Disclaimer: Do I really need to tell you that I don't own them? It's very demeaning having to write that I don't own them again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again… do you get what I mean NOW? Thank goodness for Copy and Paste!
AN: British / American Dictionary –Sweets – candy! All the no-good, rot-your-teeth-out, millions-of-calories-but-tastes-scrumptious-and-are-addictive stuff!
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End of Last Chapter:
"Huh? What happened? I could have sworn that…" I looked back at Remus and realised that I still held him in a death grip. His face was starting to turn purple. "Um, oops. Sorry."
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Unforgettable, In Every WayPart XII – In Which There are Feathers and a Hex
Remus and I managed to get back to the Gryffindor common room without any other interesting incidents and collapsed into chairs in front of the great hearth – after scaring some First Years away, that is. I stared into the fire, entranced by the flickering, leaping flames until Remus' voice snapped me out of it.
"Are you ok? I though that you took the very well, if I may say."
"Oh, you may say."
"Toffee?" He offered.
"Oh, go on then. Thanks." I sighed and looked back to the fire, popping the pro-offered toffee into my mouth. "It just seems a bit surreal, almost like it was part of a dream."
"I bet that these last few days have seemed like a dream to you… first getting asked out by Greenwood, and then this…"
I glanced suspiciously at Remus; his tone seemed all too innocent. Just then the Fat Lady opened to emit… well, can anyone guess? That's right, my favourite people of the day – The Marauders.
"Remus ol' buddy, ol' pall!" Sirius exclaimed when he saw Remus' head above the back of the chair, and he skipped over, "We were in a… slightly cramped situation before you came. And my toe is black and blue from when Peter…" he trailed off at the sight of me.
"I'm just so beautiful that you are stunned into silence at the sight of me." I grinned. What was in that sweet that Remus gave to me?
"The Map works like a charm, Remus!" Peter said as he crawled into the common room, a pile of Honeydukes sweets in his arms. He walked over to the fire and dumped them over the back of the chair I was sitting in.
"I'll be down in a second!" I heard James' voice, and heard him clomp up the stairs, but I was buried under a pile of candy.
"Watch where you put this stuff Peter!"
"Oh, sorry." He scooped them off me and sat down on the hearthrug, making a pile of sweets in his lap.
"Um, right." Sirius threw himself into the spare armchair and sat side ways in it. "Oh, Lily-of-the-Valley, your sweet perfume fills the common room with… a…"
"What he means to say is that he's, oh and James, sorry about snapping at you at breakfast. They were hungry, tired and I had recently pulled a prank on them. So they weren't in the best of moods." Peter piped up from the floor, where he was scoffing down a bunch of sweets.
"Oh, sure. No hard feelings." I giggled – what had Remus given me? "I have a –"
James dashed down the stairs, skidded across the carpet and flopped into the seat beside me on the sofa. "Wait for it, wait for it… three… two… one…."
Nothing happened.
"Ok, pay up James!" Sirius triumphantly held out his hand.
A scream resounded from upstairs, "JAMES POTTER!"
"Oh, so close, so close… Well, pay up Padfoot!" This time James held out his hand and Sirius started rooting in his pocket.
Jay McKtavish, the Gryffindor beater appeared at the top of the steps to the girls' dorm and clomped down the steps. Her wet hair dripped on the floor and her slipper-less feet left water trails. But that wasn't the best part. She clutched a fluffy white towel around her, in direct contrast to her bright pink hair and her green skin and her arms were covered with orange feathers.
"Wahay!" Some of the males in the room clapped and applauded while James stood and took a bow.
"JAMES POTTER! YOU ARE GOING TO WISH THAT YOU HADN'T DONE THIS!" In one of Jay's hands, she clasped her wand and pointed it threateningly at James. She shrieked a few words and a pink beam of light shot out of her wand. James jumped over the sofa and hid behind it, laughing all the while. One of the cushions exploded in a burst of white feathers, which started drifting to the ground.
"Oh, Jay… I like what you did to your hair!" Sirius sniggered, peaking up from behind the back of the armchair.
"Argh!" Jay stomped a foot and threw up her hands, dashing up the stairs to the girls dorm again.
"Ladies and gentlemen, that was hurricane Jay which swept through here. So far, there have been no casualties – please stay tuned for an update." Sirius announced in a broadcast announcers voice.
But before Jay had rounded the last corner of the stairs, she threw a hex at James again, who had come out from behind his cover.
"Oof!" James slipped on one of the loose feathers and crashed to the floor, causing feathers the rise again. Fortunately for him, but unfortunately for me, the spell missed his head by about three feet. It hit me - and I hadn't done anything except laugh! Life's unfair.
"Ahhhhh!" I could feel a change come over me, but I wasn't sure what she had done to me. I touched my face, and was relieved that everything felt normal. "Um, a little help here…"
"Well, that's one way to avoid a hex mate, but I'd advise another way." Peter was informing James as he groaned from his position on the floor and rolled over to massage his aching back. No one seemed to talk notice of me or of what I had said.
"I second that." Remus added, "Can't be good on the back and you get beat up often enough from bludgers."
"Thanks for telling me what had I already figured out – the hard way." James stood up, wincing when his back popped. White feathers stuck out of his hair at odd angles – making his hear look more like a birds nest than he would probably care it to be. I told him as much.
"Well, speak for your self! I bet that you take as much time on your hair as…" He trailed off, staring at me.
"Looks like I spoke too soon about the no casualty statistic." Sirius stared at me as well.
"Oh no!" I grabbed another pillow and buried my face in it. "What did she do? And can you help me get rid of it?" I asked, my voice slightly muffled through the pillow.
"I think that you had better look at your self in a mirror…" Peter sounded half strangled and when I peaked around the side of the pillow, he was choking on a lemon drop. Was that a tendril of smoke rising from behind Peter? The smell of burning cloth assaulted my nose when I removed it from the pillow.
"Peter! You're on fire!" I launched myself off the sofa and started beating the hem of his robe. A good six inches were singed off the back of his robe after I had beat out the burning piece of cloth.
"Peter!" Sirius called, and I looked up to be greeted by water splashed in the face.
"That was nice Sirius." I said, water droplets rolling off my nose and chin to drip on Peter's robe. It looked like Sirius had conjured up a glass of water and had thrown it at us. "Improved timing would have gone down better though."
"Oh, this is such a nice picture. Peter, I didn't know that you had it in you." James smirked with his hands on his hips. "If only I had a camera. On the back I would write, Peter Pettigrew - with his first girlfriend sitting on him."
"Hate to break it to you, but she's taken." Kerr warned as he stalked over from the other side of the common room. "She's mine."
"Oh, this is enough to make a girl feel wanted." I drawled. I was not impressed that Kerr had come over at that time. I had just made up with James and now he had to come over and put a dampener on everyone's spirits. And how dare he say that I was his – as if I were property.
"I know that she's taken – but you don't own her." If looks could kill, Kerr would be six feet under.
"Yup, females being property went out of fashion about oh… around 2000 years ago in the wizarding community." Sirius said, as if he could read my thoughts.
"She's my girlfriend." Kerr glared right back.
"Lily!" Peter hissed from beneath me.
"Humm?"
"Lily!"
"Wha? Oh, sorry, you said something?" I dragged my eyes back from where James, Sirius and Kerr were arguing.
"You're still sitting on me. Not that it isn't nice, but it's a bit uncomfortable when you have three Galleons worth of sweets digging into your back and probably melting onto the robe that someone just saved from being reduced to ashes." Peter squirmed slightly, as if to emphasise his point.
"Ah, sorry." I apologised again as I rolled off him, careful not to fall into the fire.
Peter sat up, quite a few sweets sticking to his back in a sticky mess. I winced and performed a cleaning charm that I had recently memorised. I was making good on my promise to learn as much Charms as I could possibly could. Surprisingly, I had found that I was a natural – if I put a little effort into it I could probably learn NEWT level charms.
"I don't care! She's my friend!"
"I do care! I won't have my girlfriend –" The argument between James and Sirius and Kerr was still going on – like a soundtrack in the common room. Providing a background noise that no one actually listened to.
I then turned my wand on myself and tried a drying spell in my hair. I got it wrong, as I found when my hair turned into a mass of curls. "Oh well, one spell out of two isn't that bad." I muttered to myself, wracking my brains for the right incantation to dry my hair. I was surprised to hear someone cast it upon me from behind.
"Just a little help." Remus said as he gave me a hand up. "You might want to run up to your room to look at your hair, these people won't be finished for about another half an hour." he suggested, motioning with his head at the bickering James and Sirius against Kerr. Either side didn't look like it was about to back down any time in the near future.
"My hair?" I pulled a strand down and watched the deep red curl spring back up. "It's Red! RED!"
"Yes it is. Now go upstairs and look at it before you become the poster girl for apoplexy." He shoved me towards the stairs and I dashed up them without an argument.
"Sorry!" I yelled to the unfortunate girl who was attempting to descend the stairs as I was running up them about three at a time. She abruptly sat down on the step she was on so that I wouldn't knock her over and cause her to go for a tumble down the stairs.
I opened the door and it flew into the wall with a loud bang that must have echoed all the way down to the common room. The door then wobbled as it tried to come back off the wall there it had created a dent and looked like it was about to fall off its hinges – but I didn't notice, because I had caught sight of my hair in the mirror.
"By the Seven Secrets!" I whispered, awestruck. Was that me that I saw in the mirror?
"Lily Evans! Watch your language!" the mirror berated me, "You should know by now – well! Take me off the wall and use me as a platter! You don't look half bad, Hun! Not bad at all!"
"Thanks…" I whispered, still entranced by my appearance. My hair had always been more the colour of an orange with just a tint of red some where in the mess. And it had always been wispy, struggling to escape my customary plait. But now… now it was RED! Not the red of tomatoes, but the deep, dark red of ripe cherries when they were at their juiciest. Argh! Carley has been a bad influence on me – I'm comparing my hair to fruit!
I sat with a plop on the chair in front of the vanity mirror. The clear glass orbs around the perimeter if the mirror slowly lit up from a smouldering ember shedding more warmth than light, to what would rival a white dwarf star by the way of light.
"Ouch, Ella!" I complained, squinting, "Would you mind toning it down a bit? I'm going to be blind in a minute!"
"Sorry, Hun. Got a bit carried away there," The lights dimmed a bit until I could see without scrunching my eyes up. "Don't you dare do anything else to your hair – or I will personally make your life a living hell!"
"Is that a threat, Ella?" I asked, amused that a mirror – although she had been our friend since Year One – would threaten me.
"No dear, it's a promise."
Slightly uncomfortable, I went back to soaking in my appearance. Surprisingly, instead of the richer red hair making my skin colour comparative to a vampire just coming out of its crypt, it added a healthy look to my cheeks where I could have sworn I had not had none before. I was grateful that I had accidentally cast that curling charm on my hair. My hair, which had looked wispy in a plait, looked nice now and softened my features when it was curled. And my green eyes contrasted with my skin and hair so that instead of having a muddy look, they were a startling green colour. As Ella had said, I didn't look half bad – not by a long shot.
"Oh Merlin!" I dropped my forehead onto the counter, accidentally hitting it harder than I had intended to and I clapped both hands over it.
"Now dear, you really should know better."
"What are you? My mother?"
"No thank you, dear, I would rather keep my age to myself. What's the matter now?"
"I'm becoming like the other girls!"
"Um, is that bad?"
"Yes!"
"Why?"
"Because they're so vain! They look into the mirror for ages, trying to make themselves perfect and then get a big head when they think that they succeed!"
"Yes, it does get boring reflecting the same person day after day." The glass orbs became brighter; I took that as silent laughter.
"But I was just thinking that I didn't think I looked that bad – and I'm becoming vain!" I wailed.
"Oh hush! You're not vain by a long shot. Now get up off your butt and say thank you to whoever put this charm on you."
"How did you know that I didn't do it myself?"
"Common sense, Hun. You were shocked by your appearance when you came in here."
I dashed out the door.
"And get the particulars on the charm! You'll want to cast it again!" Ella called after me as I ran down the corridor and knocked on Jay's dorm room.
"What?" she hollered from within and I boldly pushed the door open.
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Response to reviews:
Fishnetfairy – Ok, soz about that. How did you think up the name Grease Lightning?
Lisbleu – I hope that the last chapter didn't put you off, so I've updated quicker than I would normally…
Narcissa-Malfoy-22 – Well, here's the update!
A Naughty Mouse – That was a bit rambling, but I understood it!
MilesFromNormal – Thanks! I'm glad that you like the twist – I'm still not so sure about it myself….
Padfoot Hoshi – I agree with you – slash is EVIL! So why am I writing this, you may ask me – and I honestly don't know. But this twist is what happened when I went for a week suffering from sleep deprivation and my Uncle's split with his girlfriend lodged this into my mind. And here is stays – unfortunately. But their relationship plays a… um… BIG roll in, well… Wouldn't you like to know?
Optical Illusions – Know what…? Oh, I remember! Sorry – with mock exams, everything just went out the window. I think that it's called the attention seeking etc, that is coming back to Kerr. Does the call of power over Lily and through her, James, send him off his very cute rocker?
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And that concludes Chapter 12… have I actually written that much?
Wow! I think that this is the longest chapter that I've written! 2, 720 not counting the Response to Reviews!
Well, you know the drill… read and review!
~*~ BrokenSkye ~*~
Just incase you forgot who I was. (^_^)