Septième Amour
Intro:
Well, it turns out that I changed my mind about the chapter's name. Instead of the Marauder's Map, it's now called "Rudy". I've decided to re-adjust my order of events (again), so that The Marauder's Map's happenings transpire later on. This is the chapter where... Hmm, well, why spoil it? You'll be reading it anyway (AND REVIEWING. lol). By the way, it begins on Saturday, the day after the howler. The dates are extremely important to the plot, and if you know the dates well, and the final plot reveals itself, everything will fall into place. And, no, the final plot hasn't begun yet. You'll know when it has (And yes, I know it's boring right now, but please bear with me).
Characters here belong to JK Rowling, not me (except for the ones you don't recognize)!
Chapter 4: "Rudy"
"Why don't you do us all of favour and stuff your head down a pipe?" Lily spat, her green eyes burning.
"Ooooooooh... Evans is jealous of me!" Bellatrix shrieked.
Lily smiled sarcastically. "Hmm. Yeah. Of course I'd be jealous. Who wouldn't be jealous of a deluded self-centered crazy half-girl?"
Bellatrix paled and smirked. "What did you say? You can't even think of a good insult. Bella, on the other hand, has plenty."
Lily shrugged and started walking down the hall, saying, "You know you're crazy when you start speaking in third person."
The library door opened and the marauders stepped out, doubled over with laughter; Peter's eyes were practically streaming.
"YOU'RE the half-girl here, you mudblood."
Lily spun around. James' and Sirius' laughter stopped. She heard Lupin telling Peter to shush. Silence was immediate.
Then, a few things happened at once. Bellatrix cast a spell at Lily, who leapt aside. The curse advanced instead to Sirius, whose wand was out. He started to reflect it to a suit of armour – but not fast enough.
Sirius managed to gasp, "Holy!" before a large stream of miniature scorpions came out of his mouth.
They crawled slowly down his face; pincers cutting into Sirius' skin, causing rather heavy bleeding. The scorpions clung onto his robes, landing with a soft plink on the floor.
James was livid. He gave an indignant sort of roar and plunged his hands into his robe.
Sirius managed to moan, "Prongs! I'm okay!" while Remus plucked a few scorpions off Sirius' robe (Peter was slowly edging away).
"No you aren't!" James snarled, and pointed his wand at a stunned Bellatrix.
Lily saw Remus' mouth open, but before any word could tumble out, James glared at him and hissed, "I don't care."
Remus took a step back. "Erm. Okay then."
Lily, having finally stopped staring at Sirius (who was bleeding very, very, badly), quickly started vanishing all the scorpions on the floor. No one paid her much attention.
She had no chance to yell a countercurse. James' spell hit Bellatrix on her stomach. Nothing seemed to happen for three heart-stopping seconds. Then, Bellatrix began to change.
Her skin, what was a beautiful ivory, changed rapidly to a dark, murky brown. Her hair was getting shorter, her eyes growing darker, and her hands became paws; she dropped her wand. Fur sprouted all over her face and legs (which were becoming paws) as her back hunched and spiked.
All the while, she was screaming curses, but as her wand wasn't in her hand, nothing happened. Soon however, having realized that if the shrinking continued, her voice would be lost, Bellatrix began to scream, "Rudy! Rudy!" instead.
Soon, her voice, too, stopped; Bellatrix was a porcupine.
In that state even, Bellatrix was beautiful (for a porcupine). And like all of the Blacks, her arrogance was still pronounced. Lily walked over to pick her up, but Bellatrix stuck her nose in the air and began to crawl away.
"Huh! Fine then." Lily said indignantly, and turned around to talk to the marauders, but they were gone.
"How...? Where'd they go?" Lily thought, puzzled, but then, around the corner, came Rudolphus Lestrange, answering Bellatrix's call. And behind him was the transfiguration teacher.
"Miss Evans! What do you mean by this?" Professor Iburin breathed once she glanced at Bellatrix, crawling frantically to her boyfriend.
"It was like that when I got here." Lily muttered, averting her eyes. Bellatrix gave an indignant sound somewhere between a squeal and a snort.
Lestrange cast one look at the porcupine (who was now scratching his shoes) and snickered.
"I heard Bella calling. Thought I might ask Professor Iburin along. And what do you know? It turns out you've transfigured a student!"
Lestrange looked around. "Where is Bella anyway?"
Bellatrix whined and scratched harder, leaving marks. Lily sniffed, bemused.
The professor raised her eyebrows and pointed. "Do you not recognize this to be Miss Black?"
"Wha-? What do you mean? I'd recognize Bella—" He peered down and a look of dawning appeared on his face and lasted for a while. Then he turned quite purple.
"You!" he accused, pointing a finger at Lily.
Taking a step back, Lily answered as calmly as possible, "Yes?"
"Don't act so innocent! You did it didn't you? Professor—"
But the professor was shaking her head. "No, I'm afraid that the only evidence against Miss Evans is not good enough. And she herself said that the situation was like this when she arrived..."
Lestrange looked like he'd explode. The porcupine however walked quickly over to Lily and tried to raise one of her stubby paws in her direction.
"See?!" Lestrange spat, "See? Bella says so! Erm... Madam."
The professor sighed at his immaturity. "I'm afraid I can't take just her and your word. It's not a secret you and Lily aren't the best of friends..."
Both Bellatrix and Lestrange fell silent, twitching.
"Well." The professor said as she picked up the porcupine. "Come with me Mr. Lestrange. We have to take her to the hospital wing. It'll do no one good if a porcupine shows up in class."
Lestrange looked amused. "Porcupine?"
"Yes. It's a muggle animal." Lily said, trying not to sound too gleeful at the outcome.
Lestrange looked to see how far away Professor Iburin was and breathed, "It's not over yet. Mudblood."
Bellatrix gave a squeal and Lestrange ran off to catch up. As they rounded the corner, Lily heard him hiss, "I know she did it professor! Just a drop of veritaserum will prove it!"
There was a pause as the professor hesitated, "I don't think so Mr. Lestrange. It's a violation of privacy, and as she's the head girl, we owe her our trust."
"But—"
"Please Mr. Lestrange. This subject has ended." Then, without giving him a chance to react, Professor Iburin continued briskly, "Now I trust you need to know how long before the spell wears off?"
"Yes please, Madam."
"The truth is, I'm not sure. This is one of the most complex temporary transfiguration spells I've seen in a long time... Extremely strong—"
"Yes well. About how long?" Lestrange interrupted.
"I expect she'll be back to normal in the first week of October, though I can't be sure." The professor answered, her voice fading as they got farther away.
Lily sighed and began to walk back to her dormitory, her insides writhing with guilt.
A/N:
Please review and check out my other Harry Potter fanfic.
