Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
I'm sorry it took me so long to update. I didn't have access to the internet for a week.
Thanks to everybody for reviewing, you made me so happy.
Special tanks to my wonderful beta Maranwe.
Chapter 3: An Adhesive Situation
It was night and a gentle rain was falling, but James didn't feel the drops hit him. It was like an invisible barrier repelled them. He could just look up and see the raindrops fall, but they never ever reached the ground. The scenery changed and James felt a lurch in his stomach as he started floating. He struggled hard to get back to the ground, flapping his arms like windmills. A group of people was standing around, laughing and pointing at him. What was so funny? James looked at his reflection in the window of a steaming scarlet train. Shocked, he discovered that his face was painted like a clown's with a red nose and huge, white grin. His cheeks had round, pink dots and his eyes were highlighted blue. People still pointed at him. He wanted to get away, but something held him back. James looked down bewildered. A rope was tightened around his ankle with a huge knot. James' eyes followed the rope to its other end, which was clamped in the hand of Remus. Remus was walking around the crowd of people, yelling something James couldn't understand at first.
"Balloons, beautiful, large balloons. Just one sickle a-piece," Remus yelled.
"No, I'm not a balloon. You're making a mistake," James cried down, but nobody seemed to notice.
A small redheaded girl with pigtails appeared out of the crowd.
"Oh Mummy, can I have that big one? The clown?" she said, pointing directly at James.
The girl's mother appeared. She looked vaguely familiar, with blonde hair in a ponytail, blue jeans and a black T-shirt. She looked rather like the girl's older sister than like her mother.
"No honey, he's a bit tall, isn't he?" she said, smiling at James serenely.
They disappeared in the crowd. Other faces appeared. They didn't look friendly but gleeful. Snape and Black. James flung himself at them. He got hold of Snape's robes and was about to punch him, when somebody shook him.
"James, it's time to get up. Lessons will start in half an hour," said a voice that was vaguely familiar.
"Geroff me," James mumbled in his sleep, rolling around in his bed.
Again, somebody shook him.
"James you will miss the start of the lessons if you don't get up at once. Don't make me dump water on you."
James opened his eyes slowly and blinked a few times. Remus looked down at him.
"Must have been a really good dream. I have been trying to wake you up for at least five minutes," he said.
"No, it was horrible. I'm glad you woke me up."
Remus looked at him quizzically.
"Have you ever sold balloons at a fair, Remus?" James asked suspiciously.
"No, I'd prefer selling chocolate frogs. Why?" said Remus.
"Never mind."
James, being a morning person, jumped out of his bed at once and was surprised to find the dormitory completely deserted except for Remus and himself. Remus had finished packing his schoolbag and was starting towards the door.
"Hurry," he yelled at James, before vanishing through it.
James was making his way towards the bathroom sleepily when he hit his toe on something hard that was lying in the way. Looking down, he saw stacks of schoolbooks scattered around the floor next to various pieces of clothing and dungbombs. Swearing, he pushed the books out of the way with his foot, which wasn't a good idea. 333 Basic Potions for Beginners by Equilibrius Aquatus Paracelsus landed on top of a dungbomb, which exploded instantly. Within a minute the whole dormitory smelled like a mixture of old cheese, socks and rotten cabbage. James, who had used dungbombs on several occasions himself, was surprised again at the variety of odours they could produce. He didn't mind dungbombs very much as long as they didn't smell like the kind of public toilet nobody ever seemed to clean.
He rushed through the bathroom and dressed quickly. Then he started rummaging through his trunk for school supplies and something else he couldn't find right away. James considered climbing into his trunk to make the search more comfortable for him, when he spotted what he was looking for. Pulling his head out of the trunk he produced a small pouch with an assortment of different coloured solutions. Smiling at them lovingly, he chose a colourless liquid and put it in his schoolbag as well.
When James was all packed, he rushed through the door, down the stairs, out of the portrait hole and… had no clue how to continue. He tried to remember desperately, which way they had come from last night, but couldn't recall anything. Between the welcoming feast in the great hall and his waking up that morning there seemed to be a great, big blank in his memory. Assuming that the Great Hall was somewhere on the first floor, James started towards the first staircase that was going down. He could see the floor below and started running downstairs when the staircase suddenly changed its mind and moved. It was now ending one floor higher than where James had started.
How he reached the Great Hall ten minutes later, James never knew. He remembered running up and down staircases that changed direction, corridors that ended in dead ends and one spiral staircase that had suddenly turned into a slide as he was walking on it. When he had finally decided to give up on the attempt of finding the Great Hall after walking past a picture he was sure he had seen just a minute ago, he heard Remus calling his name.
"James, there you are. I've been waiting for you. No time to eat breakfast anymore. We've to find the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom first," Remus said.
"I'm starving. I need something to eat," James complained.
Remus smiled at him.
"What would you rather have: detention for being late to class or being hungry for just a few hours?" Remus asked.
James didn't have to think about that long as his stomach rumbled.
"I'll take detention. Wasn't expecting to last long without anyway," he said.
Remus rolled his eyes at James and grabbed him by his arm.
"Come on. Defence Against the Dark Arts will be great. At least it will if Professor Palmer knows her remedies. I've heard she started auror training but broke it off for some reason," Remus said excitedly as he dragged James along with him, who cast a longing glance into the Great Hall, where some older students were still having their breakfast. He groaned but followed Remus.
Remus led him down a corridor and headed towards a staircase leading up. He sniffed.
"What's that funny smell?" he asked.
"What smell?" James asked confused, the corridor didn't smell differently than the Entrance Hall.
Then comprehension dawned on his face and he sniffed his robes.
"That's just from a dungbomb," he informed unconcernedly. "Don't you like the odour, Remus?"
"No, not at all," said Remus.
"Then you won't like the smell in the dormitory."
"What? Why?" Remus asked alarmed.
"Because I accidentally blasted a dungbomb. I have to say again, that it was just an accident."
"Does that mean all our stuff smells like that?" Remus asked, dreading the answer.
"Yep," James nodded.
Remus groaned as he walked toward a solid wall in a beeline and vanished. James blinked for a second, but then he remembered the entrance to the platform at Kings Cross and walked toward the wall as well. He slammed into it headfirst and could feel a stabbing pain taking residence in his forehead. Taking a step back, he watched the wall suspiciously, rubbing the sore spot in his face. Suddenly Remus' head appeared out of the wall. James jumped backwards.
"Why aren't you coming, James?" the head asked.
Remus understood when he saw James rubbing his forehead where a large, red bruise had started to form. He tried to suppress a smile, but failed dismally.
"Two feet to the left and you'll come through all right," he said, grinning.
"Thanks, buddy," James said sarcastically before he made another attempt to enter the hidden corridor. He was successful this time.
Considering the early hour, the fact that he hadn't had breakfast and the pain on his forehead, James was in a surprisingly good mood. The long night's sleep had done him some good; he felt mischievous again and was looking forward to the lessons. He just hoped that they would be able to get some decent seats for the Defence Against the Dark Arts class. To his great surprise they were some of the first students that arrived in the classroom, due to the fact that Remus seemed to know exactly where they had to go. They made their way to the front row and claimed two desks right in front of the teacher's desk. To James' dismay, he had to sit next to Sirius but he didn't mind that much. Sirius, on the other hand, looked sour. Apparently, today was his day to be in a grumpy mood. The rest of the class filled in slowly. Snape took the seat behind Sirius. James stared at him loathingly and his good mood seemed to darken slightly.
"You could at least apologize for cursing me yesterday," he snapped at Snape.
Snape looked up from his book broadly. A smirk appeared on his face.
"Why don't you leave me alone Potter?" sneered Snape. "Just go comb your hair, will you?" he added with a glance at the mess that was the top of James' head.
Before James could retort, the bell rang and Professor Palmer entered the room.
"Sure I will. On the day you decide to wash yours," hissed James in Snape's direction, before sitting down in his seat.
A couple of late students hurried in.
"Sorry Professor. We couldn't find the classroom and that poltergeist kept chasing us in the wrong direction."
"No problem, but now settle down please, I would like to start," said Professor Palmer.
To the class' surprise she wasn't wearing a cloak today, either. Instead, she wore comfortable black pants and a t-shirt with Chinese signs. James recognized her as the woman from his dream. He was distracted from his memories when Professor Palmer spoke again.
"Welcome to my class. As you'll all probably know about the importance of this class, I won't bother you with long speeches. Instead we will start right away with curses," she started. "Err, yes Mr… what's your name?"
A small boy in the back of the class had raised a slightly trembling hand. James thought he had seen the boy before but couldn't recall where.
"Peter Pettrigrew. I don't understand the importance of this class. It's not likely that we are going to be attacked, is it?"
"If you had lived in 1945, you would say the exact opposite. People then had to be afraid of an attack every day," Palmer responded, surprised at that question.
"Yes, but that was Grindelwald's time. He's gone now, isn't he?" asked Peter, his voice shaking.
The Professor smiled at him kindly.
"Yes, that was Grindelwald's time, and before that it was Grumblepack in 1903, and Barnabas Booger around 1858 and Diddlefink before him, and Larkin Liquorice before him" she said kindly. "Shall I continue? The defeat of one dark lord doesn't mean there'll be no others after him. So we should be prepared as early as possible. Don't you think so, Mr. Pettrew?"
Peter nodded embarrassed and put his hand down.
"Good," the Professor beamed. "Who can tell me what to do, if somebody is trying to curse you?"
Several hands shot in the air, Remus and James' among them. Palmer looked around and noticed Snape.
"And your name is?"
"Severus Snape," he said.
"Very well, Mr. Snape, can you come up to the front to demonstrate what you would do when attacked? I'm going to use a minor curse which is not classified as dangerous and you'll do whatever you like," said the Professor.
Snape got to his feet and looked at Palmer, almost assessing. He seemed to be fully convinced of himself, a fact that made James like him even less.
"Are you ready?" said Professor Palmer as she drew out her wand.
Snape nodded, his wand clutched tightly in his hand.
"On the count of three, then. One, two, three, Locomotor Mortis," she said.
Light erupted from the tip of her wand and shot at Snape. But he was prepared and muttered an incantation that caused the curse to bounce of an invisible barrier and hit the Professor instead. A collective gasp went through the class as Professor Palmer's legs sprang together and she fell to the floor.
"A blocking charm. Very impressive and really advanced as well," she said from the floor.
"Finite Incantatum. Ten points to Slytherin."
Professor Palmer looked as cheerful as ever when she scrambled to her feet again and straightened her t-shirt.
"Anybody else knowing any protective spells?"
The lesson went on with Professor Palmer showing them a disarming spell and demonstrating how to respond when you didn't have your wand at hand. James earned Gryffindor ten points for attacking her with the leg locker curse, which she dodged gracefully this time.
Five minutes to the bell Professor Palmer took out a sheet of parchment and handed it to Remus, who was sitting in the front row.
"I'd ask you to keep today's seating arrangement throughout the year and sign your name into this chart. I'm really bad at memorizing names and this will hopefully enable me to remember them. I considered nametags first, but I guess some of you would forget to bring them next lesson and it's too much trouble to make new ones each time," she said.
James scanned the seating arrangement. It was perfect. Remus would hand the chart to him, he would hand it on to Sirius who would have to pass it to Snape. James took the parchment, signed his name next to Remus' and looked around quickly. Professor Palmer was busy with her desk. She wouldn't notice, and Sirius was copying the last lines from the blackboard. Quickly, James pulled the small bottle of colourless potion out of his pocket and applied the liquid over the whole parchment leaving just a tiny spot in one corner. It dried instantly. Careful just to touch the spot in the corner of the parchment, James shoved the chart to the edge of his desk. Sirius was done writing and looked at the parchment.
"Are you ever going to hand it to me?" he asked James exasperatedly.
"Come and get it," said James pleasantly.
Sirius rolled his eyes, but got up to take the seating chart all the same. Careless, he signed his name on it and turned around to Snape. James held his breath and watched out of the corner of his eyes as Snape reached out to take the parchment from Sirius. Both of them were touching it now. James hid his face in his hands to conceal an evil grin.
'Three, two, one, now,' he counted and as he reached 'now' he heard a distinct:
"What on earth?"
Everybody looked up at Sirius, looking for the reason he was swearing. James managed to pull his face straight again and looked up as well. What he saw almost made him burst out with laughter again. Sirius shook his hand frantically, which was still holding the parchment, and his face was screwed up in frustration. Snape, still clinging on to the chart as well looked at him, puzzled, trying to determine if Sirius had lost his marbles.
"Just let go, will you?" he told Sirius.
"I'm trying," Sirius replied angrily. "You let go."
He stopped shaking his hand like mad and looked at Snape hopefully. Snape rolled his eyes, but the next moment they went wide with shock. He couldn't let go of the parchment. His hand seemed to be glued to it.
"What's going on?"
Professor Palmer came to investigate the source of the commotion.
"We're stuck to your seating chart," Sirius said angrily.
He tried to pull free with all his might several times without success. The parchment didn't tear in two, either. Professor Palmer bent down to have a closer look at the parchment with the hands of two of her first year students attached to it.
"I see. It's a very clever sticking charm," she said, delighted.
"Finite," she said, pointing her wand at the seating chart.
Nothing happened. Sirius and Snape looked at her desperately.
"Do something," yelled Sirius.
James noticed the slight hint of horror in his voice and smiled to himself. Black looked positively frantic by now.
"Sorry boys, there's noting I can do for you," said Professor Palmer. "But not to worry. The effect will probably wear off in a few hours."
"Er… if you need to get it off sooner, you might try the infirmary and ask Madame Pomfrey for a potion that can undo the effect. But I doubt she has it in store. It is usually used for grown-in toenails and can't be stored very long before it starts to smell. But maybe you're in luck," she said as she saw the horror struck face of Sirius and the ashen one of Snape.
James left his first ever Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson in a very good mood when the bell rang.
Little Astronomy lessonSirius: brightest star; in the constellation of Canis Major ( big dog, where else would he be J)
Regulus: in the constellation of Leo
Bellatrix: in the constellation of OrionAndromeda: constellation in the northern hemisphere
Alphard: in the constellation of Hydra
Castor, Pollux: in the constellation of Gemini
Narcissa:??? Can't find her anywhere; If you know where the name comes from, please tell me.
Thanks for reading this. I hope you liked it.