finished Rika with a grin almost as wicked as mine. I caught her eye and stuck out my tongue. She rolled her eyes, and said, "I just hope it's not as immature as you all are."
"Hey! I resent that," I yelled at her.
"Siri, she was being sarcastic," Remus pointed out.
"Yeah, well, her sarcasm bites like a Cornish pixie," I retorted. The girls snorted with laughter at us (or at least me) and with that, they left the common room. After a minute, we got up and followed them.
James, our Transfiguration expert, was to do the dirty work. He brought his wand and held it under his robes as we walked. Just as they were about to enter the Grand Hall, he whipped it out and muttered, "Chamelo Toadiliaos!" while pointing it at each girl's hair ribbon.
Within seconds, each of the Unicorns had a fat, warty brown toad perched on her ponytail. (In truth, the toads actually reminded me of my brother Warren's best friend Vernon, only smaller and better looking.) It took a moment for the girls to realize what had happened. They kept on chatting until they sat down, whereupon Quinn felt a difference in the weight of what was on her head.
"Hey, June, is my……." she started to say, but trailed off at the sight of Juniper's toad. "Oh………my……..god……."she said faintly.
"What?" asked Juniper quizzically. At that moment, Lily and Rika turned to look at Juniper's hair too.
Lily shrieked. "BLOODY HELL IT'S A FROG GET IT AWAY FROM ME!!!!!!!!!!!!"
She then attempted to jump out of her seat and make a run for it, but Rika held her back and screamed, "Lily, stop! You've got one in your hair too!!!!!!"
After that, total chaos ensued. The girls, after realizing that they had TOADS in their hair (toads, Lils, not frogs), began shrieking and pawing like rabid cats at their hair. We were on the floor with laughter, as was at least ¼ of the other students. Everyone was laughing, save the Unicorns. While they were busy getting the toads out (which took a while because they were in such panic), James ran to the table and transfigured their pumpkin juice into swamp water.
Once the toads were all out (and had unnoticeably hopped into the fresh swamp water), the girls, now a rather interesting shade of furious red, glared at us.
"If we didn't have a little prank of our own all set, I would kill you right here and now," hissed Rika through clenched teeth. She glared at me with her bizarre black eyes, and I was once again reminded of her secret. But, once again, I didn't have too much time to think about it.
Professor Dumbledore entered the Grand Hall and we scrambled for our seats. By this time, order had more or less been restored to the Hall, and we all sat up to listen. (We were located as far away from the Unicorns.) He gave a closing speech and announced the winner of the House Cup, who was, much to our disappointment, Slytherin. (I think our group's huge loss of points may have had something to do with the fact that we were in third place.)
At any rate, we had a great time at the feast. The food was better than usual, if that was at all possible, and we talked about everything that had happened during the year. I gathered last looks of everyone, from a quiet Gryffindor girl (also in our year but not one of the Unicorns – she had her own group) named Joanne Rowling to a loud, rambunctious Slytherin seventh-year named Larsen Malfoy. (Incidentally, Larsen had a younger brother named Lucius who was a prefect in Arthur's year.) We were having such a good time that we didn't even notice that the girls had gone back to the common room before us. (Hey, we didn't even get to see their reaction to the swamp water!) But, at that time, we didn't really care.
So, about an hour and a half later, we went back to the dorms, happy, full, and pleased with the outcome of our final (for the year) prank. Walking into our room, I let out a huge sigh. James, however, let out a huge burp.
"Eeewwww…….that was gross, James," remarked Remus, wrinkling his nose.
"Yeah, well, I ate a lot," James shrugged,
"We noticed," muttered Peter.
Sniffing the air, I commented, "Geez, James, WHAT did you eat? It smells like perfume in here!"
"Gross perfume, too," added Peter.
"Hey, that's not me! I swear!" James said innocently (this time, it was sincere innocence).
"Ooooohhhhh, this must be that prank that the girls were talking about," groaned Remus.
"I don't know…..it's kinda stupid, even for the girls," said Peter slowly.
"It's more than stupid, it's pathetic…but what do you expect? The Unicorns aren't exactly first-class pranksters, like us," James said.
I frowned. "You know, Rika seemed pretty pissed at us for the toads. I don't think they'd let that go this easily."
"Well, nothing else is happening," Peter said after a moment.
"Let's just get on with our business, and…..**yawn**…….worry when something happens," James said, sounding tired. Actually, now that I thought about it, I was tired too.
I looked at Remus and Peter, and they yawned too. "Guys, let's go to bed," Peter said after a huge yawn.
"But it's still early……oh well, I guess I'm tired too," James said. So, changing into our pajamas, we got into bed and slept.
I don't know how long we slept, but it was noon when we awoke. The smell of rotten perfume was gone, and the day seemed perfect. We didn't have classes, because we were leaving later that afternoon, so I just lay there for a minute, thinking about my year.
After a while, I heard the other guys waking up. I sat up and looked over at James. This time, it was my jaw that dropped in horror. He was busy rubbing his eyes, so at first he didn't notice.
"Siri, what are you gaping at?" he said when he first looked at me. Then, he said slowly, "Those girls…..it's bloody brilliant….."
"What are you talking about? LOOK AT YOURSELF!" I started to yell, shock gaining control over me.
"What, me? Look at YOU!!" he replied, laughing. I heard Peter and Remus laugh too, and looked over at them.
After about half an hour of pure pandemonium, the four of us realized that we were all covered in heavy layers of witch make-up. And, to add to this new knowledge, we knew (coming from wizarding families) that witch make-up doesn't come off unless you use a spell on it. Another great thing we found out was that absolutely none of us knew that spell.
"James, you should know it, doesn't your mum use make-up?" I asked pleadingly.
"Well yeah, but I never listen to her when she takes it off! I mean, your mum does too, Sirius, so do YOU know the spell?" James retorted in frustration.
"URGH, I cannot BELIEVE they did this to ME!" yelled Remus from the other side of the room. Actually, they had been rather nice to him (compared to us). He only had a light layer of blue eyeshadow, gold mascara, and plain red lipstick. (In case you're wondering, which you must be, Peter had on vivid orange eyeshadow, bright pink blush, thick black mascara, and neon purple lipstick. James was wearing dark red blush, silver mascara, lime green eyeshadow, and deep blue lipstick. I was decorated with shiny magenta eyeshadow, mocha-brown blush, turquoise mascara, and white lipstick. All 3 of us were covered in a generous layer of body glitter.)
We spent the next 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do. None of us had any books that could help, and none of us would dare to venture out and ask a girl for help.
Finally, James twitched. I knew that twitch; it was what James Potter did when he knew what to do but didn't know if he should do it.
"James, spill," I said in a no-nonsense voice that I would normally never use. (Okay, it REALLY wasn't like me, but this was an extreme situation!)
At this, he looked at me a bit nervously and said, "I, uh, think I have something that can help us." Remus and Peter instantly appeared at our side.
"Well, James, my best friend! TELL ALL," said Remus.
"And quickly! I can't stand this……stuff…..for too much longer!" Peter said, sounding as if he very much would have liked to call it something else, but was too scared to use the word.
"Well, I have….an…..invisibility cloak," said James haltingly. We gasped.
"And you never told me!" I said in shock.
"Well, I only got it at Christmas, and I really haven't used it yet, so I didn't really think it was that big of a deal, and-" James said hastily, but was cut off by Remus.
"Never mind all that! One of us, I'm assuming you James, because it's your cloak, must wear the cloak and sneak into the girl's dorm and steal a book on make-up, or whatever will have the spell in it. Then, you must come back here so we can, er, get clean," he declared.
And that's just what we did. Actually, Peter did it for us, because James was didn't want to go into ~THE GIRL'S DORM~, and he got a book for us. We found the spell, used it, and spent our remaining time finishing packing. It was almost time to go.
We go onto the train sighing. We were leaving; it was real. I couldn't believe I was going…..home. Now that I considered it, Hogwarts had become my home. I knew I would miss it.
Choosing a compartment as far from the Unicorns as possible (for we were now quite wary of them), we settled down and prepared for the places we had left behind.
Yeah, I know, wimpy ending AGAIN, but sorry! I can't think of anything else. Ok, you read it, now review it please!!!!! If enough people like it, I'll write the next chapter ASAP!!!! Also, if you want, you can email me at unicorn726@admin.balita.org but make sure that you make the subject "fanfic" (or at least include that in it). Thanks!!!!
~Tora Q.