AN – continuation (some parts) of MLPP, u don't need 2 read that coz it's long…but I'd be really grateful if u do…
Title: Complications
Summary: if ur not illiterate then u must know already -_-
Rating: PG 13
Dedication: To Dianne, who died at the age of 12 on April 19, 2002 because she was too nice for this earth, to Alwyn, who is the best friend anybody could have, and to Steffi, coz even if we haven't kept in touch for years and there's a big chance that she won't get to read this, she'll always be a true friend to me. (There…now enough sap coz I am not…)
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all recognizable stuff in this story belong to JK Rowling, Warner Bros, Scholastic Inc., the other publisher that I don't know the name of (sorry) and whoever else has the right to it. The plot and additional characters, spells and places are mine.
AN again – I just put that to make my fic look longer lol ^_^; review after u read plz…
Chapter 1: Of Bickerings and Banter
BANG! BANG! (no this is not a gun^_^;) The constant thrashing on the door jolted Lily Evans out of bed.
"WAKE UP, FREAK!!!" Petunia's voice shouted through two inches of solid wood. With no response, she started knocking hard on the door again.
"GET—OUT—OF—BED—YOU—DOZING—DUMMY!!!" her sister yelled again, banging the door with each word uttered. Downstairs Lily heard the faint voice of their mother shouting, "Petunia Evans, do not use that language with your sister!" Lily could make out the muttered curses Petunia swore under her breath.
She smirked, knowing that her 'normal' sister always got reprimanded by their parents for speaking to Lily in harsh terms. It was what made her hate Lily in the first place…no, wait—being a witch was the first.
Hauling herself off the bed, she looked at the clock. 8:30. Time to prepare for her first day back to school.
"FREA—LILY!!! WAKE UP!!! OPEN THIS DOOR!!!"
Sighing, Lily opened her closet doors and started to get dressed. "Why don't you kick it open, horse face?" she yelled back over her sister's persistent pounding and shouting.
"MUM! LILY CALLED ME A HORSE FACE!!!" Petunia's footsteps reverberated through the narrow hall as she left her post outside Lily's door.
Lily opened her bedroom door just as Petunia went downstairs to their mum. She shrugged and followed her sister's path slowly.
"'Morning, mum," Lily greeted as she entered the dining room.
Her mother smiled, turning away from her pan at the stove. "Good morning, dear," she replied. "Your father left for work already, and I'll have to take you to the station. Want to come, Petunia?" she asked her other daughter.
Petunia was scowling. She probably was because their mum didn't call Lily on her name-calling. When Petunia was the one who talked rudely to Lily, she got an earful every single time. When Lily was the one who insulted her, she got away with everything… "No, I don't," she said stiffly.
Mrs. Evans shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said, turning around again to flip her pancakes.
"Oh, mother, why don't we let Petunia come along? I'm sure she doesn't have anything else to do, and a trip out of the house would be good for her," Lily said, her voice oozing with sweetness.
"Well then…if you want her to come along so badly… Petunia, get dressed. You're coming with us," Mrs. Evans confirmed.
Petunia glared at Lily. Lily knew that Petunia never wanted to go anywhere that Lily was going, even more so at the station where there were a lot of 'her kind' parading around with owls and black cats and gigantic trunks. It bothered Petunia even more that she was being forced into this against her own will, all because their mother favored Lily's decisions more than hers.
Lily smirked at her sister before their mother laid fresh pancakes and a bottle of maple syrup in front of them. Yep, she was definitely going to miss her summer routine…especially the part when she got to pick on Petunia without expecting punishment.
***
The trip to the station was quiet, except for the brief moment where Lily and her mum chatted about the school curriculum (something which she knew Petunia would keep silent about) and the subjects she dropped since it was going to get more hectic with her O.W.L.'s coming up. When they reached King's Cross, the three Evanses walked (with Petunia sulking all the way) to the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Mrs. Evans hugged Lily.
"Take care, dear," was all she said, patting her daughter on the back.
"Yeah, bye mum, bye Petunia," Lily said too, peering over her mum's shoulder at her sister and smirking.
"Petunia? Aren't you going to say goodbye to your sister?" Mrs. Evans scolded.
Petunia scowled. "Good-bye," she said, rather forcefully. Under her breath she muttered, "And good riddance."
"Petunia."
"Sorry, mum." Petunia scowled again.
"Lil!"
Lily turned around to see who was calling her. A raven-haired boy with dark blue eyes (so dark they were almost black) was waving to her. She smiled and waved back.
Sirius ran over and gave her a light punch on the shoulder. "Hey Evans, why didn't you come to our annual meeting?" he asked her, looking slightly accusatory.
Lily laughed. "Sorry, but we had family plans. Where are the others?"
Sirius gestured at the crowd. "Got held up somewhere out there. Hey Mrs. E." His eyes fell on Petunia, whom he hadn't met yet since she always refused to accompany Lily to the station.
"Oh yeah, Siri, this is my sister Petunia, sis, this is Sirius Black," Lily said offhandedly.
Petunia took Sirius' outstretched hand and shook it, staring at him with interest. Just like all girls, she seemed to be taken with Sirius' good looks.
Sirius flashed her a smile, his brilliantly white teeth showing. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Um, you too," Petunia said, blushing. Lily smirked.
"Mum, we have to leave now," Lily informed their mother. "C'mon, Sirius, we better get to the compartment before the others bombard it with hexes to greet us—"
"Don't fret, Lily, only moi can come up with the perfect curses to welcome you to the Hogwarts Express, so you have nothing to worry about," Sirius said arrogantly.
Lily elbowed him. "Cocky as always, aren't you?" she said, rolling her eyes.
"Yes, I am," Sirius deadpanned. They started to make for the barrier, but all their friends suddenly burst out of the crowd.
"Lil! Long time no see!" Celeste Schoharie, one of Lily's best friends and a new addition to their group just last year, exclaimed.
"Same here," Lily said with a laugh.
"You gotta help me here. I've had no other girl to talk to at Sirius' house than her, and I'm positive that I'm going to go crazy if I ever hear the word 'fashion' again," Chase Tarlise, Celeste's twin sister and Sirius' ex (the twins have last names because of a long story that I'm too lazy to explain now) told her.
"I missed you guys," Lily said, looking at their other friends assembled: Remus Lupin, a werewolf but the most mature among them (Celeste's BF); James Potter, one of the ringleaders of their group (her BF) and Peter Pettigrew, the scaredy-cat and mama's boy among the marauders (no one's BF). All seven of them were the school's resident mischief-makers and prank aficionados.
Despite the adults' warnings that they should enter through the barrier in pairs, they all burst in at once (with token protests form Peter, who gave in anyway), much to the alarm of the Muggles and the annoyance of the wizard guards standing just inside the barrier. They got away from an earful of disciplinary antics because the guards had to burst out and wipe the memories of the Muggles who had seen them.
Boarding the Hogwarts Express at last, they settled into their compartment and waited for the train to leave.
"Gods, it's too early, we have thirty minutes before the train moves," Celeste said with a sigh.
"Ah, don't worry about her, she's just upset because her lack of beauty sleep gave her eye bags," Chase whispered to Lily, who chuckled. Celeste glared at Chase and kicked her shin.
"Ow! Why you vicious, overly-makeup-dosed miserable excuse for a twin sister! What the hell did you do that for?" Chase snapped at her, rubbing her tender shin where Celeste's three-inch heel had collided with.
"I do not have bags under my eyes!" Celeste cried, but despite her proclamation she extracted a hand mirror from her trunk and inspected her face anyway.
Chase snickered. "Prissy hypocritical freak."
"I'm not a freak!"
"OK guys, will you stop bickering already? We haven't even reached Hogwarts yet and you two are already on the point of spitting flames," Remus broke in, being a peacemaker as always.
"Chase, you are so insensitive," Celeste said haughtily before staring out the window, her only other option during discussions where she came off worse.
"Thanks, it's what I do," Chase replied with a sardonic smile.
"So…what did you guys do at Sirius' house for the past week?" Lily said quickly, hoping to change the subject.
Sirius' eyes immediately brightened. "Oh, that! Wait'll you see all the new potions we invented after using up the remaining ingredients left over from our Potions homework! We know how to bottle undetectable spells now! We also—"
"Sirius, quit babbling. You sound like an idiot," James spoke up.
Sirius glared at him. "Hey, she was asking us something. It's called a detailed response. Look it up."
"Okay. Does anybody have a dictionary?" James called to them with a smirk.
"What else did you do?" Lily prompted.
This time it was Remus who answered. "Traditionally, planned new pranks. There isn't really much interesting to tell, except the part where James, Sirius and Peter can now transform into animals at will."
Lily gasped. "What? Since when? Why didn't anybody tell me?" she demanded.
"Calm down, they only got it right two days ago. We figured that we could just tell you now, since we would be meeting, anyway." Chase was polishing the handle of her broom to pass the time. (She was one of Gryffindor's Chasers.)
"Yo Padfoot, there's no 'detailed response' listed here!" James called, waving a Webster's Dictionary over his head.
Sirius groaned. "That was a sarcastic response, you nitwit. You didn't have to—"
"Ah, here's one! Detailed – adjective; having many details or facts; showing attention to detail. Response – noun; a verbal or written answer."
"That's two not one," Chase said. Sirius shook his head in James' direction.
"But you taught them, right? How else could they learn it so fast?" Lily asked Chase eagerly, ignoring Sirius and James. Everyone in the room knew that Chase was also an Animagus and that she had been taught to be so by one of the seven Animagi at that century (not McGonagall -_-).
"Yep, a little, I guess…" Chase said, shrugging her shoulders before focusing her attention on her broomstick again.
"Let's see!" Lily said.
"What, you want me to transform in here?! Do you have any idea how large a stag is?" James asked her.
"Fine, Peter, then."
Peter looked a little nervous. "Shouldn't we close the curtains and check if there's anybody outside looking in first?" he suggested apprehensively.
"Oh, sure," said James, who did just that in a flash. "The coast is clear," he announced after sticking his head out of the compartment door.
"Okay," Peter squeaked with a gulp, and in a moment, he had transformed into a white rat on the seat.
"I'm surprised his Animagus form isn't a cat or a chicken," Sirius said offhandedly. James gave him a glare. He was the one who usually shielded Peter from all of Sirius' not-too-friendly remarks about him.
Lily clapped as Peter transformed back into a fifteen-year-old boy. "Wow, Pete. I have to say, I'm impressed that you could learn the transformation so quickly."
"Thanks," Peter answered, his ears going red.
"He needed all the help he could get," Sirius said. "Wanna see my transformation, Lil?"
"Can you fit in here if you transform, Sirius?" Remus said doubtfully. "I mean, you're hardly any smaller than James when you transform…"
"Don't worry about it. Lily wants to see—"
"A living Grim in our compartment," James finished with a laugh.
"Very funny. You sure go out of your way not to act like a best friend, don't you?" Sirius said with a scowl.
"Well, why don't we test it? I'll pretend that you're my pet, and we'll parade around the train and count the people who don't faint at the sight of you—"
"Shut up already, I'm going to transform now," Sirius announced. Where he stood a while ago was the hulking mass of a bear-sized black dog.
"Why should we call you Padfoot? Grim would be better," James insisted.
"Moony, Wormtail, Grim and Prongs?" Remus said quizzically, taking out the Marauder's Map that they had made last year.
"Hey, how come we're not included in the title?" Lily demanded, snatching the parchment from Remus. "We contributed a lot there, you know."
"But you're not Animagi," Sirius pointed out.
"I am," Chase said.
"Oh yeah." Sirius said sheepishly.
"You're still an Animagus illegally, Chase," Celeste reminded.
"And so? Look at the three people in front of you! Besides, what am I going to tell them if I register? 'Hi, my name's Chase Tarlise, and I've been meaning to register since I was ten years old, but I didn't because I wanted to visit my sister at her house without my dad knowing. Yeah, and he's also the Head of the Department of Mysteries, and he'd kill me if he knew that his own daughter didn't abide in the law for almost five years.'" Chase scoffed.
"What about Jamie, Pete and Siri? 'We'd like to register. Why? Well, we decided to become Animagi because one of our friends is a werewolf and we'd like to keep him company whenever there's a full moon and he might be lonely,'" Lily jumped in and rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Celes, you just can't explain some things to authority figures. There are just some things that are better kept to yourself."
"Fine, fine, I'm always the wrong one, aren't I? Since when did pointing out the right thing to do become a crime?" Celeste grumbled.
Sirius gave her a smug grin. "Since you joined our gang. If you oppose, then maybe it would be better if you revoke your membership," he said mock-seriously.
Celeste slumped against her chair. "I'm not leaving," Celeste mumbled.
"It was just a joke, Celes," Sirius told her.
The train started to move.
"Finally," Lily said with a sigh of relief.
"I'm hungry!" Sirius announced.
"You're always hungry, you bottomless pit," Remus chuckled.
"Can I go to the front to the lady with the food cart even if it isn't lunch yet?"
"Nah, she wouldn't. She knows very well that all her wares could be gone in a blimp if you're the customer. Haven't you noticed that for the past three years, she's been going to our compartment last when she's selling candy? In our first year, you almost cleaned her out." James opened the curtains that had been neglected for the past thirty minutes.
The trip back to school wasn't as typical as usual, for one, Snape and his gang didn't infiltrate their compartment once (perhaps they had had enough of being mutilated every new start of the school year), and it was uneventfully quiet before lunch. When the witch with the tea cart arrived, Sirius jumped up eagerly and bought two of everything. As he opened a bag of Every Flavor Beans, the others were sorely reminded of the "game" they had played last year, where the one who ate the most decent-flavored beans would win. Peter still got urges to vomit everytime he saw a jellybean. (he was the one who suggested the game and got the least number of good beans: 2)
"Are you alright, Pete?" Remus asked concernedly, watching his suddenly pale-faced friend.
Peter gulped before turning away from a gray jellybean that Sirius popped into his mouth. "No, I'm OK," he gasped.
"If you say so," Remus said with a shrug. "Hey, Sirius, give me one of those." He reached into the bag of beans in Sirius' outstretched hand and picked a blue one. The blue ones were the only safe beans since they almost always turned out to be blueberry. On the occasion that this wasn't so, however, the manufacturers must have just colored other flavors artificially blue as a little trick to innocent consumers.
"Me too," Chase said, extracting a handful of beans from the pack. She had won the bean game last year, with 24 good beans out of thirty. As Lily said at some point of their four-year friendship, she was "always the lucky one." Lily's prediction was right.
"I can't see how you guys can still eat that after the game we played last year," Lily said queasily. The memory of the taste of the "cockroach guts" bean (as she commonly referred to it) still stayed vividly on her tongue.
"You're just saying that because you're the third loser to the game," Sirius told her.
"Yeah, but I don't understand why you, the second loser next to Pete, are still eating those things," responded Lily.
"At least I've got the courage to eat it again instead of moping around saying 'Woe is me, I have forbidden myself from eating Every Flavor Beans because I fear that I might come across a shit-flavored one—'"
"Here Sirius," Chase said, handing him a golden-brown bean.
"Thanks," Sirius said, popping it into his mouth and almost simultaneously spitting it out. "Shit! What flavor is this?!"
"Exactly," Chase responded, smirking.
Sirius blushed slightly, noting the effect she still had on him even after months of separation. "What do you mean?"
"It's shit flavor, dummy," Lily said, rolling her eyes. "And they call you smart."
"Tut, tut, Lil, envy is a deadly sin," Sirius preached.
Lily's eyes widened. "Omigod Sirius, I didn't know you're Catholic."
"I am not Catholic, you take that back Lily Evans—"
"Then how come you know the seven deadly sins?"
"What the hell are you blubbering about, I don't know what that is, but if there is one thing I understand, you're the one who's Catholic."
"No, I'm not! Witches aren't Catholic, Sirius!"
"Then so are wizards, you dolt! Honestly, Lily, I think you're just jealous of people who have more intellectual capacity than yourself, say, moi—"
"Ha, you, intelligent? Compared to who? Avery?" Lily sneered.
Sirius threw his wand at her and it hit her on her forehead. Lily retaliated by throwing it back, but it made for Chase in a rain of sparks, who dodged it instantly.
"Obviously you lack proper Quidditch skills as well," Sirius snickered.
"And how is that?" Lily asked, crossing her arms defiantly.
"Well, for one, you couldn't dodge a wand when you know it's coming at you, let alone a Bludger, and two, you don't know how to aim, and if you were a Chaser then you'd be a sorry addition to the team," Sirius honestly replied.
Lily sighed. "How girls still cling to you after knowing that you're such a jerk is beyond me," she mumbled.
"Will you guys just quit it? You two sound like an old married couple," Chase groaned.
Both Sirius and Lily turned their heads at her, Lily with a glare, Sirius with a funny expression that none of them could decipher. "What did you say?!!!" Lily said in a steely voice.
"I was only joking, Lil. Do you have PMS right now, by any chance?"
Chase had to transform into a phoenix and fly away from her seat to dodge the hex that Lily hurled at her. The place she previously occupied now grew scales and a long, fork-shaped tongue.
The phoenix turned back into a girl in the middle of the compartment. Chase adopted a fake disappointed expression. "Aw, Lil, you shouldn't have. Believe me, Celeste would be the one who'd look much better as a boa constrictor. See, she always was addicted to snakeskin shoes and bags—" Celeste gave her twin a look that would probably have melted iron.
Lily laughed and put her wand back into her robes. Soon, the sky became darker and the train slowed down, stopping at Hogsmeade station. The students poured out of the train and fought over horseless carriages, since usually the last few ran out and they were forced to walk to Hogwarts a long way. As usual, the first years were led by the gamekeeper to the lake (Ogg was replaced by Hagrid, who had been his assistant ever since Hagrid was expelled in his third year). The seven of them couldn't fit in just one carriage, so amid the confusion and chatter of impatient others behind them, Lily, Remus, Celeste and Peter were pushed into one carriage while Sirius, James and Chase were left with the next.
Sirius and James laughed and joked as they waited for the carriages to take them to the castle. Chase, on the other hand, was reading a newspaper clipping that was in her pocket.
James was slapping Sirius on the back when he noticed Chase skimming through the article. "Hey, what's that you have there, Chase?"
Sirius focused his attention on the clipping too. "That's the one about the descendant of Grindelwald, the Dark wizard that Dumbledore defeated a long time ago. I think his name started with a D or something that sounded like it…"
"Demertyon," Chase supplied. "He blew up a lesser wizarding school just a few weeks ago. It says here that the students are supposed to transfer to Hogwarts while theirs is being rebuilt."
"Did they catch him yet?" James asked, a worried expression on his face.
Chase shrugged. "Dunno. Dad says the Ministry's going haywire though, because of covering up all the deaths he caused. He's not something we could worry about much, though, none of the Dark wizards ever dare to come near Hogwarts. I think it's because Dumbledore's there, and since he was the one who defeated Grindelwald…"
"Demertyon wouldn't want to attack the school in a hurry," James finished. "That's probably it."
The carriage came to a stop and they jumped outside on the damp grass. Hundreds of black-clad people were swarming the entrance doors already, waiting for it to open.
The group of seven hurriedly slipped into the Great Hall to keep from being squashed to a pulp by the other students. All the professors were already there, as well as a few more unfamiliar ones—probably teachers from the other school.
As all the students (except the first years) were assembled into the Hall, Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat; a mere gesture that made all of them fall silent in an instant.
"Welcome to another year at Hogwarts," Dumbledore started, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. "Another year to complicate your minds with endless spells, magical history and other facts of the wizarding world that you surely wouldn't want after the long summer holidays you spent leaking them out of your heads—" The whole Hall echoed with the sound of moans and groans— "But still, we should be grateful, very grateful, that we are still here today. We are extremely lucky that Hogwarts isn't the next target of any Dark wizards or groups, or so I hope…" A few students started to look nervous at his pronouncement.
"On a less depressing note, we have here today our guests for the whole school year. I do hope that you will make them feel welcome to Hogwarts, as much as they would have done for us too had we been the ones in trouble. Everyone, I would like you all to meet—"
There was a sudden shuffling at the entrance to the Hall, and about two hundred witches and wizards, all donned in bright blue robes and hats, appeared. Some Hogwarts students stood up to look at them. The students outside the Hall were looking apprehensive.
And Dumbledore continued, "—the students of the Zynergrand Academy."
*****
AN – I know, the first chap doesn't seem like much but I promise it will get better…besides, this is just the introduction, what'd u expect… Review pleeeeaaaaase, so that I would be happy and be inspired to write more and put up the next chapter. If u don't, then…