Lily Chapter 66: Shrinking Gryffindors, a harry potter fanfic

A/N: Happy New Year to all you loyal fans! :o) By the way, this chapter is, ironically, a little short.

P.S. Nobody has guessed right on the contest yet!! Keep 'em coming, everyone. Here are the wrong guesses so far:

Love

Always

Me

Lily

James

Harry

Forever

Scar

Marauders

Potter

Dancer

Light

Voldemort

Kipper

Musicbox

Disclaimer: Professor Machiavelli is ours.

Lily

Chapter 66

It was definite: Gryffindors were shrinking all over the place. And all of them had been sitting near Lily, Juno, and the Marauders the previous night at dinner. After about ten minutes of bewildered conversation in the common room, they went to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"This is really weird," said James, who by now was about nose-level with Lily.

William Baxter snorted. "You don't know the half of it." He looked positively dwarfed by the chair he was sitting in as he reached for a plate of toast. "How's it coming, Julia?"

"Not too well," came the voice of Julia Thomas from (quite literally) behind a spellbook. "I can't find a single spell in here that would have done this to us!" She clapped the book shut and set it down. "Maybe it was some kind of potion."

"In the food, you mean? But we all ate the same thing last night."

"Right, and James is, so far, the only leprechaun among us," Sirius cracked.

Lily thought for a second, then leaned back in her chair. "How about the punch? There was a big bowl of it, wasn't there? And I didn't have any. Did you, James?"

He was about to answer when McGonagall walked up behind them, holding something in her fist. "Miss Frese?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"A house-elf found this in a punch bowl last night." She dropped a gold necklace, with a charm that said "Juno" on it, onto Juno's napkin. "I assumed it was yours."

"Er…yes…thank you…" Juno fastened the necklace around her neck and tried to avoid the piercing glares she was now getting from William, Julia, and James.

McGonagall nodded. "Keep track of your things. And you, Potter-" she pointed sternly at him. "Sit up straight."

By around one-thirty at Quidditch practice, James was decidedly less imposing of a figure than a Captain ought to be. "Harvey, speed it up!" he squeaked. "And Eva! Don't you even give me that excuse that 'the club is bigger than you!!'"

"Shove it, Potter!" Eva shrilled, since the club really was bigger than her by this point.

"That's IT! Go back inside! I don't need that today!"

Eva swooped down to the grass and dismounted, imperiously shoving James's shoulder. "Fine! What if I don't want to practice today, huh? HUH?"

"Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FIIIIIINE!"

"Fine times ten!"

"Fine times infinity!"

Lily looked down at the two waist-height combatants and felt severely weirded out. "Did your maturity shrink with your bodies or something?" Instead of reacting, Eva launched herself at James with a high-pitched roar. After they had each gotten a few good pinches and scratches in, Lily grabbed James and picked him up like he was a two-year-old. "What is going on with everyone?"

"Ask Juno," James grumbled as Eva stalked back to the castle. "And put me the hell down!"

Lily hesitated for a second before dropping her three-foot boyfriend to the ground. "First of all, don't swear at me like I'm to blame. Second of all, you don't know that it was Juno."

"Her necklace was in the punch bowl! Who else would it have been?"

"Well, how can you be so sure that it didn't just fall off when she was reaching for something else?"

"How can you be so sure that she's innocent?"

Lily took a deep breath. "I'm not going to fight when you're in such a bad mood."

"Fine!"

Eva, James, Lena, William, and Julia had to stand on their chairs at dinner. The professors had, of course, caught on by then that there was something wrong (even though it was a Saturday, and there were no classes), and some of them couldn't help giggling when they looked at the Gryffindor table. The Slytherins had been predictably insufferable, with more than enough comments about how the Gryffindor Quidditch team now had "a few little problems."

Dumbledore stood up and clapped his hands for silence. "I'm sure that all of you have noticed the…er…small issue among several Gryffindor students." A loud whoop of laughter came from the Slytherin table, presumably Severus Snape. "Indeed…and also, I'm sure that you all have your thoughts as to its origin. If there is any factual information, please bring it to one of the teacher's attention as soon as possible. Professor Machiavelli is currently brewing a potion that should reverse the effects of whatever those students have imbibed, and they will please see me after dinner for a draught of it." He paused. "In addition, would Miss Juno Frese please see me after dinner, as well?"

"Good," William said as Dumbledore sat down. "Now we'll be normal height and she'll be taken down a notch." He laughed at his own (horrific) joke as Julia rolled her eyes hopelessly.

Juno stormed into the common room and slammed her detention slip onto a table in front of Lily, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. "I've got to mop out Moaning Myrtle's bathroom tomorrow! And on Monday, I get to be 'special assistant' to the new Divination teacher. I hear he's a real nut job, too."

"Can't really be worse than Professor Gadani," Lily pointed out.

"Right…at least you won't need earplugs." Remus's grin faded from his face under Juno's withering gaze.

"You…" Juno gritted out. "You and your…" she sucked in air. "YOUR STUPID NECKLACE!!!!" she ripped it off of her own neck without even unclasping it and threw it into his face before scooping Lily Jr. up and storming off to the dormitory.

Remus sat in shock, holding the necklace. But Sirius and Peter were giving him identical looks. "You," Peter said, "Have quite a bit of explaining to do."

Luckily for Remus, the un-shrunk Gryffindors streamed back in through the portrait hole just then. James made his way guiltily to the couch and stood in front of Lily. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I think the Shrinking Solution messed with my brain or something. D'you forgive me?"

Lily narrowed her eyes, but couldn't keep a straight face for long. She broke into a wide smile and pulled him down next to her. "Sure I do. And I'm sorry about dropping you like that."

Now Sirius and Peter were looking at her. "And you two have some explaining to do, too!"

"What?"

"You dropped him? Why were you carrying him in the first place?" Sirius laughed.

"How romantic," Peter said mockingly.

"Like you'd know," James shot back. "Best you've ever done is getting dumped by Jessica."

Lily pulled her hair back into a ponytail and sat up in her bed to read the History of Magic assignment. Fifteen pages to read on how Galileo had managed to keep his wizardry a secret in the sixteenth century…and all she could think about was James! Especially this late at night, the words on the page seemed to jump around, just begging for her to stop focusing on them and think about someone else for awhile. So instead of Galileo, it was James that filled her mind. The sound of his voice, the way he held her hand, his hair (which he never quite got under control, but frankly, Lily found it charming), and, of course, his kisses. They had kissed a few more times since Valentine's Day, and Lily was starting to really, really, really like it.

She closed the book and sighed. Suddenly, Juno spoke. "Lily? Are you still awake?"

"Yeah. What are you doing up?"

There was a brief silence. "It wasn't me."

"What?"

"It wasn't me. I didn't put the Shrinking Solution in the punch. Someone framed me."