Pensieve

by Oy Angelina

She's a Prefect, He's a Marauder; and falling in love might be the best thing that ever happened to either Lily or James. Set during their 6th Year with the rest of MWPP. RATED PRE-OotP - story content may not follow canon revealed in Book 5

38. Words About Witches

Words About Witches

By: Oy! Angelina

Beta by: jkit10

When faced with bugs, rodents, and lizards

Witches always take flight!

But when we're faced with Wizards

We give them a bloody fight!

So when you war with Gryffindor

Know that the women have the might!

The girls of Gryffindor had been singing that chant non-stop for three solid days and they only got louder whenever they encountered some male members of their House. At first it had been a bit funny, but now nearly all the boys of Gryffindor were glowering to one another as they watched their female counterparts cackle on about them in the halls, during meals, and in the common room.

James Potter, in particular, felt his patience growing thin.

"Is it wrong I'm heavily giving thought to plotting bloody vengeance against the girl I love?" James muttered to his mates Remus, Peter, and Sirius as they watched Lily wave to them while leading a chorus of the Gryffindor girls fighting song for a mix of witches as they headed off somewhere.

James offered a scowl before a grin in the direction of his girlfriend then waved her off. He was a tad annoyed but not cross with Lily. After all this was the usual sport he and his chaps usually ran with so it would be hypocritical to chide Lily on this account. Settling against the wall in the corridor he and the other boys had been occupying James shrugged with a helpless glance, as though awaiting suggestions.

"Arabella was humming it last night when we were kissing. Bit hard to keep in the mood when she's emasculating me to a catchy tune," Remus nodded a bit along with James's words but seemed a bit more amused by the antics than James was.

"It's your own fault were in this spot, mate," Sirius decided with a glance towards James. "I mean, you could have just hexed her and everything would be in its naturally state of being."

James offered Sirius a cock-eyed expression from behind his frames.

"Oh so because I didn't lay a curse on my girlfriend I'm a git? Sirius you're going to give some lucky girl an unyielding headache once you settle down," James muttered.

Remus shifted his tawny eyes onto Sirius after James's words. He knew who the "lucky girl" in question was but was keeping it under his pointed hat for the time being.

"Who wrote the sodding thing anyway? Lily?" Peter grumbled, his usually watery eyes slightly bloodshot.

"Dunno, sounds more like Arabella's handiwork," James mused over the lyrics.

"Don't pass this off on my head, Potter," Remus insisted with a snorted laugh. "I believe we've already decided this was your fault for not being able to finish what you started with Lily."

James shot an unappreciative look between Remus and Sirius. If he had known he was going to catch so much hell over it with his friends later on, James might have just took his chances with jinxing the love of his life.

An audible clearing of Peter's throat turned James's head, along with Sirius and Remus.

"Well I say a prank is in order," Peter announced to his friends. "Nothing to bad but just enough to get the girls off the song. It's driving me bloody mad."

"Yeah, Wormtail was singing the tune in his sleep last night, I think we need to do something Prongs," Remus added as he turned to James. This sort of thing was traditionally James's call since he was the one that all the other three boys seemed to look to when they were plotting anything.

"Damn straight, I'm as for the witches movement as much as the next wizard but what's the point of being in Gryffindor if all our damsels are distressing us?" Sirius contributed with a nod.

"We could probably manage something," James said low in his breath as a stray chorus of the girls' song echoed from another hall.

As though sensing James's mood and desiring nothing more than to further complicate it, Regius Avery in the company of Serpan Nott strolled over to the Gryffindors with Winifred Wilkes tagging along idly.

"Hmm, always thought the skirts in Gryffindor packed the most punch in your lot," Nott taunted as they passed along, most likely because he expected Wilkes and Avery to back him up.

"Dunno about that, mate," Avery interjected coolly, "I remember Evans proved to be a bit of a push over in that potions fray."

James's hazel eyes shot wide and he motioned to advance on either of the Slytherin boys. Remus put an arm out to halt James while glaring at Avery with Peter and Sirius.

"Stow it, Avery, before I beat you so hard you family line dies out," Sirius warned in a matter-of-fact tone.

Avery sneered at Sirius, as though sizing him up but said nothing in reply. Wilkes openly snickered at Avery, her black eyes shining. This might have seemed more suspicious for a Slytherin to laugh at a Gryffindor's remark however it was no secret that Wilkes and Avery didn't have the most civil of social relations.

"I don't know why you're cackling Winifred," Avery snapped at the female member of his year. "You're only hanging about with me and Nott because no one else in our year will have you these days. Not even your oddball cousin."

Peter smirked at Wilkes along with Nott and Avery, evidently enjoying the fact that a full-out creep like Snape considered himself too good of company for Wilkes. James caught Peter's expression and put the heel of his foot into the top of Peter's to wipe the grin off his face before Sirius did him the favor. The last thing he wanted was an all-out row with his mates because Wormtail didn't care to make it any secret that he didn't like Sirius's taste in women.

Remus stole a glance at Sirius, aware of his pseudo relationship with Wilkes. For his part, Sirius's eyes surveyed the faces to see how much truth their was to Avery's comment and wondered if any of it had to do with him. Sirius had no love of Slytherins and thought Winifred deserved far better people to call friends, but then again he wasn't the one who had to live with them at the end of the day.

"Avery, I think it's in everyone's better interest not to worry about what politics are in play for one another's houses so take your mates and scamper off before we find ourselves in detention," James tried to move things along.

Nott snorted at James's comment.

"Don't boss us around Potter like you're the Head boy or something," he insisted.

James's eyes fell on Nott harshly for daring to address him.

"You know Nott, I'm still waiting on that duel you owe me," James reminded with a low growl.

That persuaded Nott to not only fall silent but to shift his position so he was standing behind Wilkes and Avery. Wilkes rolled her eyes and made a disgruntled noise.

"Come on, let's head off," she instructed Avery and Nott. "If the pair of you are going to take to bullying than I suggest you become a whole lot better at it so as not to make arses out of yourself."

Avery spun on his heel and let his entire demeanor flare self-righteously. He pointed his finger menacingly into Wilkes's face as though it were as dangerous as a wand.

"You know, Winifred, I'm getting bloody fed-up with you riding everyone all high and mighty and I have more than half a mind to - "

Sirius cut Avery off there with a hard shove into the fair-headed Slytherin's chest. The force caused Avery to stager back a bit until Nott had the mind to steady him back upright. Wilkes's eyes, which had been narrowed on Avery only a moment before, were wide open and fixed on Sirius.

"WHAT, may I ask, does a half-wit like you have half a mind to do to her, Avery?" Sirius demanded through clenched teeth.

Wilkes moved between Sirius and Avery with her hands on her hips.

"Black, the only interest I have in Gryffindor chivalry is in the lyrics of that song your girls are using to mock it," Wilkes informed coolly. She glared at Nott and Avery while making sharp snapping noises from her fingers, beaconing them to follow in step. "Let's head back to the commons before I have half a mind to do wicked things to you both in your sleep. And I'm not talking about the things Florence has house renown for."

If they cared to contest against Wilkes's will on the subject it didn't show. Sulking off behind her, Avery and Nott left a parting sneer for the Gryffindor boys before vanishing in the direction of the dungeons.

Looking over to his mates, Sirius had a genuinely baffled look to him.

"You reckon that was for show or is Winifred really cross with me?" he asked uncertainly. James, Remus, and Peter glanced to one another for support. Assuming they had any answers for him, their silence proved that they were reluctant to share their thoughts on the matter.

"I don't know what you'd have us say, Padfoot," James shrugged finally. "You're asking us to understand how the mind of a girl and a Slytherin works."

On the Saturday of the last Hogsmeade outing for the year, James awoke his roommates with a series of jostles and hushed words. It was about an hour earlier than the boys would traditionally rise for the event; however there were few complaints since Sirius, Remus, and Peter all were more than curious as to what James wanted to show them.

"Is it something to show up the girls?" Peter yawned drowsily into his fist.

James shook his scruffy head with a devilish grin.

"Nope, I'm just looking to flaunt my own brilliance in the face of McGonagall," James informed with a disposition akin to triumph.

Remus chuckled as he stretched out a bit.

"Finally found a way to dispel McGonagall's barrier charm I take it?" Remus guessed.

James had been spending almost as much time on finding a way to undermine the deputy head-mistress as he spent with his lessons. Remus was also willing to bet that James's wildly impressive ego wouldn't allow him to go any more gently into the night than his raging hormones.

"More like a loophole around it," James replied.

He pointed his wand at some washing towels and transfigured them into large potholders. Crouching by his four-poster bed, James tentatively reached underneath. Cautiously he extracted a self-heating cauldron with a lid placed on top. Peter, Sirius, and Remus exchanged inquisitive looks between themselves and they peered closer over James's shoulder.

"I'll bet I know what it is!" Peter grinned confidently. "You brewed yourself a veritaserum and are going to slip it in on McGonagall's tea and make her tell you the counterspell."

"Don't be thick," Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's not like McGonagall wouldn't figure out pretty quick what was going on. James would have to obliviate her memory after that just to avoid expulsion."

Sirius paused on this and looked to James with an expression that was half-curious, half-impressed.

"Is that your ploy?" Sirius breathed.

James wrinkled his nose as he put the cauldron on a dressing table near his bed.

"Let's call that Plan B," James decided. "In the meantime, Plan A is Hermaphrodite's Draught."

Peter blinked, showing that he wasn't too sure as to what this potion was specifically for. Sirius scratched his head a bit, obviously trying to get some clue from the title while Remus stared at James in disbelief.

"James, you're planning on turning yourself into a girl?" Remus marveled.

Sirius and Peter both perked up on this, now on the same page as Remus. There was a brief silence before a loud eruption of laughter and pointing at James. James nodded his head stiffly with his lips firmly pressed.

He had more or less anticipated this sort of "support".

"Look, it's the only way I can think of that will get me past the threshold of the barrier," James explained his reasoning. "Witches can walk by just fine so I figure all I need it to take a sip of the potion to see how the other half lives, walk through the door, take another sip and reap the benefits of a heartfelt reunion."

"And you have positively no problem with being a girl?" Sirius snorted a laugh.

"Well it's not like I'll be one when I'm fooling about with Lily. It's just a means to an end," James informed dryly. Removing the cover of the cauldron, James dipped a ladle into the batch and poured the contents into a vial.

"So how does it work exactly?" Peter asked with a wary interest.

"One sip changes you over to the opposite sex and another sip restores you," James reported. "The transformation is supposed to feel a bit odd but not so much as a polyjuice potion. You've not changing your entire physical appearance, just whatever's needed to make a lad look like a lass or vice versa."

"So take a swig!" Sirius urged eagerly. He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet with anticipation of seeing James's feminine side. Remus and Peter shared a look of interest as well as they eyed James for his reaction.

"You are going to have to see if the brew came out all right. . ." Remus attempted to trail off nonchalantly.

"Yeah and we're all friends here," Peter added.

Blushing slightly at the prospects of being the only girl in the room, James shook his head.

"Out of the question! The last thing I need is to hear Sirius carry on for the rest of my days, making cracks about my masculinity and the like!" James said shooting his best friend a glare.

Gentle teasing from Peter and Remus now and again was one thing but Sirius could be positively merciless and relentless when he carried on with a joke.

"Fine then!" Sirius replied as he walked over and swiped the flask from James. "I'll take it if you do then I won't have a curvy leg to stand on if I decide to poke fun. All right?"

Sirius waited for James's reaction to his proposal. James looked as though he were chewing over the words before he offered a stiff nod.

"Okay, go on then pass the flask to me," James agreed conditionally, suspicious that Sirius may leave him hanging on the issue.

Unconcerned with the terms, Sirius shrugged and offered his friends a mock toast before taking a gulp from the neck of the flask and passed it off to James who repeated the gesture in a less flamboyant way. The four boys watched the forms of James and Sirius for any noticeable adjustments from the potion which were seemingly delayed.

"Why's it not working?" Peter questioned as Sirius and James looked very much as normal.

"Actually I think it's working from the inside out. It feels like stuff is being rearranged in my gut," Sirius said in a voice that was of a higher pitch than he normally spoke in.

All the boys started to laugh at Sirius's uncharacteristically soprano voice, James's distinctly sounding like an airy giggle that caused even more laughter around the room.

The superficial changes began to take affect as James and Sirius's five o'clock shadow receded as well as their height and mass. Their pajamas began to appear far baggier on their frames as distinct curves began to take shape in all the appropriate places. For the crowing effect both Sirius and James found themselves with an extra foot or two of hair extending from their heads.

True to the properties of the potion, James and Sirius looked very much like the witches they would have been if they were born females.

"Well this is certainly a memory burned into my mind's eye," Remus mumbled as he ran his eyes over his formerly male friends.

"Stop giving me that wolf look, Remus," James ordered as she fought to keep her pajama bottoms around her slimmed waist. Swimming in her bed clothes, James attempted to make her way over to a dresser mirror to inspect her potion work. Stealing an awkward glance at the others in the room, James pulled the front of her shirt open and peered down.

"Well I look the part that's for sure," James muttered not knowing whether to be impressed, unsettled, or otherwise aroused by the results.

Sirius had taken to poking and prodding himself with a goofy grin spread wide across her face.

"Bloody hell, I'm positively shagable!" Sirius said decisively with a flip of her long black hair.

Remus choked on a laugh while Peter just gaped at Sirius's occasional glimpse of cleavage on display. James looked over her thinned out features, unmanageable black hair with a pair of spectacles resting upon the bridge of her nose. As true as it was in their male lives, Sirius had a far more physically appealing look to her body while James was a bit lanky and arguably plain.

Also she swore Sirius had a larger bust.

"Well I'm not to sure about me. I kind of think I look like my mum," James addressed absently. "What do you guys think? Would I have made a cute witch?"

Peter tore his eyes off of Sirius to look at James.

"I think there are just some questions you don't ask people James," Peter insisted with a quirkily look. "Things like 'what happens when you try and make a snake and a mouse be mates?' or 'Why does Sirius spend so much time alone in the bathroom?'."

Sirius's head snapped up with the look as though she was about to lay in a verbal lashing upon Peter until an amused look crossed her softened features.

"Now THAT'S an idea!" Sirius declared as she made a bee-line for the bathroom. "I'm off to see how the other half lives!"

James and Peter made a joined set of strangled noises at what their friend was suggesting. Only Remus had enough barring to cut Sirius off by physically blocking the door with his distinctly taller and broader build now that Sirius was female.

"I forbid you to emotionally scar the lot of us like that," he hissed.

Sirius only smiled wider as she leaned against Remus, resting her head against his chest as she snaked her hands around his waist.

"Oh Remus, has anyone every told you how positively manly you come off as when you get so assertive," Sirius cooed mockingly.

Remus's posture stiffened as though ice water had just ran down his back. He quickly shoved Sirius off of him, thinking little of the physical violence since Sirius wasn't actually a witch as much as she was a randy wizard trapped in one's body. He made his way across the room in rapid stride.

"Well I'm off to throw up everything I've ever eaten before I make love to my girlfriend who is actually a woman for hours," Remus announced stiffly. "Thank you James for this traumatizing experience you saw fit to share with your closest friends."

It was James's turn to block a doorway as she tried to stifle a laugh.

"Oh come on Remus, I doubt Sirius would be having so much fun with this if he knew that he looked exactly like his sister Aurora," James informed with a sly look at his best friend.

Sirius raised an eyebrow to this comparison before deciding to seek out a mirror of his own. Staring into a dresser vanity, Sirius groaned before shuddering.

"Oh Merlin help me I do," Sirius moaned. "Now I have to live with the mental image of my sister coming on to Moony."

It was Remus's turn to laugh out loud.

"Now he won't be running off to fondly himself lewdly," Peter said in a manner that was either relief or disappointment.

"Okay any more of this and I won't be in the mood to be alone with Lily every again," James reported as she went over to the flask and took a sip. Slowly the same shifting sensation internally followed by an external adjustment brought James back to his usual self. He tossed the flask off to Sirius, figuring he would be quick to end the perverse fun as well about now.

"We should probably start getting ready to head out," Peter observed in a low, slightly awkward voice.

Sirius was still banned from Hogsmeade and, while the other three boys had no reason to, James, Remus, and Peter felt a bit guilty about going off to have fun without their fourth familiar.

"You know Sirius, my offer still stands on using my invisibility cloak," James reminded.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure I'll have a grand time talking to no one and having you three pretend I'm not there most of the time," the still female Sirius grumbled.

"How about if you use your animagic?" Peter interjected helpfully. "That way you could be seen and no one would think much of you wandering about."

Sirius shook her head again.

"Then you guys get to treat my like a dog while I'm not allowed into any of the shops and have to put up with 1st Years trying to pet me when they're not tossing sticks about," she sighed.

A disappointed silence followed before Sirius brightened up in a sudden, giddy fashion.

"Hold on!" She screeched, "I'll go like this!"

Three sets of eyes widened around Sirius in reply. Sirius smiled triumphantly to herself in honor of her own brilliance.

"Think about it, I could easily just be some random witch in town hanging about," she insisted adamantly. "Most of the people will assume I'm in a different House or Year than the rest of them at Hogwarts and to anyone who presses it I'll just say that I'm passing through Hogsmeade for the afternoon. I'll take James's invisibility cloak and use one of the hidden passages there so I look like I was there before everyone else at Hogwarts arrives. It's perfect!"

Sirius's friends didn't look as though they agreed about the flawlessness of the plan entirely, but since they couldn't find any inherent holes in Sirius's scheme they resigned themselves to a series of nods and shrugs. Sirius smiled as she pulled out some of her casual clothes.

"Now I just need to transfigure these into something flattering and fitting," she said as she pulled out her wand.

"Yeah I'm sure you'll be the bell of the bloody ball," James muttered under his breath as he made an effort not to let his eyes wander over to Sirius's end of the room as she changed.

Walking the trail that led out to Hogsmeade, the students present chattered between themselves a little more casual and candidly than they tended to at the school. Unburdened by the watchful eyes and prying ears of the school faculty, the Hogwarts students probably felt most like young witches and wizards on these little breaks from their studies and dorms.

Taking advantage of their liberated state, James walked towards Hogsmeade leading the rest of Gryffindor with his arm around Lily. Leaning closely to an patch of red hair that he assumed an ear was buried under, James whispered the plan he shared with Remus, Peter, and Sirius earlier as well as Sirius's plan for joining them later on. Laughing so hard that James could feel her shaking next to him, Lily looked to him with gleaming green eyes.

"Oh I wonder if I'll recognize him," she breathed between giggles.

"I reckon she'll be hard to miss," James replied with a wide smile.

"So. . . do you really think that taking that potion will get you through the door in my room?" Lily asked so as not to be overheard.

"I do," James nodded as he nuzzled closer against her. "And if it doesn't I'm this close to shaking the bloody information I need out of our Deputy Headmistress."

"Oh that's lovely," Lily snickered.

"I can't help myself on this. I'm going mad not being able to be off and alone with you. I don't want to have to sneak around like were doing something shameful or wrong. I love you and I don't want the only times I can prove that to you to be in dark corners and abandoned towers," James whispered to her, his lips grazing her cheek as he spoke. Lily closed her eyes and shivered against the gesture unconsciously.

"James, you have nothing to prove to me," Lily replied through a hard swallow as she moved her face to make their lips meet.

"You know, we could duck out of Hogsmeade early to see if it works out. . ." James propositioned. "Nobody would be around to ask pesky questions."

"Or spy you in a skirt," Lily added thoughtfully.

Several paces behind the young couple and a little further down from Remus, Peter, and Arabella, Millicent Meeks and Bronwyn Weaver exchanged their thoughts on the linguistic patterns required for charm work and thoroughly bored their friends Cassidy Kinkade and Gwen McGinnis into their own conversation.

"Isn't it mad that both of your brothers will be eleven next year," Gwen prattled merrily as she looked to Cassidy, "do you reckon they'll both be sorted into Gryffindor and be friends like us?"

"I reckon we have teh wait and see if both the boyos get accepted teh Hogwarts at all during the summer," Cassidy grunted as she stretched out, "which isn't all that much of a concern fer my wee brother since he's wicked clever but yer such a bloody squib Gwennie I really doubt the school will want teh waste another perfectly good magical education on such a close blood relative teh yeh. Of course, assuming they do care to chance it, I'd like teh think my brother Aed has enough of my sense teh recognize Tommy as the pudd he is."

"TOMMY'S NOT A PUDD!" Gwen screeched as she leapt at Cassidy teeth first and started biting into her arm.

"HE IS AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE HE GETS IT FROM!" Cassidy insisted as she tried to remove Gwen by her long brown hair.

Both the girls wrestled along the pathway, causing other students to step clear of their tussle. This cause the procession of Gryffindors and those accompanying them to linger in step and watch the battle unfold. A few students, along with James, looked expectantly at Lily.

"Aren't you going to step in?" James questioned with a smirk.

"Why bother? They'll just wear themselves out in a minute anyway," Lily shrugged indifferently.

James smiled at his girlfriend with amusement.

"You know, I suspect six months ago you would have been of an entirely different disposition," said James.

Lily had changed a lot over the past year. James wagered that Lily wouldn't be nearly as amused by either Sirius or James's wanton defiance of authority several months before, the stern prefect and slave to the system she was. James would like to credit himself largely with this change in Lily's disposition since it was hard to maintain a strict pretense when you're dating the school prankster.

Of course it was only fair to credit Lily with the occasional glimmers of seriousness that James recognized within himself these days. In recent months practical jokes, quidditch, and other frivolous things that had been so important to James before faded into the background of his relationship with Lily. James had no clue if this was a sign of maturity or if centering one's priorities around another was a tell-tale of insanity but he couldn't help how he felt.

Lily was the most important thing in his life and anything that didn't include her was barely worth doing.

"Well that was before I realized life was too short," Lily noted with a grin as she gestured at their brawling classmates, "and that even though Cassidy has the size advantage, Gwen has a vice-like grip in both her hands and jaw to help balance things out."

Sharing a laugh, James and Lily walked on a little more ahead to leave the girls to their reasonably good-natured scrapping. Cassidy had just worked her friend into a headlock, shoving her glasses askew, with Gwen pinching her roughly underneath the tender flesh of her arms when a voice shouted at them from behind.

"Oy, Kinkade! What are you doing to that girl?" Riley McKinnon, a 6th Year Hufflepuff demanded. His fraternal twin, Bradley and his girlfriend which just happened to be Ophelia Atropos were lingering a few paces behind and eyeing the scene warily.

"That's between me and the runt, McKinnon," was Cassidy's polite way of telling him to sod off.

Riley McKinnon glared and crossed his arms, obviously not accepting this as a reply.

"Unhand her right now!" Riley insisted firmly, "I must say that I never imagined you'd see fit to bully someone so much younger than you, Kinkade! I mean the girl's only, what, a 2nd Year? What could she have possibly done to offend – "

"That's Gwendolyn McGinnis, older brother," Bradley McKinnon signed and looked to Atropos for some assistance.

"She's our age," Atropos added on, "in fact, I think she might actually be a few months older than you and Bradley."

Riley's indignation faded in wake of pure dumbfounded, confusion. He studied Gwen who was still being restrained by Cassidy although neither of the girls were thrashing about any longer. The two seemed to have taken to staring at him beneath sections of their disheveled hair and robes. Smiling, Riley shook his head.

"You're putting me on!" Riley laughed at the pair, gesturing to Gwen as he spoke. "The girl can't be five feet tall! And we just got done watching her bite onto Kinkade! What self-respecting witch of age would bite her opponent?"

Riley began to heartily laugh at the sheer absurdity of such a notion. His twin merely shook his head as Atropos put a supportive hand on his shoulder. Cassidy gaped at the cackling McKinnon, trying to decide whether she should pity the boy for obviously being a bit thick or cross that he had some-what insulted her best friend. In her arms, she felt Gwen shaking with what was most likely rage. Shrugging her shoulders, Cassidy stared at Riley.

"This self-respecting witch, lad. And if you think that's a riot wait until I turn her lose on yeh," Cassidy decided as she released her hold on Gwen.

Riley had barely heard Cassidy over the sound of his own chuckling when he felt the sum of Gwen McGinnis's compact match body check him into the dirt path; shrieking like a banshee and pummeling like a red cap.

Somewhere around the fray a chorus of voices started up in unison with:

When faced with bugs, rodents, and lizards

Witches always take flight!

But when we're faced with Wizards

We give them a bloody fight!

So when you war with Gryffindor

Know that the women have the might!

As par to tradition Honeydukes was so full of Hogwarts students buying sacks of sweets that there was practically a line forming out the door. Winifred Wilkes weaved between the bodies of her peers as she inspected the display of freshly made candies and decided whether she wanted to risk the numbing effect of a cool mint fudge or risk the sparks of a zesty chocolate-dipped orange.

A hand fell on her shoulder, prompting Winifred to turn about. She found herself peering down slightly at a witch with long raven hair and clear blue eyes, sporting something of a manic smile. Winifred wondered if she had bumped into a fellow shopper on accident until she found the face slightly familiar and jogged her memory slightly back.

"Aren't you Dr. Black, Sirius's elder sister?" she asked as she matched the features to her memory of vernal equinox at Severus's family home.

The witches face screwed up as though it had tasted something sour as she began to venomously shake her head.

"Bloody hell, do I look that much like her?" the witch muttered rhetorically before staring at Winifred. "How do you know Aurora anyway?"

"Just who are you?" Winifred was beginning to grow both curious and annoyed by the mystery surrounding this conversation as her black eyes fell fixed on the odd girl who looked very much like a relation to Sirius Black.

The witch took to grinning again as she motioned for Winifred to follow her out of Honeydukes before boldly taking her hand and pulling her along. Winifred might have protested if she wasn't about to suggest the same thing. Stepping out through the door and around into a neighboring alley, Winifred crossed her arms and cocked her head to the side.

"Well?" she asked expectantly.

The witch peered over her shoulder just once before she felt confident enough to answer Winifred's question.

"I'm Sirius Black," the witch smiled insistently in a low breath. "And before we jump into a round of the usual 20 questions that come with an odd situation like this I took a gender swapping potion to skip out of my confinement to the castle grounds and so you don't think I'm an imposter I gave you ringing glass blue bells for your birthday and you told me a story about a sparrow that decided being a sparrow was a pretty special thing."

Sirius stood back and appraised Winifred's reaction for any signs of skepticism. Winifred's eyes were slightly wide at this revelation until they filled with amusement as she chuckled into her hand.

"Oh Sirius, I had no clue you were that desperate for a day out," she giggled teasingly.

"Yeah well I thought that I could use a bit of fresh air," Sirius grinned along. "And I reckon that you probably wouldn't mind the company."

"So you intend to just shop around like a witch? That should be entertaining considering the little mannerism that sell femininity probably aren't easily dawned by a rugged fellow like yourself," said Winifred.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as though she had just been challenged.

"Are you suggesting that I can't pass myself off as a girl?" Sirius demanded.

"I'm flat out saying you can't," Winifred corrected.

"Well we'll see," Sirius chuckled. "I'm not trying to win a meddle, luv, I'm just trying to pass myself off at a casual glance for the afternoon."

"I think you could probably manage that," Winifred decided. "So do you want to actually walk about or are you content to spend the day in the alley?"

Sirius nudged Winifred along and started out of the alley.

"No we can go," she assured as she stole a sideways glance at Winifred. "Odd thing you being taller than me now."

"I was just thinking of how much I envy your figure," replied Winifred.

"That reminds me, how do you know my sister?" Sirius questioned as they walked past Honeydukes and a couple of Hufflepuffs checking to see which cards they had received with their chocolate frogs.

"She stopped by my cousin's house during spring holiday to pass some parchments off to Lucius Malfoy," Winifred shrugged unimpressively. "We should consider steering clear of Severus. He might make a similar association with your resemblance to Aurora and that would probably lead to him calling you out. The last thing you want is Severus catching you in violation of your probation."

"Yeah okay," Sirius agreed, not wanting to see Snape's face anyway.

Winifred considered adding on her suspicions of the romantic connection between Aurora Black and Severus that would additionally complicate things, but she didn't see any positive contribution in mentioning that. Although she was a creature who was fond of discord, Winifred had little desire to lure Sirius into a trap. Perhaps she was growing a bit soft by socializing with these Gryffindors and it was the dulling of that edge that Winifred feared would catch up with her soon.

Sirius glanced around. She looked notably relieved to be casually about with her peers but everything about her demeanor had a masculine quality. From the broad way she faced the world to her functional over accentuated stride. Winifred hadn't noticed how expressive and timid most girls carried themselves until she watched a boy do it. She was about to comment on this until she heard a voice call out behind her.

"Hold up a tick, Winifred," Regius Avery called in his usual drawl.

Both Winifred and Sirius turned around with unappreciative responses to who was hailing them. Avery wasn't alone. Florence Copia, Serpen Nott, and Walden Macnair were keeping company with the Slytherin boy. Winifred might have expected to see Mary Tudor and Aaron Lestrange to be with the others if they probably weren't off taking advantage of the lack of professor supervision.

"What do you want?" Winifred asked briskly. She was barely friends with these people and did not want to chance Sirius's behavior with prolonged exposure to members of her House.

"We need reasons to address you know?" Florence asked with amusement. "Didn't know you were so popular that we had to make appointments."

"Who's your friend?" Serpan cut in with a nod towards Sirius.

Winifred looked to Sirius, waiting for her to think of a reply since she didn't want to start inventing stories to cover for the Gryffindor that she might refute in the same breath. It's not as though either had had the chance to rehearse their replies to inquisitive passer-bys.

"My mum told me not to offer a name casually to wizards," Sirius dryly replied. "Might give them fresh ideas about where they stand with me."

"Listen to the mouth on this one! Just what I'd expect of one of Winifred's mates," Walden chuckled, genuinely entertained. His beady eye locked on Sirius like a fox would a hen.

Or just how Walden eyed witches in general.

Sirius sneered, obviously not flattered by the attentions.

"You got to Hogwarts then with us? A different year?" Regius pressed. It was hard to tell if he was feeling out information from Sirius or hoping to feel her up.

"I graduated last year from Ravenclaw," Sirius replied, before tugging at Winifred. "Let's head off. We can. . .um. . .shop for some robes."

"What's the hurry?" Regius questioned. "We're all getting along smashingly here."

"Thanks but I came out to see Winifred, that's all," Sirius said curtly.

Walden smiled to the other wizards in the group.

"She's a coy little bit, isn't she?" Walden commented, unclear as to whether he approved or disapproved of this trait.

Sirius flipped her hair back so she could give Walden Macnair a proper glare. Although Sirius wasn't particularly tall even as a wizard her diminished height as a witch certainly made her envy her usual stature. Particularly when she was staring down a hulking oaf like Macnair.

"Look, I'm going to say this in slow, short syllables so you'll be clear on my meaning," Sirius spat out in a definitely unladylike manner. "Sod off and play hide-and-go-shag yourselves before I dance on your throats."

Winifred was about to interject the point that as confident an opinion Sirius might hold in himself usually, he'd be hard pressed to take on all three boys as a wizard let alone as a witch. Unaware of this bit of information, Regius, Serpen, and Walden could only stifle laughter and exchange wide-eyed looks at the strange witch's threats of violent retribution.

Sirius, for her part, had an expression that wasn't hesitant and certainly not amused.

"I bloody warned you. . ."

It was impossible to feel entirely alone in the Three Broomsticks on a Hogsmeade weekend. Every table was completely occupied, pushed out chairs made walking a feat of grace, and even sitting alone at a the main bar as Gwen McGinnis presently was still gave the illusion of company.

Typical of her impression of the dynamics of her friendship with Millicent, Cassidy, Lily, and Arabella, Gwen couldn't help but feel all her more interesting friends had ditched her for their boyfriends or deathly dull shopping. Cassidy had an excuse since she and Gwen were still hot over their brawl on the way to Hogsmeade and Bronwyn had gone off with her.

Thus left Gwen to the silent but satisfying company of a butterbeer or at least what she had assumed.

"Oy," Riley McKinnon greeted half-heartedly as he sat next to Gwen at the bar counter.

"Oh, it's you," Gwen grumbled.

It was not surprising he had slipped so close to her unnoticed. There were so many people and so many voices it was impossible to keep track of who was where.

"I don't see why you get to be cross," Riley snorted with a grin, "I'm the one who just got my arse handed to me by a wee girl."

Riley had his usual friendly and stocky look set with dark brown hair and indigo eyes although he was still lightly dusted from rolling in the path leading to Hogsmeade with a respectable welt forming on his cheekbone. It would probably help more people to immediately distinguish him from his brother, Bradley for a few days, since both the boys were nearly identical in spite of their fraternal birthing. Aside from a few subtle angles and well placed moles, the only truly outstanding difference in the McKinnon boys was Bradley was two inches taller and a fairer shade of Riley's hair and eyes.

In a casual manner, Riley motioned for a butterbeer down to the barkeep on the other side of the counter. Once it was in hand, Riley placed the frosted bottle to his bruised cheek and sighed at the relief it offered. Gwen stared at her own bottle with an expression of guilt.

"Um. . .look McKinnon, I'm sorry about how I hit you like that. . ." Gwen apologized while chewing on her lip, ". . .and about biting your hand. . .then stepping on it. . .and for kicking that dirt in your face. In hindsight, I don't think it was fair to call you a 'dung muncher' since I really have no proof to support it. And that threat about pantsing you in the halls was mostly just talk – "

Gwen sucked in a deep breath, as though she was preparing to launch into another sting of admissions before Riley started shaking his head and hands, nearly slopping his butterbeer around while he was at it.

"STOP!" Riley laughed, "stop before I forget why I'm talking to you."

"I just feel bad now is all," Gwen mumbled.

"Nah don't worry none about it," Riley waved her apology off, "Brad and I have been in more than one tussle over the years so I'm a bit used to the occasional beating. Incidentally most of those fights were born from my younger brother pointing out just how smashing I look with my foot in my mouth much like I did today."

"Well it really wasn't about you," Gwen insisted, "you see when Cassidy winds me up like that it's really easy to set me off on someone else."

"She like that often with you?" Riley asked.

"Only enough to have a joke in Gryffindor run along the lines of if Cassidy Kinkade isn't being a cow to me she's either doppelganger impersonating her poorly or deathly ill and making final peace," Gwen informed.

"Well, McGinnis, I stand by what I said when I didn't think she should be bullying you like that," Riley noted. "I mean I heard her saying some pretty harsh things to you. I just think you could do for some nicer friends is all."

Gwen's brown eyes fell hard on Riley from behind her thick glasses.

"What are you carrying on about?" Gwen said sharply, setting her bottle down with a clunk. "Cassidy is my best friend ever!"

"You wouldn't know by the way she treats you," Riley defended his position before taking a swig.

Shifting her posture on the bar stool, Gwen looked at the McKinnon boy head-on with a defiant upturn of her chin.

"Well pull your foot out of your mouth and your head out of your arse so you'll catch this the first time!" Gwen snapped, "Cassidy is grand! In our first Year, nearly everyone was poking fun at me because I was the smallest in the lot, a muggle-born who was poor at magic, not to mention I had braces and glasses to boot!"

"I was really shy and insecure because Hogwarts and magic in general was just so new to me to me so I just took a lot of their remarks in silence and cried about it later on. One day, some Ravenclaw a few years older than us was giving me cheek on it all when Cassidy gut punched him and left him sobbing like a girl with a skinned knee. She told him I couldn't help it if I was a Muggle born runt of the litter with a goofy look to me. After that I followed her everywhere she went."

"Yes, a truly heartwarming acc – " Riley interjected sarcastically before Gwen's seething look cut him off. After all it wasn't like Gwen to abandon one of her heated monologues once she launched into it.

"I imagine Cassidy hated that I was following her around all the time. She kept kicking at me and telling me not to get used to her saving me every time I landed in a spot. She'd say the most awful things to me to drive me off but I just started saying awful things back to her that sometimes made her really cross! Still, anytime anyone was really harsh to me, Cassidy would just jump in and get them to back down or pummel them for it. The rest of the time she saw to making sure I kept at least passing marks with her in all our classes and the other little daily things I can't seem to work out on my own half the time. I guess it was like Cassidy's way of showing that since she did all this wonderful stuff for me most of the time she was free to bully me now and again but no one else had better dare think they have the right for a moment."

Gwen stared Riley square in the eye.

"That's why Cassidy Kinkade is my best mate in the whole sodding world."

Riley blinked for a few moments before a smile wiggled on his lips.

"You know, I think you sold me on it," he confessed, "honest, it sounds like Kinkade looks out for you above and beyond most friends would bother themselves with. Not only that but she toughened you up a bit. You probably don't even notice but I wager you don't really need Kinkade to stick up for you as much as she used to."

"Really?" Gwen questioned as she studied Riley.

"I've got you insults ringing in my ears and a muddle impression of your foot on my bum, what do you reckon?" Riley smirked.

With that, the pair collapsed into laughter, before Riley wiped a tear from his slightly blackened eye and glanced about.

"So where are your mates now?" he questioned.

"Ditched me like the lot of vile traitors those buggers are," Gwen reported in a half-hearted indignation. "Millie's buying quills and Bronwyn and Cassidy made it clear my company was to be excluded. What about you?"

"Brad and Ophelia are being young lovers, I'd either be a fifth wheel or admirable voyeur if I tagged along so I'm here," Riley explained, not all that put out by the reason behind his presence.

"Well I suppose we could take to sulking together," Gwen offered.

"We could," Riley agreed with a small smile, "or maybe we could have a good time on our own."

Gwen was a little put off by this. She was never the one in the limelight. She wasn't brilliant like Lily, funny like Arabella, talented like Cassidy, or sweet like Millicent. She was the obscure witch, the tag along, and mostly a bit player in the big picture so the thought of having something just for her was a little overwhelming and down right baffling.

"You. . .you sure?" she fumbled with the words.

Riley rolled up his sleeve and displayed a clean set of dental marks inscribed upon the flesh.

"I'll just leave it at you made an impression on me," he reported.

Gwen snorted a laugh.

"That was a bad joke, McKinnon you know."

"I know, McGinnis. How about I treat to the next round to make up for it?

"You won't believe what I just saw back along near Honeydukes," Tristan Travers laughed breathlessly to Mary Tudor and Aaron Lestrange as they picked over a piece of chocolate. Evan Rosier, though usually soft-spoken and attempting to be inconspicuous couldn't help a smile.

"Yes?" Tudor drawled with a raised eyebrow.

"We just saw some witch jab Macnair in the throat before hexing Avery and Nott with a spell that gave them cloven hooves and snots," Travers collapsed into laughter as he gestured between himself and Rosier.

"I would act surprise but I'm not that gifted in theatrics," Lestrange chuckled along with his girlfriend.

"Who was it?" Tudor asked.

"Dunno, some friend of Wilkes," Rosier contributed.

Severus Snape listened in mild interest since this sort of happenstance was in no way atypical of his cousin's usual taste in company. After all if she was willing to carry on with Black who knows what other crass, roughnecks would amuse her?

As though appearing merely to serve as the contrary, Millicent Meeks walked out in her common serene fashion carrying a brown wrapped package of some purchases. Finding himself once again favoring the company of Gryffindors over that of his own house and their cackling groupies, Severus approached the Meeks girl who paused to acknowledge him in her standard polite, if not flustered manner.

"Hello Mister Snape, are you enjoying the day?" she inquired with a small voice.

"I suppose so," he replied indifferently since this day stood out no more than the others traditionally did.

"That's nice," Millicent nodded. The expression on her face showed that she was actively seeking out some more pleasant small talk to engage him with. Meeks was an inoffensive person like that and had one of the rare dispositions that allowed her to be civil if not altogether kind to nearly any one. Severus would have found such a relentless need for harmony to be obnoxious and weak if Millicent Meeks wasn't so admirably convincing of the fact that this was just truly the person she was. Deciding to spare them both conversations about the weather, common school subjects, and mutual acquaintances that he didn't utterly despise, Severus skipped to a subject that had been pressing into the back of his mind for some time now.

"Meeks," Severus voice broke into the air, "I feel compelled to tell you that I'm aware you sent me a letter on Valentine's Day."

Millicent's freckles cheeks flushed into a full, deep red color. She said nothing as a sign of her overwhelming embarrassment at the topic coming up. She was deliberately looking away from Severus know as her hands began to wring themselves anxiously around the twine handle of her package. Severus stopped walking so he could devote his attention to the girl. Millicent stopped as well, although Severus wanted to confess a certain measure of surprise over the awkward girl not merely racing off like the startled rabbit she was intimidating.

"I'm not upset by it," Severus assured the distraught girl, hoping it would bring her fidgeting to an end, "I'm simply. . .curious as to why you did send it to me."

Millicent took a deep breath for the sake of composure before daring to turn her grayish eyes on Severus.

"You mean, you want to know if it was a joke?" Millicent asked weakly.

"I know it wasn't," Severus candidly replied.

When he had first received Millicent's letter, Severus had studied it with his Manifesting Glass which was, to his best understanding, similar to a Muggle's magnifying glass except it discerned deliberate falsehoods in the text it inspected. The letter had turned out to be sincere and ever since he had found out Millicent was the author, Severus would have doubted even more as to whether the girl was capable of an intentionally malicious ruse.

Millicent nervously bit into her lower lip as she kept her eyes on Severus hesitantly. The blush had failed to retreat from her cheeks.

"I – well, that's to say I think – well favorably of you. I know that you might not be necessarily popular with everyone however you've always been very kind to me. I – I suppose greatly respect you as well. You're, well, brilliant and the Prefect of Slytherin which can't be an easy job yet you manage it just fine," Millicent confessed through a stammer as she kept her eyes on Severus as confidently as she could, "I just think you do a wonderful job here at Hogwarts and it's a pity that more people don't appreciate that in you."

Severus felt himself developing a similar uncomfortable demeanor to Millicent as she spoke her affections aloud. This certainly wasn't the norm of his day and he was very novice in his reactions to it.

Especially ones as flattering and sincere as those of Millicent Meeks.

"I see," Severus eased into his response, "I must confess that I wasn't aware that you held me in such personally high esteem."

Millicent nodded along with Severus's words as her gaze dropped once more. Severus almost felt like a bully for placing Millicent in this awkward situation. She was a girl who was very content to be overlooked and untroubled in her day to day life. Pressing something this sensitive to her was almost malicious on his part.

"Just so you are aware, I fully accept that my feelings are most likely unrequited. That's why I just left them as words on paper. I didn't wish to distract you with all this and I'm sorry it has," Millicent informed in her usual soft-spoken manner, "Don't worry, this won't affect anything in our currently established association. I will continue on just as productively as you partner in our Defense Against the Dark Arts assigned as I had before this day."

"Meeks, if I had wanted to only dismiss the topic and your feelings I would never have brought this up," Severus stated in a matter-of-fact voice, "Miss Meeks I find you to be one of the few individuals I can tolerate not only within your House but this entire school. You are a respectable and responsible individual who provides me some assurances that there are at least some people attending this institute that recognize it as a place of learning and will contribute to the world once they have outgrown it. Your company is entirely inoffensive to me and I find your usual self-conduct to be a welcomed alternative to solitude."

Stiffening slightly, Severus kept his eyes on Millicent in such a fixed position it was almost intrusive. Fighting nearly all his usual instincts on interpersonal conduct, Severus forced a chain of words to the surface.

"With all that to be observed and considered, I feel you and I are in many respects complimentary to one another and believe we would potentially benefit in establishing a courtship of one another."

"Oh," the syllable seemed to just fall out of Millicent's mouth as she stared at Severus. Her blush began to deepen once more before she nodded with a shy smile.

"I accept," Millicent said with a small nod, still blushing and smiling.

"Very well," Severus nodded, slightly relaxing, "shall we return to the main street of Hogsmeade then?"

"That would be fine," Millicent said in her usual accommodating way.

Walking side by side, neither Millicent nor Severus bothered to make physical contact with one another such as hand holding or brief kisses. Many families with anciently traced blood frowned upon overt displays of affection in public. He didn't fault people like Lily Evans for such ignorance since she was a Muggle-born and a more opened style of living just seemed to be their way, but there was little excuse for noble blooded wizards like Black or Potter to shamelessly reinforce such behavior. Severus suspected there was a duel motivation to Millicent's reserve. Her bashfulness restricted her from being the aggressor in nearly all matters and, to his understanding; her pureblood parentage would probably have encouraged her to behave more formally than that regardless of her shy disposition.

Severus himself would do nothing so forward since it was not only of little concern to him whether or not he touched Millicent Meeks but it went against everything his mother and father had socialized into him. It was uncertain as to whether Severus had ever seen his parents make contact with one another during his entire upbringing. Of course this might have less to do with social refinement as the possibility his parents maintained their marriage for purposes of mutual benefit rather than any sort of attraction or desire for physical comforts.

Still, virtually all the members of his family line entertained aristocratic values many wizarding families abandoned with the Victorian age. This required him to find an individual who could serve as an accommodating counterpart that was a close reflection to his own position in society and would help to maintain if not improve upon it. Someone whom he could be civil with and keep persistent company without suffering annoyance.

Millicent Meeks was an ideal candidate for all these specifications.

Unlike the affair with Aurora Black.

The simple fact that they were content to sneak around was an insult to their mutually respectable heritages. It also didn't help that she had no respect for him. If Aurora had, she would have been gracious enough not to kiss him and inspire a behavior most unorthodox to how he usually managed his life. In the very least she could have told him she intended to marry Malfoy rather than leave him to learn the news in an article sandwiched between a potions recipe for pixie repellent and discount coupons for cauldrons.

Very well, if Aurora was content to pair herself off with someone closer to her own stature in this world than Severus was fine with following after her oh-so wise example and arrange his own respectable matching. Millicent Meeks was a more than adequate mate to invest in and he certainly didn't have to worry about her orchestrating any elaborate games she intended for him to fail at.

Besides, at least this spared him continual interaction with Sirius Black.

A cabal of third year Gryffindor girls passed Severus and Millicent in the midst of the inescapable song they'd been reciting for half of the week. The Slytherin boy felt his curiosity get the better of him for the moment.

"A question," Severus poised, "who authored that chant the witches of your House have been using so effectively to annoy its male members?"

"Oh. . .um. . .I did," Millicent mumbled with a heavy blush. "Arabella and Cassidy wanted something to tease the boys with . . . but neither of them are particularly good with compositions . . .so I played with a few of the things they were saying . . .and put it to a rhyme. . ."

Millicent's sentence came out as though she were offering some horrible confession. Severus could only respond to the irony of the situation with a smile worming of his lips. After all the nicest girl in Gryffindor as well as his now decided girlfriend being the origin of Potter and his minion's annoyance was something that gave Severus no small measure of satisfaction.

"Well I must confess I am a fan of your work," he replied.

Aurora Black answered a knock on the door of her flat one dreary afternoon to find her father, Empyrean Black, on the other side. She smiled weakly at him doubting he would be oblivious to her worn appearance and depressed demeanor.

"I thought I was coming out to see you tomorrow," Aurora said. She didn't mean it to sound unwelcoming but she didn't look nor feel up to entertaining people.

"Yes, you'll get to meet David Bones," Mr. Black nodded. "Acontiae wants to introduce him to the family. Needless to say your mother is thrilled."

Aurora nodded, still trying to smile. She wanted to be happy for her youngest sister but it was hard to hear about happy couples when you were part of an unhappy one.

"Why not come in for a bit?" Aurora offered, figuring that's why her father had dropped by to begin with. "I was just starting afternoon tea."

Mr. Black shut the door while Aurora approached the tea set and poured him a hot cup, passing it to him on top a saucer. She made her way over to the sofas and chairs crowded around a coffee table.

"You know why I named you Aurora?" Mr. Black spoke as he followed his firstborn into her sitting room.

"Because I was born at daybreak?" Aurora guessed as she took a spot on a sofa with room for her father to join her.

"Good Merlin no, you were born at two in the morning, the darkest hour of the day," Mr. Black chuckled, "no, I wanted to call you Aurora because it felt like my entire existence had been completely reborn. I considered the day you were born to be the first worthwhile day I had lived for up until that point."

Aurora smiled a bit at this.

Why did all the best men in her life have to be blood relatives?

"So where did the inspiration for my siblings' names come from?" Aurora asked with interest since this was the first time she had heard this story in her twenty-five years of life.

"Well," Mr. Black began thoughtfully as he sipped some tea, "Celestine's birth had been very difficult. In all honesty we didn't know that she was going to make it. I named her Celestine because I knew she belonged with the heavens if she couldn't be with us. But, fortunately for us and unfortunately for the heavens, she pulled through just fine. I think she's always been the strongest one of you four, the one that keeps things together and working."

"Celeste is great like that," Aurora nodded at her sister's efforts.

Celestine was always something of a classic middle child, the ever peace-keeper who never seemed to mind that she was rarely the center of everyone's attention.

"Unlike you and Celestine, Acontiae couldn't wait to be born and came out as quick as she could," Mr. Black smiled fondly over the memories, "she was three weeks early and a three hour birth. I knew she would always live life fast, brilliantly, and never in one place for too long, so she's our little shooting star."

"You really knew your youngest girl," Aurora complimented as Acontiae's name fit her life to a T.

"Yes well, my only son will always prove to be something of a surprise with me," Mr. Black continued on, "by the time your mother was carrying Sirius, I was convinced I was going to have another daughter. The trend certainly suggested this. You might not remember since you were only seven at the time but your mum glowed throughout the entire pregnancy. Even though this was the fourth time through the whole thing and you'd think the novelty would have worn off everything about her was positively radiant. So I was going to call my forth girl Sothis, after the brightest star in the sky which is also in the dog star constellation."

Mr. Black took in a deep breath before smiling at Aurora.

"And then, of course, he turned out to be a boy," Mr. Black didn't sound at all disappointed by this, "so we called him Sirius which was just the more masculine term. And, being the only boy I knew that Sirius would stand out in the family a little bit more than you girls for that fact alone and would probably get everyone to pay attention to him since he was and always would be the baby of it all."

"I had always thought that you were just hoping he would be very straight-laced or, well, serious," Aurora confessed.

"Oh no, I wouldn't have you kids be any other way than how you all turned out," her father shook his head, "I love you for being the mature, reliable head of your siblings, Celestine for being the supportive and sensitive backbone, Acontiae for being arms and legs that keep everything going in some direction while pointing out the obvious, and Sirius for being the lively heart of you four that makes sure everything comes full circle with the will to carry on. . .albeit through him usually."

"So why the walk down memory lane?" Aurora asked, not at all disappointed to have taken it.

"Just wanted to make sure you knew that people still love you and are always going to love you and be with you even if some wizard doesn't see fit to at the moment," Empyrean Black stated with a smile.

Aurora said nothing but smiled and nodded. It was an obvious answer but still a nice one to hear. She sat in silence with her father for a moment as they invested their attention into their tea briefly.

"Were you in love with him?" her father eventually inquired gently, if not awkwardly, "did you want something more to come from it all that just dating?"

"I don't know," Aurora confessed, "it was short. We only knew one another briefly and we were barely seeing one another when it all fell apart. We had differences. . .differences that may have come between us eventually, but I'll never know if they would have."

Mr. Black's heart broke a bit for his eldest daughter. He had thought, once upon a time, that there would be a point when his children would no longer be vulnerable to such heartaches or would require advice and comforting words of their parents when they felt utterly lost. Of course, that was just naïve of Empyrean Black. After all, who was ever truly certain about their own life?

"Would you like me to tell you that he's a dunderhead for brushing you off over something so silly or that things will have a way of working themselves out?" Mr. Black asked his daughter sympathetically.

"I don't think either, though I appreciate the though," Aurora requested, "you see I don't think things will have a way of working itself out and I really can't bring myself for faulting him for it."

"Well, I can't do that for you," Mr. Black informed as he kissed his eldest girl on the top of her head, "the thing of it is, Aura, I think you are one of the most amazing and respectable women in the world. I can't really blame Lucius for wanting to be with you but I can fault this other bloke for not giving you the time of day. You might not want to hear it, but he's a fool for not giving you a chance to explain himself and I want something more for you than a fool."

"Thanks for that dad," Aurora smiled warmly as she hugged her father, "but you do know this is where Sirius gets it from."

"What's the point of having a son if he's not looking out for your daughters when you're not around," Mr. Black hugged his child back.

"Carrying on the family name I thought," Aurora grinned.

"I wasn't aware I raised my girls to be so traditional," Mr. Black smiled back.

"Well I don't think many will claim me to be entirely conventional," Aurora decided. "Thanks though dad, you perked me up a bit. This past week has just been. . .trying. . ."

Mr. Black nodded with complete understanding.

"You know what they say, dear, the course to true love never did run smoothly," he noted timeless wisdom. "That just means you have to be on the look out for a few bumps but it where your heading is worth it then you'll find a way over and around eventually."

Aurora smiled at her father and gave him a light hug.

"I know dad, I guess I'm still just trying to find my way in all this," she said softly.

"Aren't we all, Aura," he agreed as he hugged her back.

Madam Puddifoot's tea house aptly fit the nature of the cliental it attracted. It had a cozy quality, was tucked off far from the casual eye, and was obnoxiously sweet when happened upon.

Arabella Figg and Remus Lupin found themselves at a small table with a pot of tea shared between them. Pastels and frills could be spied in every corner along with snuggling and affectionate couples. Although either Remus or Arabella could be easily categorized to be anything but the norm, the two were no less enamored than the other Hogwarts students flanking them.

Still the two used their mouths more for conversation and sipping tea than for what some of the other students were putting theirs to.

"Hard to believe summer holiday is nearly on top of us," Arabella sighed between chews of a lemon cookie.

"We still have to get through finals, pet," Remus reminded.

"Lovely thought that," Arabella nodded sarcastically.

"Perk up, there's a silver-lining," Remus smiled, "the finals will put to rest who we can expect to be Head Boy and Head Girl for next term and I would be very surprised not to see either Lily or James holding one of those spots."

"I heard Tudor has a shot at it. Along with Snape," Arabella wrinkled her nose as a show of distaste that probably wasn't attributed to the lemon cookie. "I think I'd transfer schools if either of them were running things our 7th Year. Who else is in the running?"

"Umm," Remus paused for thought, "I believe Brad McKinnon from Hufflepuff and Gideon Prewett from Ravenclaw are candidates for Head Boy. Both have a good shot since I believe Prewett's brother was Head Boy in our 5th Year and McKinnon's sister, Marlene, beat out Sirius's sister, Aurora, just barely for the Head Girl slot in their Year. As for our own Head Girl, I think that Ophelia Atropos in Ravenclaw and our own Millicent are the forerunners."

Arabella nodded along as she listened to all these accomplished witches and wizards from one of the cleverest minds in her Year. She took a small sip off the rim of her cup.

"It's moments like this that make me truly question why you're with me," Arabella just shook her head.

Remus paused to stare his girlfriend up and down.

"Why wouldn't I be with anyone but you?" Remus demanded since he felt he had a pretty good deal going.

"Because I'm just woefully normal," said Arabella.

"I don't think I'd call you normal, pet," Remus teased before sobering up slightly, "still I love you and can't imagine carrying on without that in my life. And if you're going to contest this because your marks aren't the same as mine or you're not as special or popular or whatever daft thing you've lodged in your brain than I think you should know not a single one of those superficial things made me fall for you."

"Then what is the appeal?" Arabella pressed with a shrug, "if none of the things that matters to everyone else matters to you then why me of all people?"

And Remus thought he had self-deprecating moods.

"Because you mouth along with the words as you read them," Remus offered up earning a peculiar look from Arabella, "and because you chew each bite no less than twelve times but no more than eighteen. Because you insist on making an event out of your cats' have a preference of music and you need to make up rhymes to remember the dates and events in History of Magic. Because your socks always have to match even if the buttons and the holes on your shirt don't."

After finishing this in a long breath, Remus glanced to his girlfriend as though he had made some ground-breaking point. Arabella broke out smiling all over at such random notes on her behavior. She felt utterly flattered that Remus remembered all this and picked up on the rest. . .some of which she was clueless of possessing herself.

"Are these really reasons why you want to date me or case and point that I need an analyst and you need a hobby other that cataloging my idiosyncrasies?" Arabella laughed.

Remus's amber eyes burned on Arabella with a stern look tugging the corners of his mouth into a line.

"No I'm being serious here," Remus insisted, "I love you because you're always insecure about compliments and steadfast against criticisms. Because you loan people quills and never bother to ask for them back. Because you always share your mum's homemade cookies even though they're your most favorite food in the world. Because you cry for the misery of people you never met and offer a helping hand to people you barely know."

Arabella paused. Normally she was really poor about accepting such glowing praise but the sincerity attached to the words made them hard to reject, even for the sake of modesty. Her head dipped to the side as she brought a hand to Remus's cheek.

"You really see me like that? That's who you think you're dating?" she asked.

"That's the person I know I'm dating, Arabella, and no one gets to say otherwise. Not even her," Remus replied with a smile. "Maybe you think my taste is, to say the least, unorthodox, but what use do I have for some girl who conveniently fits into the rules and expectations of life when I have someone willing to define them moment by moment? Every second with you is special, Arabella, that's just what you do."

"I get it now," Arabella nodded with a smile, "I'm a barking loon and you're just as bad off because that's the sort of thing you're keen on."

"That's my girl," Remus encouraged with a smile, "keeping the world on a string with one hand while she's playing with scissors in the other."

"What do I need the world for when I have you?" Arabella patted his cheek affectionately to punctuate each syllable of her sentence, "Or course, one can never have too many scissors."

"They most certainly cannot," Remus played along with a usual grin.

Returning to their tea and cookies, the young couple smiled at one another before investing in their drinks. Remus took a long sip of his tea, not answering Arabella as though something more pressing plucked at his thoughts. Arabella watched him with a fond amusement, curious rather than offended. Although she was chatty by nature, Arabella didn't feel any particular pressure to always produce and prod a conversation along with Remus. He offered a rare and genuine air that expressed he didn't mind long silences. It was an excuse for him to think most likely.

After a bit though, Arabella felt herself growing fidgety and noticed Remus was now stirring his spoon in a cup that was almost entirely empty save for a bit of murky water speckled by leaves.

"Here," she motioned for his cup, "let me read your tea leaves."

Jarred back into the real world, Remus took a moment to process the words before he relinquished the cup without any effort of protest. Looking for any memorable patterns to make themselves known, Arabella searched her memory over for the parlor trick prophesizing she had been studying over the years in divination.

"Hmmm," she purred for the sake of theatrics, "there's a crescent cluster here which means you can expect interesting nights or will have a bad experience with fruit."

"Maybe I should pass on fresh apples with my lunch then," Remus joked in a voice that sounded so dry that Arabella was tempted to pour him a fresh cup of tea.

"This must be dull to you," Arabella wagered, knowing that Remus and the other boys weren't too impressed by the Hogwarts divination curriculum.

Remus opened his mouth, suggesting that he was about to say something to agree with Arabella but changed his mind before any words produced themselves. Instead he began to move his fingers into the tablecloth to make unintelligible patterns.

"No. . .that's. . . that's really not it," Remus said in a way so hesitant you could almost assume he was admitting to something dreadful.

"Did you want to leave still?" Arabella guessed. "It already seems like your mind has gone on ahead without us."

"It has," Remus confessed. "I've been trying to find the proper words for something and, well to be honest; it's not coming to me as easily as words had when I was explaining my affection before."

Remus stopped talking. Arabella didn't interject anything into the discussion, fearful that it would derail whatever her boyfriend intended to say next. Her full attention along with her eyes were latched upon him. After a quick and forced clearing of his throat, Remus met Arabella's eyes gaze with his own.

"You want to head off for some place a bit more. . .reclusive?" Remus placed a tentative offer on the counter along with his tea spoon.

"If it's snogging you're suggesting I reckon we wouldn't get a second glance," Arabella smirked with a nod around to the other lovey-dovey couples who were patrons of the tea shop along with herself and Remus.

"I wasn't. . ." Remus said before he stole a long breath of air, "I wasn't going to suggest snogging."

It was an expectant sort of look that Remus directed towards Arabella after that. She hooked her eyebrow, working out the sentence in her head before she pieced the crux of it together. It was long after this that Arabella's face began to take on the same pink color as the rest of the décor in Madam Puddifoot's as she began to stir her own cup of tea for no good reason at all. Pushing her blue eyes around the room, the uncomfortable feeling ridding over her gave way to a scandalized expression as she gestured a few tables over.

"Remus. . .is that Wilkes over their snogging with one of Sirius's sisters?"

True to their original plan, Lily and James discretely found their way back to the castle ahead of the body of their Year. Surprisingly enough Gryffindor tower seemed to be entirely deserted or at least the common room was for the moment. Lily shifted her green eyes over to James.

"Wonder where all the 1st and 2nd Years got to?" Lily questioned aloud.

"I'd wager they're all probably out by the lake or in one of the courtyards," James assumed. "It's too nice of a day to be stuck in the dormitories."

"Well let's see if your potion works quickly before we jinx ourselves and they all come back," Lily grinned as she headed up the stone stairs.

Stopping at her room she watched James bound past her, taking a couple stairs at a time, and heard him stomping through the boys' dorms. He resurfaced a moment later harboring a flask and a large smile.

"So this will really turn you into a witch?" Lily gestured to the vial.

"Yup," James nodded as he took a sip off it.

Lily watched with curiosity, waiting for some noticeable manifestation on James's part. It wasn't taking as dramatic an affect as Lily would have assumed it would rather she got to watch James gradually look more feminine as his mass diminished to somewhere near her own.

Albeit James seemed a lot scrawnier.

Lily couldn't stifle a chuckle over how odd it was to see a female version of her boyfriend. James allowed her a few laughs as she compared her own form to Lily's.

"I say it's a bloody good thing that you're the girl in this relationship or I'd say you were getting short-changed," James joked.

"I think you look cute," Lily assured. She was tempted to kiss James but didn't trust herself not to laugh.

"Want to see if you'd make a dashing boy?" James motioned to the potion.

"Are you going to stay as a witch?" Lily bargained teasingly.

"Umm, actually I think that would be a bit too surreal for me to keep in any proper mood," James confessed with an awkward laugh to the thought of being the witch in the relationship. Secretly he didn't want some snogging about on a lark to lead to some twisted deviant lifestyle that had him running about as a witch all the time, "Come on, let's see how big my loophole is before we catch someone's eye."

Lily nodded in agreement as she opened her bedroom door and held it open. James took a deep breath in an effort to steel herself against the barrier of the charm if it decided to buck her again upon walking through the threshold. Taking off her spectacles, James handed them to Lily as she toed at the entrance of the room.

James didn't feel any sort of resistance from the room.

Daring a longer stride, James crossed into Lily's room uneventfully. Throwing her hands to her hips with a triumphant expression, James beamed. Lily followed her in, shutting the door behind them so as not to be otherwise disturbed.

Or so as not to disturb others. . .

"Ha! I knew could figure my way around that pesky charm," James crowed merrily.

"Congratulations," Lily smiled with an amused applause, "yours is truly a brilliant, randy mind."

"Well come over here and I'll show you a few things that have been on it," James propositioned, resulting in some giggles from Lily. Tossing her a bewildered look, James peered at her girlfriend without benefit of her glasses.

"I'm sorry it just sounded funny when you said that as a girl," she insisted.

"Yeah well I think I'll be taking that potion now so I won't have my girlfriend cackling at private moments anymore," James grumbled as she uncorked the flask and took another sip.

James had just finished swallowing the potion for its counter effects when the barrier spell decided to kick back in. With a loud crack and a hiss of air, James felt himself propelled back in the direction of Lily's bedroom door. Impacting with it rather roughly, James managed to take the oak door from its hinges and be plastered on top of it from the force. As though this wasn't loud and destructive enough, the momentum carrying James and Lily's bedroom door rode him down the stairs and into the Gryffindor commons in a rather rough toboggan ride.

Chasing after James with her eyes wide and mouth agape, Lily met her dazed boyfriend at the foot of the stairs and crouched to his side with a distraught look.

'"JAMES! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" Lily shrieked, hoping James hadn't been too bashed up by the barrier spell. "What was McGonagall thinking? You could have been killed!"

"I reckon she was thinking I wouldn't get past the doorway," James groaned as he sat up on the precariously placed door he was stretched out upon. He was a bit jostled and sore but no worse that the usual game of Quidditch so he suspected the Hospital Wing wouldn't be necessary for the time being.

At the moment, James was far more intent upon nursing the blow to his ego and the grudge he was starting to carry against the Deputy Headmistress.

"What the hell is all this?" Cassidy laughed at the disarray upon entering the common room.

James and Lily jerked their head around at the girl with surprised expressions.

"What are you doing here?" they asked in unison.

"Millie was chatting with Snape, Gwen was hang'n about with some Hufflepuffs, and Bronwyn wanted teh start one of her essays so things were a bit dull," Cassidy explained mildly. "Not nearly as eventful as whatever is go'n on here. What is go'n on here by the way?"

"James thought if he took a gender swapping potion it would let him sneak past McGonagall's charm," Lily said with an exasperated tone.

"As you can see it worked brilliantly," James muttered sarcastically as he stood up.

Cassidy began to laugh so hard that she started to grip her sides for support. Seeing her doubled over, James was right tempted to give her a good kick in the bum.

"Yeh know Potter, if yeh had been will'n teh do all this fer me maybe we might have had a chance," teased Cassidy.

In spite of how much both Lily and James desperately wished to continue with their air of gloom and pouts, both cracked into smile and chuckles over Cassidy's comment. Shaking his scruffy hair about, James stood up and waved his wand at Lily's bedroom door to enchant it to levitate itself back up the stairs.

"Come along and help me get this back in it's proper place before everyone else makes their way back," James requested.

Still laughing off their hard luck, the three Gryffindors climbed the stairs after the door.

Not long before supper, the bulk of Gryffindor returned to the common room to drop off their finds from Hogsmeade before sitting down in the Great Hall. Managing to repair the damage to the door, James and Lily were seated cozy on the couch talking with Cassidy.

Millicent and Gwen walked in looking rather upbeat as they stepped through the portrait entranceway. Millicent gave a quick wave and a small blush as she hurried off towards the dorms. Gwen approached the other 6th Years in a bounding fashion.

"Well Cassidy I would like to thank you for being daft hag to me on the way to Hogsmeade because Riley McKinnon just spent the whole afternoon chatting it up with me," Gwen chirped happily.

"It's nice that the McKinnons do charity work," Cassidy remarked through a yawn.

Gwen's face scrunched up as she pulled on Cassidy's ponytail in retaliation. James hugged Lily to him a bit while they waited for their friends to stop assaulting one another.

"So what put the spring in Millie's step?" James asked.

"Dunno," Gwen shrugged through Cassidy's choke-hold. "She's just been really happy. Of course I don't think I've ever seen Millicent anything but happy so they must have had a sharp shade of ink or something at the stationary store."

Lily's brow knitted into itself as she craned her neck a bit out from under James's arm, recalling a bit of conversation from before.

"Cassidy, didn't you say that she was walking about with Severus Snape?" Lily questioned, causing James to go rigid against her.

"Yeah. . ." Cassidy trailed off, obviously not liking where the conversation was heading based on the expression on her face.

"Well I'd be ready to hang myself if I had to talk at length with Snape," Gwen remarked as the point of the conversation shot past her head.

Making his usual grand and loud entrance, Sirius bounded in and leapt onto the seat Lily and James were taking up and wedged himself inconveniently between them. He had changed out of his feminine form and attire, tossing a shoulder bag on the table that probably contained the clothing he had worn at Hogsmeade. James passed a meaningful look around to the girls, indicating that they should abandon their prior discussion.

"So how was your day?" Lily asked politely, hoping to get Sirius off and running about himself so he wouldn't be inquisitive about the other members of the House.

"Wonderous! I got to pummel the tar out of some Slytherins and found out Winifred doesn't mind snogging girls," Sirius smiled wildly.

Gwen's eyes were wide and magnified from behind her glasses while Cassidy seemed to be greatly interested in this revelation.

"Yeh don't say," Cassidy said through a quirky smirk.

"Well if he doesn't half of Madam Puddifoot's afternoon tea drinkers will," Remus interjected from behind the couch as he and Arabella arrived. Their arms were intertwined firmly around one another's lengths, as though they suspected someone might try to suddenly break them apart. Feeling slightly competitive, James made an active effort to snuggle Lily more.

"You two look like you had a nice day out," James noted.

"Yeah, we did alright for ourselves," Arabella nodded. "So should we see about supper, I'm famished!"

Nodding along with this sentiment, the Gryffindors began to gather themselves up off the couch. Gwen motioned towards the stairs.

"Well I'll go grab Millie, if she's not trying to self-obliviate herself from having to talk with Snape," Gwen said causing many people to cringe. Sirius made a face, oblivious of the ones that were being made over his shoulder.

"Poor Millie, stuck with that swooping bat," Sirius grumbled before perking up. "Good thing I have the heart-warming memories of feeling up his cousin!"

At this point Sirius didn't notice when most of his friends left the room either.

"This is the last bunch. Are you sure you have a hold of it?"

"Yeah! But it keeps fighting me. How do girls' carry a bloody thing with these narrow shoulders? We should have had Moony and Wormtail come along so we could carry this load faster."

"No, four would be conspicuous and we need someone to be our alibis."

"Yeah, McGonagall would trust any of our words about as much as neck rub from a vampire."

"Shhhh! Okay just levitate that up there and I'll put the trigger charm up there."

"I love it when we spend time together, Prongs."

"Me too Padfoot."

"Oy! Hurry up they're coming!"

"Ha!"

Although his gender swapping potion had been a flop in respects to quality time with Lily, James figured it was perfect for a prank on the singing witches of their House. With a swig each before the students in their house traditionally woke up for the day, James and Sirius dawned their feminine sides once more too sneak up the faulty flight of stairs that usually left them on their bums. They had been up all night in the woods and by the lake preparing for this practical joke and their last trip into the girls' dorms to set things up was cutting things close.

Underneath the invisibility cloak and back to their proper dorms, a female James and Sirius materialized with beaming expressions before and expectant Remus and Peter.

"Did it go off without a hitch?" Peter pressed eagerly.

"We'll know soon," Sirius promised happily as she made a bee-line for the cauldron to return to her normal manish state. James smiled and followed closely behind.

"I hope our girls have a good sense of humor about all this," Remus sighed but didn't seem entirely put out.

Finishing his drink after Sirius, James just shrugged.

"They have no one to blame but themselves and their clever song," James assured confidently as he went over to his dresser and pulled out his clothing for the day.

A few moments later

Yawning, stretching, and the myriad of other motions that are performed when girls awake on a Monday morning for classes, the witches of Gryffindor were busying themselves with their routines to prepare for the day. Joining the other 6th Year girls in the halls connecting the bedrooms from the dormitory baths Lily rubbed the sleep from her eye as she carried her toiletries at her side along with a clean uniform.

"Hello all," she said in a partial yawn.

Cassidy muttered something groggily while Gwen leaned against her, attempting to doze back off. Millicent, who was a morning person smiled perkily at Lily before returning her greeting. Arabella nodded and started her own yawn since these sorts of things are usually contagious.

"Oh we have a whole week ahead of us don't we?" she asked rhetorically before dawning a glum look. The idea of five straight days of lessons after a casual weekend certainly struck Arabella as more than unreasonable.

Cassidy muttered something else that seemed to agree with Arabella before she putted in the direction the bathroom with her toothbrush in hand. Gwen wobbled without her tall pillar of support but managed to keep her balance before forcing her eyes open in a reluctant flutter. Millicent just continued to smile on and on.

"Well it does seem like a lot but we shouldn't let this sort of thing get us all down," Millicent chirped enthusiastically. "We should think of the beginning of the week as an opportunity for something new and wonderful to happen."

Merrily, she went off to join Cassidy in the bathroom. Gwen attempted to focus her eyes on the happy witch.

"I say leave the mornings to the bloody morning people," commented Gwen in a croak.

"She's been awfully chipper lately," Arabella remarked in a tone that could pass for suspicion or mere observation.

Lily yawned again, feeling herself waking up enough to get herself prepped for breakfast and classes.

"I think we could all use a bit of cheer to get us moving along," Lily decided. "At this rate the boys will be up and out the door before us."

Arabella's sleep worn expression lit up a bit with a broad grin.

"I know what will get out witchy ways in the works," Arabella played with alliteration, "how about a rousing chorus of the Gryffindor Girls' fighting chant?"

Gwen shook here head before scratching it.

"I can barely talk let alone sing," Gwen informed.

"Well you can barely sing so there's not much of an argument to raise," quipped Arabella playfully before glancing to Lily. "Come on, start it up with me and others will jump on. I imagine it'll perk the lot of us right up for the day."

Lily shrugged. She was growing a bit tired of the song but doubted a few more verses would drive her mad yet.

"Alright," agreed Lily as she waited for Arabella's cue to carry on. With a dramatic wave of her hand like an orchestra conductor, Arabella established the tempo before starting up the song with Lily and Gwen's voices right behind. Soon other from about the door jumped in on the lyrics in harsh and moderately enthusiastic tones.

When faced with bugs, rodents, and lizards

Witches always take flight!

But when we're faced with Wizards

We give them a bloody fight!

So when you war with Gryffindor

Know that the women have the might!

With the final verse uttered a strange popping noise sounded off from all around the girls in the corridor. Those who had entered the bath hurried out to see what the noise was with bewildered and inquiring looks. Pieces of parchment fluttered down in the air like falling leaves as girls began to pluck at the clues to read them. Lily snagged one and inspected an all too familiar print.

Grab those brooms girls !

Adoringly,

The Wizards of Gryffindor

Lily was about to say something but whatever the words had intended to be were lost when she noticed insects, rats, and snakes pouring out of every plant, vase, draw, and curtain occupying the hall and made their ways frantically towards and away from the now hysterically screaming female body of Gryffindor.

Sharing low-kept chuckled between them, a very male James and his friends put the finishing touches on tucking in their shirts and adjusting their ties when a chorus of screams sounded off from the girls' end of the dormitories. Most off towards the great hall with the 6th years had alarmed expressions to them until they notice how hard James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus were laughing. Daring to be inquisitive, Mundungus Fletcher raised an eyebrow to the boys.

"So what's going on over there?" Fletcher asked.

Deciding Sirius was too busy hyperventilating himself with the other boys to answer, James responded through his wildly grinning teeth.

"Music to my ears, mate," James laughed.