AN: *Dreams about owning the Harry Potter Corporation and rolling around in
all the money. Then is suddenly jearked back to reality with a harsh bump.*
CHAPTER FIVE: OF GOATS AND GHOSTS
Lily walked down the stairs, finally remembering the bag she had dropped. It was getting late, and the idea of all her schoolwork at the mercy of the marauders. . .she hated to think what would happen.
She quickly forgot her bag when she saw Alice. One moment she was waving her arms around and ranting, the next Frank was. . .kissing her! Laughing, Lily skipped down the stairs, her hair bouncing behind her. She wasn't tired anymore. Alice blushed furiously while Frank asked her to go out with him.
"Will you, Alice?"
"After that! Why, I-I-"
"Oh! I'm sorry, it's just I had to get you to shut up." He laughed nervously. Alice smiled.
"No! Of course I'll go out with you."
Lily laughed again, sticking her head between the two.
"Finally! You have no idea how long I have been waiting!" Frank jumped and Alice clutched her heart.
"Lily! Some privacy, please!"
"If you want some privacy then don't start snogging in the middle of the common room!"
Frank stood up, proffering his hand to Alice.
"Then shall we go?" Alice took his hand.
"Of course. Oh! I found out where the kitchen is! Want to go?" said Alice.
"Sounds good to me!" The two ran off, leaving Lily, smiling slightly, to gather her things. Unfortunately, her bag seemed to be alluding her. After searching for 10 minutes, she sighed and sat in a chair. Already the common room was empty, leaving her without help.
"Why is it so hard to find a ruddy bag!" she muttered. She stood up and even looked under the cushions, but for naught. At that moment a completely wiped out, windswept James staggered in holding his broom. He looked at Lily and almost smiled, but the events of the day were still too clear in his mind. She didn't seem to notice him as she looked around the common room busily, searching for something. He sighed. He didn't feel like arguing with her now, but he couldn't just let her search the common room high and low without help either. Maybe if he helped her that nagging guilt would go away. . .
"Hi, Lily."
Lily dropped the cushion and turned.
"Oh! James." She said, looking surprisingly flustered. She shook her head and looked under another cushion.
"What are looking for?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, just my bag."
"You mean this one?" he nudged a large bag sitting beside him in a corner. Laughing nervously, she nodded and picked it up.
"Uh, thanks."
"No problem." James and Lily stared at each other for a moment, Lily wincing at the bruises again and James simply studying her. She became uncomfortable under his gaze and turned away, about to go upstairs.
He suddenly spoke up. "Listen, Lily, I need to talk to you."
"Well that's no surprise. There aren't any jinxes involved, are there?" he smiled lightly and spun the broom in his hands.
"No, I just wanted to tell you that. . .whatever I did this morning, I-I'm sorry. Even though I don't know what it is, I'm sure I was being a bigheaded jerk and deserved to be hit."
Lily stared. What the heck was James doing?
"What?"
"I said I'm sorry?"
"Oh." Lily was in shock. She nodded dazedly and turned away again. James ran a hand through his hair frustratedly.
"Well aren't you going to apologize to me!?"
"WHAT! Why should I apologize to you, Potter!"
"Because I just apologized for something I didn't do, and you actually hit me! TWICE! Not to mention I have a permanent limp!" he said, and threw his hands in the air.
"I'm going to bed." Said Lily. She walked up the stairs without looking back.
"Lily!" James looked at her face when the stairs turned. She looked like a deer in the headlights. Her eyes were wide and focused on the air, and her bag had flung itself over her shoulder mechanically.
"Goodnight!" he called after her. He blinked, and a rush of exhaustion came back to him. He barely made it to his bed before falling asleep.
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Lily stared at the top of her canopy. Why did Potter always have to confuse things? One minute she's ecstatic over Alice and Frank, the next she is afraid she might have lost all her school things, the next JAMES POTTER is apologizing! She didn't think he could ever find it in himself to say sorry.
"Why? Why why why Potter?" she whispered furiously to the air.
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The next morning, Lily woke up feeling strangely refreshed. James Potter woke up feeling confused. Both went down to breakfast, walking as far apart from each other as possible.
Lily plopped down in her chair next to Alice.
"Not sitting with Frank this morning, I see." Laughed Lily
Alice gave her an uncharacteristically solemn look. "Frank and I are arguing."
"What! Why?" Lily asked, taking a muffing.
Alice said, "Because we haven't had one yet!" as though it were obvious.
"Oh...well what are you arguing over?"
"Answer me this: which is better: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans or Chocolate Frogs?"
"Chocolate Frogs."
"Exactly. Of course, Frank being the stubborn male that he is, he thinks that Bertie Botts Beans are better."
"Alice you get stranger every day." Lily informed her.
"But it's chocolate!"
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the morning post. A large screech owl dropped Lily's copy of the Daily Prophet on her plate. She unrolled it and scanned the headlines.
"Alice! Look at this!" exclaimed Lily.
"Wha-" Alice asked through a mouthful of food.
"Listen to this!
Aberforth Dumbledore Charged with Practicing Inappropriate Charms on a Goat
"What?!" Alice laughed.
"Aberforth Dumbledore, brother of Albus Dumbledore, was charged yesterday for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat." Lily read.
"...A goat. That's.... just..." Alice began.
"Odd?" Their friend Dorcas Meadows suggested.
"Wrong?" Lily added.
" No....hilarious!" Alice started to giggle.
"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore likes his name getting mixed up in all of that." Dorcas added.
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"Wonder why it's a goat?" Sirius asked as he read the paper over Remus' shoulder. "I mean if I were going to practice inappropriate charms on an animal. I wouldn't pick a goat."
"What would you pick? A dog?" laughed James.
"No!" Sirius glared at James indignantly. "Probably a rodent or something."
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed. The other three laughed at the affronted look on his face.
"Nah, not a rat. Maybe a squirrel!"
"Oh that's much better than a goat." Remus said sarcastically. "I can see the headlines now...Sirius Black prosecuted for Practicing Inappropriate Charms on a Squirrel!"
While walking to their first class of the day, they proceeded to read the article substituting Aberforth with Sirius and goat with squirrel.
Professor Burle the Potions master (and head of Slytherin house) was an old man with powder white hair and a mean disposition. He was the terror of all first years, for he hated all students, except for the ones in his own house. He had a special hatred for the marauders, who enjoyed disrupting his class on a regular basis.
"Today you will be working on the hair growth formula." He said, and then coughed loudly.
"He's probably going to use the good stuff on himself." Sirius snickered.
"10 pts from Gryffindor, Black!" Burle barked. "And do not let me hear you again!"
"Yes Professor Hurle."
"What was that Black?!"
"I didn't say anything Professor."
Burle eyed him a suspiciously, then returned to his lecture on hair growth formulas.
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"I can't believe it! Two Rolls of parchment on a hair growth formula, it impossible!" Alice whined as the entered history.
"He wouldn't have given so much if they hadn't made Snipe's cauldron explode!" Lily said angrily, sending James and Sirius scathing looks as she took her seat.
"It was great though wasn't it?" Frank asked excitedly.
"Great? What was so great about it?" Lily said, her voice rising.
Alice shook her head warningly at Frank.
"Nothing...nothing at all."
Lily listen to Alice continue on about the potions paper, occasionally shooting Potter dark looks.
" I wonder where Professor Binns is." She said after a few minutes. "He's not normally late."
"Why are you worried? The later the better in my opinion." said Frank.
Lily shrugged, glancing at her watch. Soon ten minutes had gone by and Binns and not shown up. Sirius and James had begun to amuse themselves by bouncing wads of paper off the back of the Hufflepuff's heads.
"I'm going to find out where he is," Lily said. "Before things get out of hand." But at that moment, attracted no doubt by the unusual level of noise coming form their room, Professor Lott poked her head in.
"What's going on here?" she asked sharply. "Where is the Professor?"
"He hasn't shown up yet, Professor." Said Remus.
"Hmmm. . .I'll go see where he is." She said. "Until I get back I want you all in your seats and quiet. Am I understood?" the students nodded and started talking again.
Rolling her eyes, Laura Lott whisked down the corridor towards the staff's lounge. She walked in and saw Binns slumped in a chair, his drink tipped and spilling drop by drop onto the carpet.
"Really, if the minister knew what went on around here . . ." she smiled icily at the thought of a strictly-kept Hogwarts, and walked up to the aged professor.
"Binns! Get up, it's time for you to go to class!"
He didn't stir.
"Binns! Get up! What kind of teacher are you!" she said angrily.
Suddenly, a pearly white figure rose from the chair and looked at Lott. Her eyes widened in horror, looking from the slumped form of Binns empty body to the semi-transparent ghost hovering in front of her.
"Oh . . .must've dozed off." He said in his same dry, wheezy voice, floating past her through the door. She stood for a moment in shock, before racing off to alert the other teachers.
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The class sat in their seats murmuring to each other and hoping that Lott didn't return. Out of the blue, a pearly white ghost floated right through the chalkboard. A Hufflepuff girl gave a shrill scream, and Peter slipped sideways off his chair. Binns ghost did not seem to notice any of this, and he started his usual droning lecture that normally put the entire class to sleep.
"Wow." Whispered Sirius. "Lott must've been so angry she did him in. You know how she is about people shirking their duties."
"Yeah." James whispered back. "That or he just plain keeled over. Poor old geezer."
The class stared in wonder as Binn's ghost drove its way through a slew of notes, until fifteen minutes when the class abruptly ended.
After being dismissed, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs ran to lunch, eager to recount the event to the rest of the school.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHP AN: This was a fun chapter to write! I love Aberforth. Hope you enjoyed!
The Ever Popular Thank yous:
GNA Sis: *falls asleep amid reading your lengthy reviews* hahaha Just Kidding. You know we love you really mary sue!
The Lost Guava: You like me you really like me! . . .*GNA smacks GNL* Hehehe sorry!
Child-of-Scorpio- Well....they sort of made up....kind of....
J.E.A.R.K. (Erin) Potter- Hehehe I agree ....DIE UMBRIDGE!
Morph- Oh good! *Dumps whole truck load of guavas off at Morph's house*
krw313 - Okay...so there was no shoulder sobbing....but there was apologizing...and goat charms.... Oh...and a guava for you! Elspeth Renee- Thank you for the review! Have a complimentary guava! Dreamzer- We are honored to hold your attention for so long. Thank you for the review and have a complementary guava to hold your attention for approximatly 5.987260236402602 seconds!
CHAPTER FIVE: OF GOATS AND GHOSTS
Lily walked down the stairs, finally remembering the bag she had dropped. It was getting late, and the idea of all her schoolwork at the mercy of the marauders. . .she hated to think what would happen.
She quickly forgot her bag when she saw Alice. One moment she was waving her arms around and ranting, the next Frank was. . .kissing her! Laughing, Lily skipped down the stairs, her hair bouncing behind her. She wasn't tired anymore. Alice blushed furiously while Frank asked her to go out with him.
"Will you, Alice?"
"After that! Why, I-I-"
"Oh! I'm sorry, it's just I had to get you to shut up." He laughed nervously. Alice smiled.
"No! Of course I'll go out with you."
Lily laughed again, sticking her head between the two.
"Finally! You have no idea how long I have been waiting!" Frank jumped and Alice clutched her heart.
"Lily! Some privacy, please!"
"If you want some privacy then don't start snogging in the middle of the common room!"
Frank stood up, proffering his hand to Alice.
"Then shall we go?" Alice took his hand.
"Of course. Oh! I found out where the kitchen is! Want to go?" said Alice.
"Sounds good to me!" The two ran off, leaving Lily, smiling slightly, to gather her things. Unfortunately, her bag seemed to be alluding her. After searching for 10 minutes, she sighed and sat in a chair. Already the common room was empty, leaving her without help.
"Why is it so hard to find a ruddy bag!" she muttered. She stood up and even looked under the cushions, but for naught. At that moment a completely wiped out, windswept James staggered in holding his broom. He looked at Lily and almost smiled, but the events of the day were still too clear in his mind. She didn't seem to notice him as she looked around the common room busily, searching for something. He sighed. He didn't feel like arguing with her now, but he couldn't just let her search the common room high and low without help either. Maybe if he helped her that nagging guilt would go away. . .
"Hi, Lily."
Lily dropped the cushion and turned.
"Oh! James." She said, looking surprisingly flustered. She shook her head and looked under another cushion.
"What are looking for?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, just my bag."
"You mean this one?" he nudged a large bag sitting beside him in a corner. Laughing nervously, she nodded and picked it up.
"Uh, thanks."
"No problem." James and Lily stared at each other for a moment, Lily wincing at the bruises again and James simply studying her. She became uncomfortable under his gaze and turned away, about to go upstairs.
He suddenly spoke up. "Listen, Lily, I need to talk to you."
"Well that's no surprise. There aren't any jinxes involved, are there?" he smiled lightly and spun the broom in his hands.
"No, I just wanted to tell you that. . .whatever I did this morning, I-I'm sorry. Even though I don't know what it is, I'm sure I was being a bigheaded jerk and deserved to be hit."
Lily stared. What the heck was James doing?
"What?"
"I said I'm sorry?"
"Oh." Lily was in shock. She nodded dazedly and turned away again. James ran a hand through his hair frustratedly.
"Well aren't you going to apologize to me!?"
"WHAT! Why should I apologize to you, Potter!"
"Because I just apologized for something I didn't do, and you actually hit me! TWICE! Not to mention I have a permanent limp!" he said, and threw his hands in the air.
"I'm going to bed." Said Lily. She walked up the stairs without looking back.
"Lily!" James looked at her face when the stairs turned. She looked like a deer in the headlights. Her eyes were wide and focused on the air, and her bag had flung itself over her shoulder mechanically.
"Goodnight!" he called after her. He blinked, and a rush of exhaustion came back to him. He barely made it to his bed before falling asleep.
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Lily stared at the top of her canopy. Why did Potter always have to confuse things? One minute she's ecstatic over Alice and Frank, the next she is afraid she might have lost all her school things, the next JAMES POTTER is apologizing! She didn't think he could ever find it in himself to say sorry.
"Why? Why why why Potter?" she whispered furiously to the air.
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The next morning, Lily woke up feeling strangely refreshed. James Potter woke up feeling confused. Both went down to breakfast, walking as far apart from each other as possible.
Lily plopped down in her chair next to Alice.
"Not sitting with Frank this morning, I see." Laughed Lily
Alice gave her an uncharacteristically solemn look. "Frank and I are arguing."
"What! Why?" Lily asked, taking a muffing.
Alice said, "Because we haven't had one yet!" as though it were obvious.
"Oh...well what are you arguing over?"
"Answer me this: which is better: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans or Chocolate Frogs?"
"Chocolate Frogs."
"Exactly. Of course, Frank being the stubborn male that he is, he thinks that Bertie Botts Beans are better."
"Alice you get stranger every day." Lily informed her.
"But it's chocolate!"
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the morning post. A large screech owl dropped Lily's copy of the Daily Prophet on her plate. She unrolled it and scanned the headlines.
"Alice! Look at this!" exclaimed Lily.
"Wha-" Alice asked through a mouthful of food.
"Listen to this!
Aberforth Dumbledore Charged with Practicing Inappropriate Charms on a Goat
"What?!" Alice laughed.
"Aberforth Dumbledore, brother of Albus Dumbledore, was charged yesterday for practicing inappropriate charms on a goat." Lily read.
"...A goat. That's.... just..." Alice began.
"Odd?" Their friend Dorcas Meadows suggested.
"Wrong?" Lily added.
" No....hilarious!" Alice started to giggle.
"I'm sure Professor Dumbledore likes his name getting mixed up in all of that." Dorcas added.
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"Wonder why it's a goat?" Sirius asked as he read the paper over Remus' shoulder. "I mean if I were going to practice inappropriate charms on an animal. I wouldn't pick a goat."
"What would you pick? A dog?" laughed James.
"No!" Sirius glared at James indignantly. "Probably a rodent or something."
"Hey!" Peter exclaimed. The other three laughed at the affronted look on his face.
"Nah, not a rat. Maybe a squirrel!"
"Oh that's much better than a goat." Remus said sarcastically. "I can see the headlines now...Sirius Black prosecuted for Practicing Inappropriate Charms on a Squirrel!"
While walking to their first class of the day, they proceeded to read the article substituting Aberforth with Sirius and goat with squirrel.
Professor Burle the Potions master (and head of Slytherin house) was an old man with powder white hair and a mean disposition. He was the terror of all first years, for he hated all students, except for the ones in his own house. He had a special hatred for the marauders, who enjoyed disrupting his class on a regular basis.
"Today you will be working on the hair growth formula." He said, and then coughed loudly.
"He's probably going to use the good stuff on himself." Sirius snickered.
"10 pts from Gryffindor, Black!" Burle barked. "And do not let me hear you again!"
"Yes Professor Hurle."
"What was that Black?!"
"I didn't say anything Professor."
Burle eyed him a suspiciously, then returned to his lecture on hair growth formulas.
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"I can't believe it! Two Rolls of parchment on a hair growth formula, it impossible!" Alice whined as the entered history.
"He wouldn't have given so much if they hadn't made Snipe's cauldron explode!" Lily said angrily, sending James and Sirius scathing looks as she took her seat.
"It was great though wasn't it?" Frank asked excitedly.
"Great? What was so great about it?" Lily said, her voice rising.
Alice shook her head warningly at Frank.
"Nothing...nothing at all."
Lily listen to Alice continue on about the potions paper, occasionally shooting Potter dark looks.
" I wonder where Professor Binns is." She said after a few minutes. "He's not normally late."
"Why are you worried? The later the better in my opinion." said Frank.
Lily shrugged, glancing at her watch. Soon ten minutes had gone by and Binns and not shown up. Sirius and James had begun to amuse themselves by bouncing wads of paper off the back of the Hufflepuff's heads.
"I'm going to find out where he is," Lily said. "Before things get out of hand." But at that moment, attracted no doubt by the unusual level of noise coming form their room, Professor Lott poked her head in.
"What's going on here?" she asked sharply. "Where is the Professor?"
"He hasn't shown up yet, Professor." Said Remus.
"Hmmm. . .I'll go see where he is." She said. "Until I get back I want you all in your seats and quiet. Am I understood?" the students nodded and started talking again.
Rolling her eyes, Laura Lott whisked down the corridor towards the staff's lounge. She walked in and saw Binns slumped in a chair, his drink tipped and spilling drop by drop onto the carpet.
"Really, if the minister knew what went on around here . . ." she smiled icily at the thought of a strictly-kept Hogwarts, and walked up to the aged professor.
"Binns! Get up, it's time for you to go to class!"
He didn't stir.
"Binns! Get up! What kind of teacher are you!" she said angrily.
Suddenly, a pearly white figure rose from the chair and looked at Lott. Her eyes widened in horror, looking from the slumped form of Binns empty body to the semi-transparent ghost hovering in front of her.
"Oh . . .must've dozed off." He said in his same dry, wheezy voice, floating past her through the door. She stood for a moment in shock, before racing off to alert the other teachers.
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The class sat in their seats murmuring to each other and hoping that Lott didn't return. Out of the blue, a pearly white ghost floated right through the chalkboard. A Hufflepuff girl gave a shrill scream, and Peter slipped sideways off his chair. Binns ghost did not seem to notice any of this, and he started his usual droning lecture that normally put the entire class to sleep.
"Wow." Whispered Sirius. "Lott must've been so angry she did him in. You know how she is about people shirking their duties."
"Yeah." James whispered back. "That or he just plain keeled over. Poor old geezer."
The class stared in wonder as Binn's ghost drove its way through a slew of notes, until fifteen minutes when the class abruptly ended.
After being dismissed, the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs ran to lunch, eager to recount the event to the rest of the school.
HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP HPHPHPHP AN: This was a fun chapter to write! I love Aberforth. Hope you enjoyed!
The Ever Popular Thank yous:
GNA Sis: *falls asleep amid reading your lengthy reviews* hahaha Just Kidding. You know we love you really mary sue!
The Lost Guava: You like me you really like me! . . .*GNA smacks GNL* Hehehe sorry!
Child-of-Scorpio- Well....they sort of made up....kind of....
J.E.A.R.K. (Erin) Potter- Hehehe I agree ....DIE UMBRIDGE!
Morph- Oh good! *Dumps whole truck load of guavas off at Morph's house*
krw313 - Okay...so there was no shoulder sobbing....but there was apologizing...and goat charms.... Oh...and a guava for you! Elspeth Renee- Thank you for the review! Have a complimentary guava! Dreamzer- We are honored to hold your attention for so long. Thank you for the review and have a complementary guava to hold your attention for approximatly 5.987260236402602 seconds!