Summary: Lily/James set in 5th Year. When Lily has and idea that means she and Callie can help her cousin, what does it matter that it's not allowed? And after all, she knows James is doing the same thing…
Disclaimer: no Harry Potter characters were harmed in the writing of this fic. They will be returned to JK Rowling safely.
Chapter 2: Same old, Same old.
James woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. He groaned and clutched at his head. An answering groan came from Sirius' four-poster bed.
James started to laugh, but this caused the pain in his head to double, so he stopped quickly. He yanked back the hangings and staggered to the bathroom. He filled the sink with cold water and dunked his head into it several times.
The thumping in his head subsided slightly. Until someone started banging on the bathroom door.
"Is that you James?" Peter called through the door.
James groaned in reply, pulling the plug from the sink and pushing open the door. Peter laughed as he watched James stagger back towards his bed.
"Oh shut up!" James snapped irritably.
Remus drew back his hangings, and grinned as James tugged his robes on clumsily.
"It is really not that funny," James grumbled as he tried to force his head through the left sleeve.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
When they had finally dragged Sirius out of bed, and Peter had given James and Sirius some muggle headache tablets, the four boys joined Lily and Callie for breakfast.
"I didn't know you could get that drunk on Butterbeer," Lily observed, looking at James and Sirius.
"You can't ," Remus replied in a wry voice.
"Unless someone has added liberal amounts of Ogdens Old Fire Whisky to it!" Peter finished, laughing.
"Tell the whole school why don't you Peter!" James threw a bread roll at him.
"And it really isn't that funny! We're not that hungover!" Sirius grumbled, missing his glass and pouring pumpkin juice all over his lap.
Everyone burst into laughter again as Sirius muttered under his breath and mopped the pumpkin juice up with a napkin.
"At least you didn't miss the post!" Callie said, pointing as the flocks of owls poured into the hall, letters and packages clamped in their beaks.
" Unfortunately we didn't miss the new timetables either!" Sirius moaned, passing them round.
"Bad luck you two!" Lily laughed, looking at James and Sirius, "First is double Transfiguration with McGonagall!"
Sirius spat his mouthful of pumpkin juice all over Peter, and James let his head fall into his porridge.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Sirius Black!" Professor McGonagall said sharply.
"Yes Professor?" Sirius replied innocently, stuffing a rat into his pocket.
"Mr Black, were you listening when I explained the combination of wrist flicks and the words of the spell?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.
"Why, of course Professor!" Sirius answered, wide eyed.
"Then why is it, Mr Black, that, instead of transfiguring your cheese into a rat, you have transfigured Peter into a rat?" she pointed at his wriggling pocket.
Sirius sighed and withdrew the rat.
McGonagall muttered a few words, and Peter reappeared, very disgruntled.
"Trust you Sirius!" he said, rolling his eyes.
Professor McGonagall tried to get the class to settle down, but no one could hear her over the laughter. James watched as her mouth set into a thin line.
"Hey Remus!" James nudged his friend, "How about trying your 'condom' method?"
"I'm sure McGonagall would appreciate that!" Remus replied sarcastically.
He waited for James' usual witty comeback, but it didn't come. James was staring at Peter, a thoughtful look on his face. Remus was curious as to what James was finding so interesting, but Professor McGonagall had finally regained control of the class.
"Really!" she said angrily, her mouth remaining a very thin line, "I am disgusted. Do you really want me to take points from Gryffindor on your first day?"
As everyone sat in silence, trying to appear sorry, Remus noticed that the look on Lily's face mirrored the look on James's.
But before Remus had time to figure out why Lily and James were both looking at Peter so excitedly, the class were drawing out their wands once again, and getting back to work.
Remus shook his head and watched as James waved his wand and muttered "(cheese to rat, in Latin,)". Their piece of cheese grew a tail and grew into a sleek black rat.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The rest of the day passed uneventful…apart from Peter melting Snape's cauldron in Potions, Sirius setting a baby chimera on Professor Kettleburn in Care of Magical Creatures, and Professor Binns getting Callie's name right for the first time in five years in History of Magic.
The first chance Remus got to question James's behaviour was at dinner. Lily and Callie had gone to sit with Domenica and Lilah, so the four boys had taken seats away from everyone else.
"So James," Remus said casually, spooning mashed potato onto his plate, "may I ask what was making you look like you were actually thinking in Transfiguration?"
James grinned.
"I object to that!" he said, feigning indignation.
"Don't avoid the question Jamie!" Sirius reprimanded, wagging his finger.
"I'll tell you later," James said, his voice lowered.
Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged looks of surprise, but decided to wait until later to find out what scheme James was cooking up now.
Meanwhile, Domenica and Lily were watching Callie and Lilah construct a sculpture of Dumbledore out of mashed potatoes, peas and bits of shepherds pie.
"And to finish it off…" Lilah picked up her goblet, and placed it atop the sculpture of Dumbledore with flourish.
"A hat" she finished, grinning at her friends.
"Hang on!" Callie grabbed the food figurine to stop it toppling over.
"Ow!" Domenica's hand flew to her cheek as the sculpture toppled over anyway and the base of the goblet hit her cheek with an audible smack.
Calllie glanced at the teachers' table to see if anyone had noticed, but they were all preoccupied with the toad that Sirius had apparently fed dungbombs to.
"Nica, are you alright?" Lily asked, studying the red mark on Domenica's cheekbone.
Domenica waved her wand over the peas on her plate.
"Glaceato!"
She wrapped the now frozen peas in her napkin and pressed them to her cheek.
"Yeah, fine," she replied, grinning.
"Sorry!" Lilah and Callie apologized, indicating the fallen sculpture. Domenica waved a hand to show it wasn't their fault.
Lily suddenly burst into giggled.
"What?" Callie asked, suspiciously.
Lily pointed at Callie's lap.
"Oh help!" Callie squealed as she saw the food from the sculpture all over her lap.
Domenica and Lilah burst into laughter, and the napkin fell from Domenica's cheek.
Callie snatched up a napkin and tried to dry her robes with it.
"Oh!" she cried, throwing the napkin down on the table.
Her friends collapsed into laughter. Callie had picked up Domenica's napkin. The peas had fallen out when Domenica dropped it, but as the peas had melted, the water had seeped through the napkin…and through Callie's robes.
"It's cold!" she gasped, fumbling for a dry napkin, and glaring at her friends.
In doing so, she knocked over Lilah's goblet of pumpkin juice.
"Oh my god!" Callie couldn't help giggling as the pumpkin juice dripped steadily onto her robes.
"C'mon!" Lily and Domenica grabbed each of her arms, and they all charged out of the hall, giggling.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Peter watched as James paced up and down in front of him, until he could stand it no longer.
"James!" he yelled impatiently.
"Shut up Peter!" Sirius hissed.
"Sorry!" Peter retorted in an undertone, "but we've been sitting here for hours, waiting for everyone to go to bed, so James will tell us his great idea, and now he won't!"
"He will! This just isn't something he can say in front of anyone except us!" Sirius said quietly.
"Hang on!" Peter said, realization dawning upon him, "You already know!"
He turned accusingly to James.
"Keep your hair on Peter!" James said, "You fell asleep while me and Sirius were playing exploding snap with Lily and Callie, so when they went to bed, I told Remus and Sirius. You snore by the way. Loudly."
"Told them what?!" Peter yelled.
"Peter, if you don't shut up, the whole of Gryffindor will come back down, and then you'll never know!" Sirius hissed in irritation.
Peter sat down sulkily.
"Right," James began to explain, "it was Sirius turning you into a rat that gave me the idea."
"And…?" Peter prompted.
"And, I think we should become animagi."
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haha! What do you think? Sorry it took so long to update…but I had some trouble emailing it to my computer…cos I wrote it on my mum's.
anyway, hopefully it was worth the wait?!!
Thank you to all my reviewers, and if you like this chapter, please tell me!
Once again, thank you to Glumfrog: my editor.
*^_^*
Poogle