Title: The Young Order
Rating: Probably PG, perhaps PG-13, who knows? Some where in-between there, at most PG-13 just to be safe. God knows what this mindless authoress would write...x
Disclaimer: I, sadly, own nothing of J.K. Rowling's, and nothing in the HP universe. If I did, do you think would have died?!?! OF COURSE NOT!
Summary: Snape's Worst Memory (from a different POV)
A/N: This is probably going to be my favorite chapter. Its dedicated to Luna, as she's been waiting so patiently for it. Luna, happy homecoming. And WRITE ROTROT FOR GOD'S SAKE, I WANT SOME MORE LEGGY ACTION!
Some of the words in this chapter are direct quotes from J.K. Rowling (who I have forgiven - almost - for being evil at the end of the fifth book. What can I say, this fic is my therapy.) Direct quotes from Chapter 28 of OotP: Snape's Worst Memory, are in bold.
Get ready for the longest chapter this story has ever seen.
1
Treasure sat in the uncomfortably hard chair, muttering under her breath. She was in the Great Hall, for the eighth day in a row, taking her last of the O.W.L.s. Each subject had both a written test and a practical exam, and they were scattered over nine days, one for each subject. Some students had more, like Lily, who had wanted to take nearly every subject Hogwarts could offer.
The O.W.L.s had started with Divination, where she had to write some rubbish about the history of the crystal ball - unlucky chance had seen to it that that was what her essay topic was. She would have much preferred to write about the Tarot, or her star signs, but it was easy; all she did was make up some story about mystical convergence and the ancient seeress, Kassandra of Troy. Professor Dyani claimed to be able to trace her own bloodline back to Kassandra, but Treasure had her doubts. A Muggle broomstick could predict the future more accurately than Professor Dyani. The physical was more fun, she got to read Professor Dyani's palm, and had to restrain herself from commenting on the astonishingly short life line - while it may have gotten her points in class for reading that of a classmate, she did not think her Professor would have liked hearing that a student was predicting her death. Call my sense of bloody intuition.
Potions was hell, as usual. Professor Athach hated her, and all other Gryffindors, but she ignored that, her Truth Potion only a few shades lighter than it should have been and the bubbles had dispersed after a few moments of intense prayer. She didn't think she missed too many of the ingredients in the written.
There was no practical exam for History of Magic, the only class whose O.W.L. written exam was not taken in the Great Hall, and for that she was grateful. Professor Binns spent the time floating in and out of the window at various intervals, attempting to catch his students cheating, but he did it so methodically that she was able to toss notes back and forth with Sirius and James for the entire time. Lily sniffed disapprovingly, of course, but very quietly, so it would not be thought that she was attempting to cheat. Remus was not disapproving, but he kept casting anxious looks at the windows.
Herbology's written test was a lot of memorization. Lily hadn't been focusing too much on Herbology, and Treasure had to resort to making up one or two answers, growling about Lily's priorities all the while. When she mentioned this to her friend after, Lily sniffed and told her that if she wanted to study for Herbology more, she should have spoken up instead of darting off with Sirius to whatever empty classroom they could find. Treasure replied that what they did in those classrooms was purely academic, and Lily had nothing to say to that, merely raising her eyebrows when Treasure's face colored slowly under her gaze. The practical exam would have gone well if the Venomous Tentacula hadn't started playing with her hair when she was repotting a baby Mandrake, knocking her fuzzy pink earmuffs askew; Treasure was out cold for the rest of the day. Thankfully, the Professor had agreed to a make-up exam, in which Treasure stood well away from the Venomous Tentacula.
Treasure was certain she got top marks on her Care of Magical Creatures exam, which turned out to be two practical exams back-to-back. Evidently, the Professor didn't see much use of written exams in his subject, and so he had conjured up a unicorn - Treasure was relieved to see that it wasn't Aelia, she didn't know how the filly would have reacted to being captured and forced out of the forest - and for the second test, the students had been asked to take a hippogriff for a ride around the grounds. Treasure never had so much fun during a test before, she and Sirius had raced around the grounds three times before landing, and if anything, the Professor seemed pleased. Sirius, on his roan colored male hippogriff - Treasure was hesitant about calling it a stallion, lest it be offended - probably would have beaten Treasure's snowy white, had the two not been mates. The hippogriffs, not Sirius and Treasure.
Astronomy's practical exam took place at night, the students were asked to make star charts like they had been doing all year, but without the help of their usual brass instruments. Treasure had not gone to bed until three o' clock in the morning, taking full advantage of the three and a half hour time limit. Grinning to herself, she reminded herself that she had not gone to bed until at least a quarter past four in the morning, and neither had Laurel. They and their respective boyfriends had stumbled into the same janitor's closet, which was a bit awkward but no less amusing. Sirius, Remus, Laurel, and Treasure were both exhausted when they had to take the written test the following morning.
The Charms exams had been yesterday, for the practical student's had been asked to perform three Charms that they had been allowed to select from a list of very complicated choices. Treasure had chosen the Cheering charm, and advanced Protection charm, and a Patronus that James had taught her a few months before, on a whim. A very long whim, as it had taken her a good three months of practicing an hour each day to learn it properly. Professor Flitwick was deeply impressed. Treasure had borrowed the books she gave Lily for Christmas to study, and passed her written test with relative ease. She would buy Lily as many books as she wanted for the next ten years for all her tutoring.
Now, however, she was two hours into her written test for Defense Against the Dark Arts, trying to remember what to do if she was ever caught by a grindeylow. Yeah, like I'm every going to fancy a swim in the lake, she though with a shudder, turning her head to the side and watching as slick black tentacles emerged from the surface to sunbathe. "Miss Belle, do keep your eyes on your own paper. I do no know how they do things in the Salem Institute for Witchcraft and Wizardry, but at Hogwarts, our students do not cheat," Professor McGonagall said tersely; whenever there was an exam in the Great Hall, all the Professors were present to oversee it. "I don't know how things are done in Salem, either, as I've never been there," Treasure muttered angrily under her breath, shooting a glare at Sirius, who had been snickering. He shrugged.
"What was that, Miss Belle?" McGonagall barked. Treasure flinched, bending over her parchment again, and scribbling some rubbish answer about going for the grindeylow's brittle fingers, hoping she was right. "Nothing, Professor," she bit off. There was a suspicious glint in Professor McGonagall's eyes. Treasure lowered her head meekly, muttering to herself silently. A shimmer of silver to her right and Treasure saw Laurel shaking her head and rolling her eyes behind McGonagall's back, making the most obscene faces at the Professor. Treasure bit her lip to keep from laughing, moving on to question fifty-eight: Identify three features of the hinkypunk, and describe how it attracts it prey. Treasure rolled her eyes and scribbled her answer quickly, moving on.
Where were the first boggarts found?
Describe the process of 'siring' in relevance to vampires.
How does a succubus ensnare its victims? What does it do once the victims are captured, and how long - if at all - do the victims survive? Treasure smirked slightly at that question, shooting a look at Sirius. He was so lucky she'd gotten to him in time. Psycho sadomasochist succubae…
Who was the first Dark Wizard, and where did his uprising take place? Describe his motives, promises to his followers, and his magical Mark.
What forms do veela take when angered? Describe.
Describe the affects of a Dementor's Kiss. For some reason, that made her shudder. She penned her answer with more speed than usual, eager to get her mind away from dementors. Of all the Dark creatures, they were her least favorite, no matter how many times she was told that they were crucial in guarding Azkaban, the wizard prison. Just the thought of having her soul sucked out her lips was disgusting, and any creature that could do that had to be evil, no matter what the Ministry said.
Describe the diet of goblins. Where did they come up with these questions anyway?
Identify the subtle differences between mountain trolls and cave trolls. Are these two species related to giants? If so, how?
Describe the relationships between these species: siren, succubus, and veela. Where does each originate? How do they differ, and how are they alike? In Alexo Westerhoff's study of the creatures, explain his theory on the relativity of their species. Treasure snorted. Alexo Westerhoff was some nutter who had willing allowed himself to be captured by each of the creatures. His essays alone - though edited for students - were enough to make her blush. She'd caught James and Sirius pouring over books of succubus, siren, and veela in the library, more than once. Needless to say, the books came chock full of illustrations. Laurel found it all infinitely amusing. Treasure did not.
Name the three Unforgivable Curses and describe their affects. When was each proclaimed Unforgivable by the Ministry? In what circumstances are the usage of said Curses permissible?
In what year did goblins come to work at Gringotts?
At what time of year is a banshee most volatile?
Treasure did not see how any of this was going to help her in later life. With a sigh, she answered her last question and scanned through her answers quickly, sucking on the tip of her quill and staining her lips with black ink. Reading and rereading her paper the way she promised Lily she would, she finally pushed her quill away and fastened the cap onto her inkwell, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs, watching as the rest of the fifth-years finished up their exams.
"Five more minutes!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, walking down the aisle where Treasure was seated. He smiled at her warmly, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "You might want to consult a mirror when the exam is over, Miss Belle," he said, touching his lips thoughtfully. Treasure frowned, her own fingers tracing her lips slightly and coming back smudged with black ink. She rolled her eyes and rubbed vigorously at her lips, certain that she was only spreading the ink. Great. She would look like a banshee. At least McGonagall was hovering over Lily's shoulder, making the red head nervously check her answers, almost obsessively.
Treasure looked around some more as her test paper dried. James was stretching in his chair and rumpling his unruly hair - nearly as unruly as Treasure's own. She grinned in his direction as he caught her eye, puckering her lips at him. He doubled over in silent laughter and turned around to catch Sirius's eye. Sirius was four seats behind James, and two seats away from Treasure. Sirius gave James a thumbs-up, tilting his chair back and making the hard wood seat look like a bloody throne. Haughty bastard, Treasure thought fondly, sticking her tongue out at him when James nodded in her direction. Sirius grinned cheekily at her, not even noticing when Violet eyed him hopefully in the chair behind directly behind his. Nice choice of lipstick, Tres, he mouthed. She rolled her eyes at him and turned her gaze elsewhere. James had started to doodle something on the corner of an extra piece of parchment.
Two seats away from Violet sat Remus, his eyebrows drawn together as he read his paper over again. He was paler than usual, as it was barely a week since the last full moon. Dumbledore had made special arrangements for Remus when he realized that the full moon would fall in the middle of O.W.L.s week. Remus scratched his chin with his quill, to Treasure's satisfaction; she wasn't the only one with ink on her face.
Behind Remus sat Laurel, who seemed exasperated. She was rolling her eyes at Remus's back and she caught Treasure's eye again. Its his eighth bloody time reading that bloody paper! she mouthed angrily, tickling her boyfriend's neck with the hot pink flamingo feather of her quill. He arched his back and craned his neck to look at her, an admonishing smile on his lips. He shook his head slightly; Laurel sighed, flopping face first on her desk, silvery hair falling like a blanket around her head. Aside from being unusually cold towards Peter, not a sign remained in Laurel that she had been under a spell. Her ardor for Remus certainly hadn't cool, which surprised Treasure, if slightly. Treasure had found that she herself had had more than a handful of awkward moments when around Sirius and Peter at the same time. James seemed to have forgiven the little rat - who, by the way, was sitting three seats to Treasure's left, scuffing his feet anxiously and peering at his neighbor's papers. When he noticed Treasure watching him, he offered her a hopeful grin, which she thoroughly ignored. The memory of being forced to worship the little louse still galled.
Finally, Treasure noticed Snape, his nose an inch from his paper. She wondered how he could see his words that close up, her eyes would have been crossing by then. Her dislike for Snape had grown since hearing of James and Sirius rendezvous in Snape's cousin's shop. Priding herself on not being immature and taking her jealously out by mailing a Howler to Kathrynn - that wench, as Laurel called her, Laurel had mailed an anonymous Howler, even though Remus had not even been at Kathrynn's shop; "I do it for you own dignity, Tres," Laurel told her - instead, she increased her dislike for Kathrynn's cousin. Because, if Snape hadn't been at Hogwarts, there would no reason for Kathrynn to be in Hogsmeade, where Sirius could happen upon her and her bloody nightgown. Treasure was impressed with her own logic. Lily had merely rolled her eyes, but she tensed every time someone mentioned Kathrynn's name, and shot very nasty looks at James if he was he who mentioned it.
"Quills down, please!" Professor Flitwick said shrilly from the front of the room. "That means you, too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchment! Accio!" Hundreds of pieces of parchment - literally all of the fifth-years that Hogwarts contained - hurled through the air and knocked poor tiny Professor Flitwick over. Treasure specifically heard Sirius laughing, but not maliciously. She smiled as Lily got up hurriedly along with a few other students to help up the Professor, invisible under all the test papers.
"Thank you…thank you," Professor Flitwick was red in the face, though from exertion or embarrassment it was hard to tell. "Very well, everybody, you're free to go!" Treasure hurried over to Laurel, who was at the front of the room, pulling at Lily, who wanted to go over her exam and calculate her score. James was stuffing something in his bag hastily as he joined them, earning himself another disapproving glare from Lily, who marched out with her nose in the air. She was considerably cooler towards James since the anti-love potion endeavor, which did not make any sense to Treasure at all. James had helped get the love spell lifted. For an intelligent person, Lily was incredibly thick sometimes. Smiling apologetically at James and kissing Sirius quickly on the cheek, she hurried after Lily.
"I hope you didn't get any of the black rubbish on my face, Belle," she heard Sirius call, and she made a face at him over her shoulder.
"Lily, you really should be nicer to James," Laurel was saying, walking regretfully away from Remus. Treasure grinned. "Yeah, if it wasn't for him, you'd still be trying to find a way into Peter's bed," she added. Lily grimaced, but out of the three of them, Lily had been the one to forgive Peter most readily. "If James - I loathe that boy - and Sirius weren't so pompous all the time, Peter would not have felt like he had to do something to drastic to get our attention -"
"Lils, he forced us to pay attention to him. To love him. That's not drastic…that's…that's -" Treasure sputtered, at a loss for words. She did see Lily's point - not that she thought Sirius was very pompous, in fact, she was attracted to his arrogance. To a point. It made her laugh.
"It's evil is what it is," Laurel muttered, pointing her wand at Treasure's mouth and muttering "Scourgio," very quietly. Treasure felt soap suds on her lips and kept her mouth very wisely closed, wiping her face with her hand as the suds stopped moving. "Fanks," she said, spitting out whatever soap might have gotten into her mouth. Laurel grinned, "I can't have you walking around like the bloody banshee, can I?" she quipped, flinging her own perfect hair over her shoulder, one eye green and one silver in her indecision between condescension and teasing.
"Yes, oh immaculate one," Treasure snapped back, mockingly indignant. Lily had led them to the lake, pulling off her shoes and stockings and sticking her legs in the water. Treasure, having given up on stocking long ago, pulled off her own narrow-heeled pumps and immersed her own feet in the cool water, wary of the giant squid. She smoothed her skirt idly, it was shorter than most of her others, and shrugged out of her robes. She even went so far as to unbutton her white shirt to the third button, but stopped when Lily glared at her.
"Your clothes are really too revealing, Treasure," Lily said, as Treasure leaned back on her elbows. Lily's own skirt was proper length, three inches above the knee, and though she had removed her robes and maroon-and-gold striped tie, her shirt remained buttoned up to the very first button. Laurel was in a state similar to Treasure's, her skirt a bit longer but her white shirt tied up to expose a few inches of flat, ivory midriff. She had her yellow-and-black tie knotted around her head, keeping her hair out of her eyes. Treasure was surprised to see that on the part-veela, it didn't look ridiculous at all. Treasure frowned, laying back on the ground and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Honestly, Tres, at least wear a white bra-" Lily was saying, when Treasure sat up huffily. "Lils, we're gone in less than a week. I think I can stray from dress code," she said, holding her wand up to her face, sending cool shoots of air over her neck and chest. "You've been straying from dress code since September first, Tres. Maybe Professor McGonagall is right…"
Treasure's attention was elsewhere, though, as Sirius, James, and Remus walked around the grounds to sit under the beech tree where she and Sirius had shared many a sunset. James was playing with a Snitch, and Sirius had a rather disdainful looked aimed at Peter, who was watching James almost reverently. Sirius's hair was falling into his eyes, which Treasure knew would be a dark, stormy gray. He looked a bit bored, but smirked when he saw her looking at him from across the grounds. She smirked back and tossed her hair, turning back to a laughing Lily and Laurel.
Remus was reading, which Laurel seemed to find amusing and exasperating at the same time. "Maybe I should go over there and get his nose out of the bloody book," she said, with a smile. Lily sighed, "Oh, leave him be, Laurel. Besides, I'd rather stay away from James Potter for once," she sniffed.
"I wonder what your boyfriend thought of question ten, Laurel," Treasure said idly, arranging her skirt so it rested a bit higher on her legs. She could practically feel Sirius staring at her, and jumped when Lily tugged her skirt down patronizingly. "Honestly," Lily muttered, sending a scorching glare in the direction of the beech tree. Laurel grinned, casting a glance over towards the boys and pouting when she realized that Remus was still engrossed in his book. She positioned herself so she was in his direct line of sight, and hitched her shirt up a bit more, showing more of her flat stomach. That got some stares - glares, from other Hogwarts girls - but not even a flicker of an eyelid from Remus. Treasure wondered just what book he might be reading. Laurel scowled, hitching her shirt back down and staring daggers and any boy who had dared to look.
"Aww, look, Lils, James keeps rumpling his hair just for you," Laurel teased, brushing imaginary lint off the front of her shirt and sending a glance in Remus's direction. "You're another one who should invest in a white bra, Laurel," Lily sniffed, and Treasure laughed when Laurel's jaw dropped open.
"We have Transfiguration tomorrow," Lily said, changing the subject. Transfiguration, which would have been a hellish ordeal to keep Treasure up at night if it had not been for the rigorous study schedule that Lily had written out for herself and for Treasure, and anyone else who wanted - or, in Laurel's case, had been forced to accept - was not something that was bothering her currently, and she said so. Also, with the lessons from James, tips from Remus, and private sessions from Sirius - which were a good deal more enjoyable than the other two, for obvious reasons, if not always as productive - on becoming Animagi, Treasure was feeling optimistic about her Transfiguration grades for once. She had faltered a bit on the written practice tests, but the physical exam would go without a hitch. She had been able to turn her table into a pony and back again, and except for the horse-hair tablecloth, it was perfect, which was even more than she herself had expected. If she could do that tomorrow, she would be fine.
"I'm glad you're so confident," Laurel said, also laying back on her elbows and stubbornly keeping her eyes straight ahead. Treasure saw Remus hand Sirius the book his was reading, and watched as Sirius snorted derisively. Treasure frowned, she didn't like it when Sirius acted the ass in front of his friends, especially Remus, who had been the Marauder Treasure had liked best before dating Sirius. Now, for obvious reasons, that was changed. Treasure grinned to herself.
"Oh, no. What is that idiot doing?" Lily asked, sitting up and pulling her stockings and shoes on slowly. She was watching with narrowed eyes as James and Sirius stood up, watching Snape walk across the grass the way wolves might watch a wounded deer.
"All right, Snivellus?" James's voice carried to where the girls were sitting. Lily tensed, and Treasure pulled her shoes over to her, putting them on slowly. She bundled up her robes in her arms and watched the scene with interest. Laurel watched with casual intrigue, one delicate eyebrow raised. She could sometimes be as haughty as Sirius when she wanted to be; she hadn't moved from her position stretched out languidly on the grass. She also made no move to grab her shoes.
Treasure blinked as Snape reacted in a flurry of movement, his hand plunging into his robes at the same moment as he dropped his bag. "Expelliarmus!" James cried, and Lily was on her feet in an instant. Snape's wand flew into the air and landed a good few paces away; Sirius's bark-like laugh was heard around the grounds. "Impedimenta!" he said, pointing his wand lazily at Snape. Snape froze in the air freakishly and slowly began to descend.
Treasure picked herself up slowly, pulling her own wand out and holding it idly between to fingers. Scuffles like this were common between James and Snape, their animosity was not unknown, and it had been that way since first year. "Relax, Lils," Treasure said lazily, sticking her wand behind her ear. Lily's fists were clenched in anger. "Severus didn't even do anything! Oh, James Potter makes me so mad!" she spat.
"Lily, you know they get like this at least four times a week. Leave them be, boys will be boys," Laurel said, bored, she had consented to sit up but not much more than that. She was eyeing Remus, who seemed to be lost in the book he was reading. Laurel had a fond smile on her lips. "Except, some boys will be mature," she added. Then she narrowed her eyes, fading to cool silver. "Almost frustratingly so."
James glanced over at Lily as he and Sirius stalked over to Snape with their wands raised. Treasure raised an eyebrow, "A bit stupid, though. Snape doesn't even have a wand, and they're acting like he's fully armed," she mused. Lily was shaking with anger now, she began walking over slowly. Menacingly, Treasure thought. If James was smart, he'd stop while he was ahead. And he wasn't ahead by much. Treasure sighed, exasperatedly. "Sirius, you stupid idiot, this was your idea," she murmured. Laurel stood up, holding her shoes in one hand and her robes in another, walked to with Treasure, following Lily.
"…There'll be grease marks all over it, they wont be able to read a word," Sirius was saying. Treasure's lips twitched as he shot her a look, a smirk on his face. She rolled her eyes, hoping she was pulling off disdain enough to satisfy Lily, who looked about to rampage.
"You -- wait. You -- wait…" Snape was panting. Laurel made a disgusted noise in her throat. "Your boyfriend isn't very heroic, Tres," she said, more successful with her disdain. Treasure shrugged, she liked Remus too much to point out that he was still sitting underneath the tree, reading. Although, his eyes were very still for someone who was reading, and he was frowning deeply.
"Wait for what?" Sirius asked coolly, "What are you going to do, Snivellus, wipe your nose on us?"
"Sirius," Treasure said gently, her eyes flickering slightly as Snape let out a long train of cusses and hexes, all completely ineffectual. Sirius met Treasure's amber-eyed gaze and shifted his shoulders, lowering his want slightly. Very slightly. Treasure huffed a sigh.
"Wash out your mouth! Scourgify!" James snapped, and pink bubbles erupted from Snape's mouth, making him gag and sputter. Treasure winced, touching her lips faintly and recalling how uncomfortable it was to have Laurel use even a miniscule version of the spell on her earlier. "Sirius!" Treasure said loudly, but before she had time to tell him to stop acting like an idiot, Lily intervened, pushing her way from between Laurel and Treasure.
"Leave him ALONE!" She shouted, not flickering an eyelid when James's hand leapt to his hair to ruffle it. "All right, Evans?" James asked, his voice dropping deeper, as if he hadn't just made a fellow student's mouth erupt in bubbles, as if that wasn't immature at all. Treasure and Laurel snorted, and Sirius snickered slightly.
"Leave him alone. What's he done to you?" Treasure was surprised that James wasn't running desperately in the other direction by the way Lily was looking at him. As if he was a slug and she was fresh out of Flesh-Eating Slug Repellent, so she would settle for salt. Dead Sea salt, cursed by a sea sorceress.
"Well, it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…" James said slyly, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sirius laughed, looking at Treasure almost defiantly. So did Peter and the students who had gathered to watch. Laurel grimaced, Lily glared deeper, and Remus frowned even harder at his book, shooting wary glances at Laurel every now and then. Treasure sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose wearily. She should have known that something like this would happen, what, with the long months of relative peace from the Slytherin side as well as the Gryffindor. Now that O.W.L.s were as good as over, of course this rivalry - hostility, warfare, more like - would start all over.
"You think you're funny, but you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone." Lily's face had gone from red with righteous anger to a deadly white, and Treasure was worried that she might just kill James.
"I will if you go out with me, Evans." James said, obviously not aware how close to death he really was. "Go on…Go out with me, and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again." Oh yeah. Absolutely no clue how near his doom was. Treasure laughed, and James favored her with a rather hurt look. She coughed hastily into her hand, dislodging her own wand from behind her ear.
"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,"Lily snapped.
"Bad luck, Prongs."Sirius turned back to Snape, his tone brisk. "OY!"
In a flash of white light, James was suddenly bleeding, his robes stained. He whirled around and in another blaze, leaving spots dancing before Treasure's eyes, Snape was hanging upside-down in the air. Treasure averted her eyes from where Snape's thin, pale legs and graying underpants were showing. His robes had gotten tangled above his head, and Snape was thrashing desperately.
Laurel's eyes were wide with shock, Lily's with fury, though tightly reined, as if she had struggled not to laugh. Impossible, of course. Treasure wanted desperately to laugh - it was quite funny - but remembered when her own skirt had gone flying up on a spell cast by a non-sensible Lily. Suddenly it wasn't quite so funny anymore. She grimaced, and Sirius looked at her questioningly.
"Let him down!"Lily cried shrilly.
"Certainly," James replied, and he jerked his wand upwards. Snape fell unceremoniously to the ground and sprang to his feet, his wand at ready. "Locomotor mortis!" Sirius said, and Snape keeled over again, as rigid as Treasure had been when Sirius performed the same spell on her. "Sirius Black, you idiot!"
She hurried over to her boyfriend, pulling his arm down angrily. "That's enough, Sirius!" she said, trying for once to shrug him off when he put an arm around her shoulders. She smacked at him half-heartedly, nudging him in the side to get him to lift the spell, but he ignored her except to press a kiss to her lips. The watchers cheered as they had for when James hauled Snape into the air.
"Jerk," Treasure accused, grinning at Sirius as she felt her face get hot.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!"Lily shouted, pulling out her own wand. Treasure held her wand up as well, pointing it over Sirius's heart with a bit of a smirk as some of the girls in the crowd hooted gleefully, fully intending to support her best friend. Laurel had made her way over to Remus, not getting involved if he wasn't.
"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you…"James warned. Treasure snorted, and Lily tossed her hair.
"Take the curse off him, then!"she demanded.
James sighed, as if denied a royal treat. "There you go,"he said, waving his wand and muttering the counter curse. Treasure elbow Sirius roughly in the ribs when he tried to pull her closer, stalking over to where Lily was if a tad reluctantly. Several of the boys in the crowd snickered.
"You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus -"
"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"Treasure whirled around at Snape's voice and held her wand up high, ready to call down the worst curse she could muster at him. "Don't give me more a reason to feed you to the squid, Snape -!" she screeched, but Lily put a hand on her arm.
"Fine," Lily said composedly, "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."
"Apologize to Evans!"James bellowed at Snape, pointing his wand in very much the same fashion as Treasure had. "I don't want you to make him apologize," Lily shouted, her face reddening indignantly. "You're just as bad as he is…"
"Lils," Treasure admonished quietly.
"What?" James yelped. "I'd NEVER call you a - a you-know-what!"
Lily smirked. "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can - I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK."
Treasure bit her lip to keep from laughing as she walked away with Lily, James shouting behind them. Thank goodness the year was almost over, Lily definitely needed some time to cool off. She'd never admit just how much James Potter got under her skin.