AzureLuna – She isn't a Mary-Sue, but I do agree. Blame Corey – he threatened to kill me! There have been hints, if you look real carefully, and I'm gonna put in some more. I forgot about Draco's looks! I'd better not do anything to Lucius' hair, just in case you're right. Yeah, anyways, Iris ain't a Mary-Sue; cos she's Lily's best friend, and we all know Lily wouldn't be mates with a Mary-Sue. So, not a Mary-Sue, just stealing Sirius away from Remmie. Thanks for reviewing. Are you new? I don't remember seeing your name b4… if so, Hi!
FawkesnFlame and Mooney – right, only one… it was the 'and' that confused me… Sorry about the name, its just that Topaz was the only name that no-one had a real problem about, 'cos someone said they hated Nyoka 'cos it's a brand name or something, and someone else said please don't make it Kalahari, so that left Topaz. Anyway, that's the reason, folks! Thanks for the review.
Ze Czech – glad ur happy! Thanks for reviewing! Do you have any idea's for animals??
Padfootsgurl4eva – writers block sucks, don't it? Hope you get over it soon, and I loved your idea! EVERYBODY! THE WAKE PETER UP WITH ICY WATER IDEA BELONGED TO PADFOOTSGURL4EVA AND SHE GETS FULL CREDIT!!!! There you go! *g* thanks for the review! As for a stag, I think that's too obvious. Harry isn't much like his Dad, he's much nicer, and has been abused more… ooh! I need more ideas!
Heather – glad u liked the cookie! Write stuff down when you think of it, otherwise you forget. I've forgotten half of my ideas for stories, because they've occurred to me when I had no way of writing them down! Poptarts are yummy, aren't they? Thanks for the review!
. – thanks… I think.
oOtrueOo – thanks! Glad you liked it!
Alecatq – Iris is just Lily's best friend… she's Katie Bell's Aunt, and her surname is also Bell. I've made that up on the spot, but it sounds ok, so that's the way it is. ^_^. It would be cool if we could change into animals… what would you be? I'd be a panther, or a snow tiger.
Not-Harry-Potter – I've been around the Grand Canyon – from San Francisco to Zion natl park, to Bryce Canyon to the Grand Canyon to Dan Diego with my Step-Mum, Dad and Step-Sister, (Olivia – if you ever read this, thank you for the life-size cardboard cut-out of Legolas!). Thanks for the review, I think you are the person I argue with most over this story, which is probably good, cos I get a better idea of exactly what I want. What thing about Ice Blade???
StarWars-Freak – nice idea, but too many questions, and Harry's gonna take no time at all, remember? He can spend as much time as he like in the past, because he can travel back to the exact time he left!
Hersheyhugs – I'm trying to write longer ones, honest! Its just that there are so many good cliffhangers to stop at! Thankyou for the review, and I know longer chapters are better to build off of, also, I suspect that if I get into the habit of writing long chapters, it'll stick. That's what I'm hoping anyway! Thankyou again.
Ms halley bom-bally – sorry, read the rest and you'll see… we were outvoted by the slash haters. *makes a face* I hope you people appreciate how hard it is for me to write this!! Thanks for the review anyway. Oh, and read the 5th book. Harry does see the Marauders, although its quite different.
Dweem-Angel – I have an idea for the animal, but I have to get permission from another author, because I read this really cool story of hers which gave me the idea. Glad you like the story!
IceBlade740 – woah, what a review! Sorry if you don't like Iris, and she does seem to be getting through the marauders doesn't she? At least she has more taste than to go out with Peter. I love the idea of sticking something up Snap's arse. Lol. Thanks for the Japanese lesson! I really wish I could make this story yaoi, but I have a feeling the het lovers here will hate me if I do that. We can imagine that Sirius is only dating Iris because if he doesn't, people will think its odd that such a gorgeous guy doesn't have a date, and he's secretly shagging Remus. Ok? At least, that's what I'm doing… Most of my other stories are yaoi or yuri, so check them out if you like slash!
I'm so happy! So may people like this story! Its quite depressing how many hate Iris though… come on, she's Lily's best friend! Here's how I see the whole 'dating most of the marauders thing': she's Lily's best mate, and she would've hung around with the Marauders a lot. It makes sense that she would've been invited on a few dates with them. Say James was trying to make Lily jealous, he'd ask Iris to go on a date with him, so Lily would see what she was missing. Using the same theory, if Iris was trying to make Sirius notice her, she'd as Remus on a date, so that Sirius could see what he was missing. Get what I'm saying? Anyway… on with the story…
The idea for Harry's animagus form belongs to Prongs1 and is used here with permission.
As soon as they were in the dorm, Sirius dived under James' bed and began throwing books out. There was soon a sizeable heap piled in the middle of the room, which James began to sort through.
"This one was useless… useless…. Bad… oh, this one was good… ok…. Hopeless…. Ah! Here we go!"
He handed three books to Harry, and kicked the rest back under the bed. "You know, Prongs," Sirius commented "we really should get some of these back to the library. We have about a hundred stores under our beds, someone's going to notice something soon."
"We can do that next holidays. There's less people around then," James replied absently, flicking through one of the books.
Harry sat on Remus' bed, and looked at the group. Sirius and James, normally all smiles and jokes, were serious when they were motivated. Becoming animagi at 15 must be a record achievement. Remus, the quiet one, was sitting cross-legged with his nose in a large book. Peter was looking over some papers with Lily, from the look of it they were notes that James and Sirius had taken while studying to become animagi. Iris was no-where to be seen. The group seemed to know what had to be done, and they worked together as a team. Harry wished that the team was still together in his time, Voldemort wouldn't stand a chance with all four of the marauders, plus Lily and Iris still together.
Just then Iris came in with a tray full of food. "There's only 20 minutes left of lunch, and from the look of the picnic, you didn't get to eat much. Come on Mooney; take your nose out of the book. You study so much, you're soon going to need glasses like Prongs!" Her joking lightened the atmosphere as everyone but James and Remus laughed.
They ate quickly, joking and mock insulting each other. They made Harry tell them some things about the future, and teased Wormtail, who was still terrified of Topaz.
"Hey, what animal do you want to be?" Lily asked Harry.
"Do you get to choose?"
"Sort of. You choose some of the characteristics, but not the actual animal. You do a spell to see what animal you will ultimately be." Sirius said with his mouth full. He swallowed before he carried on; "We'll do that spell this evening; its easy, and start your training tomorrow.
Just then the bell rang, and there was a flurry as the two girls rushed to their own dorm to get their books, and the boys ran around, searching for their bags. James handed Harry a book, and told him to follow them to class.
The afternoon passed uneventfully. Peter managed to put itching powder on Snape's chair in History of Magic, and actually managed to make old Prof. Binns look up, a rare occurrence. Harry wasn't surprised; he was sure the scream could be heard in Hogsmede! James managed to make Crabbe and Goyle's potion explode in their faces in potions, causing 20 points to be taken from Slytherin. A usual school afternoon.
At dinner, Harry walked over to the Slytherin table in the cloak, and filled their soup with extra hot curry powder, as well as slathering the pork with extra hot mustard. He quickly jogged back to the Gryffindor table, and passed James' knife back to him. It had been hard to get the mustard spread evenly under the cloak, but he had managed. The screams echoed around the hall a few minutes later, and Lucius Malfoy was covered in pumpkin juice as he tried to pour the entire pitcher into his open mouth to cool his burning tongue.
After dinner, still giggling, they retreated to an empty classroom to perform the charm on Harry. First Remus conjured a gilt edged mirror – "Woah Mooney, we could've used your help last time! This is a much better mirror than the one we conjured!" - and then the other three wove their wands over it in a complicated pattern. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. When they were done, they turned to Harry grinning widely.
"Easier the second time," James commented.
"Ok, Harry, step up to the mirror, and tell us what you see," Sirius instructed, winking at him.
The first thing Harry saw was a jungle. Tall trees hung with vines dominated the landscape. The air was heavy with moisture, it dripped off the bright green leaves of the climbing plants and gathered in the bright flowers. Brightly colored insects darted everywhere, making the air hum. The floor was covered in rotting debris, and Harry could see an army of soldier ants marching across the leaves and around the twigs. In the middle of this scene, Harry saw a large, black, jaguar sitting proudly, grooming its sleek coat with its pink tongue. The animal looked up at Harry with emerald green eyes, shook it's thick fur and stood. It padded gracefully towards the speechless boy, and stood in front of him, staring into his eyes. After a minute it inclined its head and Harry reached forward to touch the black silky fur…
But his fingers met the cool glass. All at once, the image of the magnificent cat faded, and the classroom reappeared. Harry felt dizzy, and he reeled back against James.
"What did you see?" Lily asked, breaking the silence.
"A black Jaguar."
Short, I know. But it's such a good place to stop. I've got a bit of a block about this story, it's getting really hard to write, especially since it has no slash. Should be ending in the next five chapters or so. I'll try to make the next chapter longer, and I'm going back and changing a few things in the first chapters. Nothing major, a little bird pointed out that as Authur has older kids, he would be quite a bit older than James & co. Stuff like that.