This chapter is dedicated, without doubt or contestation, to the absolutely awesome Juli, alias Padfoot Hoshi. Read her stuff, write reviews like her, email reviews to me when fanfiction isn't working, and I promise you will have a dedicated chapter just like her.
It is also dedicated to Dreamer101(Sorry, Rachel!!) as an apology for kicking her out……Sorry! Even if you don't read this….
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Chapter 4—A Brush with MagicLily woke early the next morning…too early. In fact, it was almost 3:00 that the unfortunate first year bolted upright. Soon after, so did the rest of Gryffindor, awoken and petrified by her high piercing yelp. About two inches from her face and mooing bizarrely was a small, strange man in a revolting bow tie. Behind him were Remus, James, Sirius, and a boy she didn't know from about the same age, not to mention the entire of the Gryffindor girls.
"Sorry! It was him! He was…mooing at me," she said lamely.
"Peeves," groaned a girl in the crowd as the prefects dispersed the crowd, skirting the steps and finding their dormitories. James, Remus, Sirius, and the boy stayed for a bit of a laugh.
"What the hell?" a voice came from the bed next to Lily's. It was a girl, Valerie Miri, who had just woken up. Talk about heavy sleepers. Lily pointed to the quickly retreating Peeves. "Oh, yeah. I was talking to Max Calman…that boy over there…last night at the feast, and he said his brother had told him about that guy. His name is Peeves, and he's Hogwarts' resident poltergeist." She was now standing up and coming over to the boys, who were gathering around on assorted beds, people, and furniture objects.
"Get off me!" Lily cried as Sirius sat on her.
"Sorry…didn't see you. I thought I was sitting on a stick." Lily hit him over the head. "Angry little stick, aren't u, Elfie?" Lily pushed him onto the floor.
"How did you get up here? I thought I read boys couldn't get into girls' dorms." Lily wasn't so sure her knowledge was correct, taking the hour into account.
"Yeah, well, we told a group of second-years that it sounded like our friend was being tortured, and they levitated us up." Sirius responded, grinning.
"Anyways," Remus said. "What should we do now, seeing as someone has jerked us oh-so-kindly from our sleep?"
"I know," James said, deviously planning…something. Max raised his eyebrows at him. Sirius' eyes brightened in excitement.
"Count me out," Valerie said.
"Yeah," Max agreed. "I don't like that look."
Lily rolled her eyes. Sure, she was a bit skeptical, but whatever. Since Peeves' little scare, she was a bit hungry (even after that feast), and from what she had gathered from her short time with James, Remus, and Sirius, food would probably be involved.
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The boys had all shuffled out and left Lily to get changed. During that time, however, Valerie had practically passed out on her bed and Max was already dead asleep at the foot of Lily's. Apparently they really weren't coming. They couldn't even lift an eyelid.
Lily rolled her eyes as she opened her door to the dorm. At least, she tried to open the door to her dorm. It was stuck, and it was barely opening an inch. Outside the door was a small, mousy-brown haired boy with a pointy nose. He was crumpled up on the ground, but he definitely hadn't been minutes before when James, Sirius, and Remus had left. Her guess was he was one of the many spectators to the "Peeves Incident", and from the colorful bruise forming on his head, she guessed he was listening at the door while she was talking to the boys, but had then been hit in the head. With the door, probably. Oh, well. Well, she did feel kind of bad.
"Whoa! What happened to Peter?" Lily saw Remus's head appear at the foot of the girls stairs.
"Oh. Um, I dunno. I found him out here. I'm guessing assault by inanimate object."
"Oh, oops." Remus came up the stairs with a bit of difficulty, it now being a slide, and disappeared into his dorm. When he returned, he had a cup of water in hand. A second later, he had a cup of air in hand, and Peter was none to happy.
"Pete! Glad you could join us here today in the land of the living…and waking…" Peter growled at him. "No need for that. Well, c'mon. You hungry?" Peter shook his head 'no.' "Really? Well, that's just because you haven't eaten enough." He pulled a confused Peter by the feet down the slide. Lily laughed and followed them into the Common Room.
Stepping inside, Lily was surprised she hadn't noticed it last night. It was giant, not to mention a startling shade of gold and scarlet—the house colors. It was dark, glowing ominously by the dying fire, but was really ominous was what was standing in front of the fire. James and Sirius.
"Okay, so, where to?" Remus asked.
"I'm thinking kitchen," Sirius said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I'm thinking detention," Lily replied.
"Nonsense, Elfie. Look what JJ here's got!" This time James hit Sirius, but also showed Lily the silver cloak in his hand.
Peter gaped. "Is that an invisibility cloak?" With that, James swept it over his shoulders.
"And presenting the new line of invisible fashion. Perfect for late night exploits around the dark halls of Hogwarts…for one person." Sure Lily was sarcastic, but it was just to keep up. Everyone else came from a magical home, so she didn't want to sound amazed. It was amazing though. James's head was floating along just above eye level, but no, this happened everyday.
Remus grinned. "Cool, James. But Lily here's right. It can only fit you."
"Well, I'm not waiting around here all day. Engorgio!" Lily smiled smugly as the cloak swelled enormously, enough to fit the five of them in a squeeze.
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James in front ("Hey, it's my cloak), and Peter in the very back, the five of them were shuffling down a hallway on one of the lower floors. The only sound was the noise from Peter's footfalls (he was a foot-shuffler). Oh course, there was a little bit of trouble getting down the stairs, seeing as there was a high concentration of people under the cloak, and Lily wasn't as graceful as her nickname entailed. But shuffling along under the cloak, following stairs as Sirius kept intoning ""This way…c'mon. My cousin told me about it once."
Apparently Sirius wasn't listening too well when his cousin was talking, but he managed to find it just the same. It's not as though he ignored his cousin on purpose, mind you, but rather as instinct. They had heard a few voices at the end of the hallway, and they shuddered to think about what would happen if they got in trouble on the first day, so they pulled the cloak more tightly around themselves, then cautiously proceeded.
They were walking down a corridor floors below Gryffindor tower when Sirius suddenly stopped, sending Lily flying.
"Sorry, Lils," he said while James rushed to help her up and get her back under the cloak, "But we're here!"
"We're where, Sirius? This is a painting of fruit." Lily was starting to think she should have been more selective about her friends.
"No, this is it. It's behind the painting," he said in a matter-of-fact voice. "And, I think, umm, yeah….we're supposed to make it laugh…?"
'Here we go…' Lily thought condescendingly…
*****
They were standing there for 20 minutes telling jokes, tripping over things, doing any sorts of comedy they could think of to no prevail. Nothing worked. Lily was terrified that the sound of their stomachs would wake some teacher or alert some ghost. That wasn't quite the reassuring thought they wanted.
"Oh, come on!" James was practically screaming at the painting. "Come on, you dumb little portrait, you. Open up!!!"
They started trying new tactics that were branching into the obscure.
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting Cow."
"Interrupting Cow wh--
"MOOO!!!"
They were trying for the pity laugh. Also didn't work.
"Oh, come on, you cute little fruit bowl," Lily tried while tickling the fruit all over. The second her hands started tickling the pear, it started squirming and giggling, forming a green door handle, which they pulled.
"Way to go, Elfie!" Remus congratulated her as they walked though the open portrait.
Going through the portrait, they found the enormous kitchens, exactly as big as the room directly above it, the Great Hall where they had been sorted just some hours before. The preparation tables, located directly below the House Tables, were right then festooned with muttering Elves, and in the far corner a gong was ringing, and with each noise there came: "Wake! Wake! Wake!" One elf leaped out of a corner and started shouting "Get up!!! Get up!!!"
"Get out!!! Get out!!!" Peter whispered frantically, pivoting back to the now-closed portrait and pulling the other humans with him.
"Oh, young masters! We is so glad you came to find us poor House Elves. Would yous be wanting something to eat? Anything? Iffier* will get whatever you want."
Peter had a dubious look on his face, but his amazement won out. Remus and James were already ordering the sun and all of its friends, and then there was Sirius, crossed with a strange look. It was something like hatred with a look of bad memories and mixed with the knowledge that this was different…something was different. Lily didn't know how she felt. Who were these people? Why were they serving? And so happily?
*****
James and Remus had already acquired quite enough food for all of the first years and a good number of the second years, so whatever Sirius, Peter, and Lily thought about the topic, they were still nicely nourished.
Slipping the cloak back on, they thanked the house-elves and started walking. Thanks to their brilliance, they discovered that the kitchen was directly below the Great Hall, and so they could at least use that as a reference point. That was all they knew, though. They were wandering around, looking for the only other landmark, the marble staircase, when Lily spotted something on the ground near them. The boys hadn't seen it, this parchment like the letter she had gotten; they were instead debating the direction in voices that all but invited the teachers to them. They had stopped listening to Sirius and his cousin long ago. Lily bent down of the pretext of tying her shoe, then inched the parchment near her and whisked it out of sight into her robes. She was almost silent all the way back to the common room, waiting for a chance to read it.
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*Iffier is from my other story. I did say it was a perfect name for a house-elf.
Disclaimer: Ah, yes. To disclaim. Dis- meaning not. Claim meaning to take as your own. Therefore, I disclaim. I do not own.
A/N: I seem to be chronically late…I feel so ashamed. At least it's a longer chappie.
Oh, yeah…just an aside. I am an avid Princess Bride freak…book, movie, whatever. If you can find the reference (entire reference: who, what, where, when, why), which is starting in this chapter but will be very hard to find until the end…well, I will give you a cameo or dedication or whatever. You have to know the book pretty well to catch it though.
By the way, I need a beta!!! Can't you just tell? Please, please, please! You will get endless praise in every chappie!
quitesirius: Thanks so much! I'm glad you like it. I always pictured Lily and Sirius meeting like that…now it's in words. By the way, my story and my Lily aren't really so great or original. Lily is based, almost in her entirety, on me…you can't make up that sort of "grace". Even the names and other characters are my friends or nicknames or my friends' nicknames…sad, isn't it? Kady Rilla Wholi: Thanks! J Padfoot Hoshi: Thanks!! You knew I loved it, though, I couldn't have rambled that much for you not to know…You're awesome, Juli! J DanielLover4Lyfe: I meant do write! Really, I did! Please forgive me…I must atone. What can I do to get your forgiveness? I'll apologize! I'M SORRY!!! Well, then, that being said, thanks!!! Samhain13: Why, thank you. You know I try…
Also, I have a new story up. It's called As Told By Spell Check. It's basically Shooey (my computer…don't ask) being strange and stupid while responding to Harry Potter things. According to my many reviews (well, compared to this story), it is very amusing. But I'd rather you read this one, you know, the actual story. REVIEW!!!Happy Holidays!