Disclaimer: Don't own a thing.
Chapter 2: What now?
Sirius growled and held the girl at arm's length away from him but Lily still managed to reach over and pull his hair. "Stop it!!" He hissed and tried to pry her hands off his silk hair only to get her more wound up in it. Sirius wanted to just drop her and force her to let go. The moment he did, however, she clutched her arms tightly around his neck and refused to let go. He groaned and looked at James. "This is completely unfair. Why isn't she doing this to you?"
James casually ran a hand through his hair and smirked, "My good looks blind her. She can't lay a finger on me."
Sirius rolled his eyes and once again attempted to detach himself from the clinging girl. Lily's arms had become limp and she was slowly sliding down Sirius's body. Sirius caught her before she went any lower and was about to tell her off until he noticed that the bright emerald orbs were no long looking back at him. Lily was asleep.
Sirius sighed. This has gone on waaay too long.
When they finally reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, Sirius hid Lily underneath his school cloak. He told her the password, and before they had walked through, the Fat Lady laughed and said, "Sneaking in food from the kitchens again, are we?" Sirius looked confused for a split second and then his face broke into a dazzling smile.
"Yea, we are. You won't tell, would you, darling?" Sirius winked. The Fat Lady giggled and shook her head.
"Thank you so, so much, milady." James bowed to her and blew her a kiss. The Fat Lady blushed and motioned for them to go as she disappeared from her portrait.
James and Sirius poked their heads into their dorm. They could faintly make out Peter turning in his bed, mumbling softly - probably another nightmare. James walked in and tossed his Invisibility Cloak in his trunk. He stripped down to his boxers as he walked over to the head of his bed. Before he could get in, Sirius made a little noise that called for attention. He was pointedly gesturing to the little bundle that he had.
"Oh, her…" James scratched his head.
"Yes, her," Sirius whispered. He tugged a little and she stirred. "What am I supposed to do with her?"
"How am I supposed to know? You got yourself into this, get yourself out."
"Me?! You're equally responsible." Their voices were above a whisper and rising.
"What?! How am I equally responsible?"
"She's your lover."
"Yeesh! You wanted to test out the powder and now we have. It worked. Good job. Maybe we'll go get some more the next time we're in Diagon Alley, but right now, I'd like to get some sleep. She can sleep with me tonight but tomor-"
"Mmph…" Lily was rubbing her eyes and she yawned. She blinked and looked back and forth from the two boys. Then she tapped her chin. "I forgot to brush my teeth!" she stated happily.
The two stared at her and Sirius let her down. Lily looked around, taking in all that she saw in the moonlight. This new place was very messy, with scattered clothing every where. There only seemed to be one fairly clean corner over at one of the beds, but right now she couldn't care less.
"Where's the bathroom?"
Lily came out of the bathroom, teeth brushed, face washed, bladder emptied, and hands scrubbed. She found it hard to walk properly without tripping over her new clothes. Sirius had given her one of James's t-shirts and a pair of his own boxers. She looked around and wondered where she would sleep. Surely the boys that saved her life would not want her to sleep on the floor, although the piles of clothing looked rather comfy.
Carefully and quietly, Lily went over to the closest bed. She saw a patch of messy light hair and lifted the blankets a smidge. A small framed boy slept in this one. He gave a great turn. Lily jumped back and ran to the next one. On her way, she tripped and head butted the person in bed. She blinked and rubbed her head. Whose back was that? Sirius! Reaching over, she gave a gentle tug of his hair. Sirius turned to face her as he readjusted his pillow. He smiled a little and messed up her hair. Then he pointed to the bed by the window. Lily smiled widely.
Stumbling over, the little girl dove under the fluffy covers and breathed in deeply. It smelled really nice. Squirming, she turned to the other person in the bed. James's back was facing her and she had to poke him to get his attention. It appeared that he had already fallen asleep in the short period of time when she was in the bathroom. He rolled over and rubbed his eyes. Lily stretched out her arms and James took this as a sign of wanting to be hugged. Little or not, acknowledged or not, he loved this girl. James chuckled softly. He took her in and told her to go to sleep.
The next morning dawned very bright and frosty. An irritated Remus turned in bed to avoid the streak of weak sunlight that crept in from the space between his hangings. He tried to bury himself deeper into the warmth of his blankets, but despite how tired and emotionally drained he felt, his animal instincts told him to get up as usual. He heard the water run in the bathroom, which surprised him since he was always the first one up. Not thinking too much about it, he got up and walked sleepily towards it.
The door open and Remus found himself face to face with....nothing. He felt something brush past his leg and when he looked down he saw a bundle of red and black. Groggily, he walked into the bathroom and began to wash his face. Half way between brushing his teeth, he quickly spat out the foam, and jerked his head above the sink. He rinsed out his mouth. Frowning, he stepped out of the bathroom.
"Hey guys, have you seen –"
Remus felt his jaw go slack. What the heck is a little girl doing jumping on James's bed? James's arm was out in the air trying to swat the girl away, but the girl caught it and kept jumping while swinging the arm up and down. Finally, James gave in and sat up. He looked around and his eyes fell on Remus.
"Oh....hey Remus....up already?" James yawned hugely and scratched his head.
"What's the girl doing in here?" Remus had a finger pointed at the little girl. His eyes were narrowed with suspicion.
"Oh, this? She's...she's my...that is to say...uh..." James blinked at his words.
What was he supposed to say? Remus had already told them he disapproved of the powder the night before and said that if he ever caught them using it, he'd turn them in for sure. Why Remus was so serious over a little bit of powder when all their other pranks were huge by comparison was beyond him. Perspiration gathered on James's forehead. Remus raised an eye brow and their eyes met. Then James knew that he knew.
"James, please don't tell me-"
"Remus, it's not-"
Sirius chose that exact moment to wake up. He bounded out of bed and stretched. Then he looked around and wondered why it was so quiet. Remus was staring at little Lily and James was looking quite distressed. Almost immediately, Sirius understood the situation. Clapping his hand on Remus's shoulder he said in a cheery voice,
"Hey, Remus, mate, have you met my cousin? Cute, isn't she?"
The tension in the air seemed to have evaporated. Remus gave a small smile and went over to Lily. Sirius, seeing nothing was remotely wrong anymore, headed for the bathroom. At first Lily shrank away from Remus's touch, but he had an air about him that told her everything was alright with him. He caught her little hands and spoke softly to her, "Sirius's cousin, huh? What's your name?"
Before James could clamp a hand over Lily's mouth, the words fell from her lips.
"Lily Evans." James gave up. He groaned and smashed his face into his pillow. It was definitely way too early for such a predicament.
Remus smiled then and took Lily into his arms. He turned to James, who was peeking at him from his pillow. Remus had a strangely calm expression and simply said, "I'm taking her to Dumbledore."
He headed for the door with Lily silently in his arms. She was afraid she had done something wrong. James had been so quiet and now he sat numbly in bed staring after them. She looked at him for reassurance, but their eyes never met. Lily looked up at the boy carrying her. This Remus person was very nice, yes, but it was also something about him that frightened her to good behavior.
James only needed a second to regain his senses. Angrily, he sprang off his bed.
"What the heck are you doing?!" James took Remus's shoulder and whirled him around. He was surprised to see Remus's face contorted with equal frustration and rage. It startled him to realization to just how serious Remus was. James lifted his hand and whispered with slight concern, fear and confusion, "What is it?"
"You guys did this to her without thinking of the consequences. Have you ever thought that you might not be able to turn her back?"
"What? What do you mean? Of course we can turn her back...the stuff's supposed to wear off, right?" James was getting irritated. Where was this leading to again?
"How am I supposed to know?! It's not like I bought it."
"Relax! What's the big deal? It's only a joke," James retorted.
"It's not a joke. Doing this on other people's expense is wrong." Remus glared at him.
"But last night, you made it out as if it was a normal thing. Besides the over exaggerated warning, everything was normal! I thought we could count on you to tell us if something was the matter!" James threw up his hands and made big gestures. His face was red and, without his glasses, he looked slightly wilder than usual.
"I so happen to know that if possible, reverting her back to her normal state will be very difficult! And WHAT was last night, anyway? I thought I could count on both of you! Did either of you happen to look up at the sky last night?! It was a full moon, damnit! And you weren't there! Oh, but I guess that doesn't matter now, does it? And that's because none of you ever listen to me anyway!" Remus broke the surface of the shouting level.
Peter stirred in bed at the sudden added volume in the room. He groaned and disappeared further into his bed. He had a rough night and he so wanted to have more sleep. What a racket, he thought.
James's eyes bulged. He didn't mean to forget.
"Remus, I swear...we didn't mean to…" James couldn't finish. He hung his head. How can so many things go wrong in one night? It was the first time in his life that he missed the transformation for any other reason besides Head Boy duty or detention and even then Sirius and Peter were with Remus.
Seeing Remus now, he felt horribly guilty. How angry and lonely Remus must've felt, he couldn't imagine. James and Sirius had been too excited about the new powder they had gotten at a gypsy's booth in Diagon Alley. They had the easiest, simplest, and perfect plan. He hadn't bothered to stop and think what day it was. In fact, he didn't even remember telling Remus they would be out doing some marauding that night.
"Doesn't matter, James...we can't do anything about that anymore. But this, we can."
"No...No, we can't...I-we can fix it...don't go to Dumbledore."
"Grown Down Gleam is illegal, James. It's worse than Obliviating someone," Remus said quietly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked. He glanced up to see if Remus would answer. But when he looked up, he found that Remus had already taken off. Cursing, he ran out the door. He scrambled back a minute later, picked up a pair of pants from the floor and mad-dashed for Dumbledore's office again.
Thanks to:
Demoness Mark: I'm glad you liked it! Quoting my profile, are we? Ha ha, I really think and I probably will improve. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. Thank you~
Emma Halliwell: If I didn't put a cliffhanger, you wouldn't have wanted to read on as much, now would you? Thanks for reviewing!
Empress Guinevere Sparrow: Wow, long name you've got there. Thank you for saying I have great potential, but I still think I'm pretty average. I'm glad I captured the character's spirits right. I hope you didn't have to wait too long for this chapter. Thank you!
frozenwithin: You sense greatness coming? Why, thanks!! I'm glad you like my writing style, hope I haven't kept you waiting for too long. Thank you very much for reviewing.
HarryGryffinGirl: Haha, it's really not that bad for Lily. At least she won't get in trouble for any of this. Thanks for reviewing~
Jediknickers: Well, chapter 2 is up now, so you're stuck waiting for chapter 3! Thanks for saying I'm great and all, but really, c'mon you guys, I'm not that great...haha
JerseyGirl03: Glad you like the plot! I really hope this was soon enough for you. I'll try and update faster. Thanks!
Jupiter-jazz: Yep, it's cute! Did you like this chapter?
little-lost-one: Thanks, I'll really work on making this even better.
magnetic-starfish: Thank you for your compliments! Well, that was chapter 2! Get ready for chapter 3~
Ms. James Potter: Thank you so much!
MWPP: Yep! Lily's gotta watch out, alright. Thanks for reviewing!
nikki: I should and I will! Thanks!
Sharon H: Thanks, bud! I love Sirius too!! XD I'll write as long as you read!
Rowlingfan1: Soon is always too soon for me. Haha, I'll try my best. Thank you!
wordwiz8121: Cliffhangers do suck...
zel: Lazy bum. If you're tired, then don't read it! Haha, thanks for trying to stay awake through this anyway.
Thank you to all those who read and reviewed and even those who read but didn't review. I really had to sit down, think, and write this one because no brainstorms seem to want to hit me this time. I'm sorry if it was a long wait. I hope you enjoyed my efforts.