Disclaimer – I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter, unfortunately.
OK, here it is. The (far too) long awaited chapter 5! I'm sorry about the delay, I've been up to my eyebrows in coursework, and I was rather ill over Christmas. Hope this chapter is good enough for you to forgive me… Oh, and thanks for all your reviews and support. I probably wouldn't update nearly so often if I didn't have you lot making me feel guilty when I don't… Personal thank-yous are after the chapter, as I know it can be quite annoying when you have to scroll past them. Oh, and if anyone is looking for a beta reader, I'm always glad to help (and to get sneaky little previews!) Anyhoo, on with the fic…
Chapter 5 – Fiery Problems
Later, it was widely acknowledged that James had had it worst. Sirius may have looked sillier (or, to be blunt, completely and utterly ridiculous), but James had had to go through his first day of lessons unable to hold his wand, a quill, or anything else for that matter.
By dinnertime, James was very disgruntled. In Charms that morning, he'd spent the entire lesson struggling to hold his wand while the rest of the class looked on sniggering. He dropped it several times, and towards the end of the lesson, managed to inadvertently turn his foot into lime jelly. The class had guffawed at this, especially ****ing Black, and the teacher wasn't much better. The Charms teacher, Professor Caravette, was young, tall and frizzy-haired, with an unfortunately large wart and a raucous laugh. At the sight of him and Black that morning, she'd burst into fits of giggles. As soon as she'd regained the use of her voice, she started to explain that she didn't know the counter charms, and if she did, she couldn't possibly perform them. She had told him with a glint in her eye and another fit of giggles that they'd have to wait for the spell to wear off. As it was first form work it shouldn't take more than twenty-four hours. James had been incredulous, and had stormed to his desk, slamming his bag onto it and muttering under his breath.
History of Magic had been bearable, by comparison. The teacher, Professor Binns, hadn't even noticed the rather unorthodox appearance of two of his students. He had just launched into a deeply boring lecture in his monotone voice. A few of the most diligent students started to take notes, but within minutes they were sinking into a stupor along with the rest of the class. James, however, was grateful for the reprieve.
By lunchtime he was desperate. He'd given lunch a miss, for the first time in his life, and headed for the library in despair. He had planned to search for a counter-curse, but his clumsy 'fingers' made turning pages rather challenging. After half an hour of frustration, in which he'd managed to turn three pages, he gave up in disgust as the thought struck him that even if he found the counter-curse, which at this rate was extremely unlikely, he wouldn't be able to perform it as he couldn't even hold his wand.
He stormed of to Transfiguration, more annoyed than ever at his wasted lunchtime. The rest of the Gryffindors were already there, and sniggered more than ever as he walked in. James groaned. He had already gained infamy, but not for the reasons he had planned; he would be known as the boy with sausage-fingers for months to come. Black would pay for this.
James was dreading this lesson. He'd been looking forward to learning Transfiguration. It was, in his opinion, the most interesting kind of magic, and he had a natural knack with it. But now, he'd have to suffer through the first principles without wand or quill, he'd never catch up, and the teacher would bear a grudge against him for the next seven years.
However, the teacher hadn't been at all as he'd expected. Ten minutes into the lesson a young woman with bright purple robes, several button badges with slogans such as 'Muggles have rights too' and 'Fight the Floo', a nose ring and very short, very blue hair. James recognised her as the woman who had handed out timetables that morning.
"Hi, I'm Minerva McGonagall, transfiguration professor and head of Gryffindor," she said, beaming at the students. "But I think that name is vile, so please call me Kitty." At these words she turned into a tabby cat with blue streaks on her forehead and a rather loud purr.
As she turned back, the students gawped at her. James was entranced; he'd give anything to be able to do that.
"Well, now we've got the introductions out of the way, let's get to work." The weird professor's eyes took on a steely glint. "And make no mistake, in this lesson, you will work. I expect a hundred and twenty percent effort from all of you, especially as you are Gryffindors. And that goes for all your lessons, not just mine. As for your behaviour, if I catch any misbehaviour, anything at all, you will be out of Hogwarts before you can turn around…"
The now thoroughly intimidated students quailed before her ferocious glare, and one plump boy in the front row gave out a squeak of fright. James made a mental note to stay out of this one's way – but she was grinning again now. McGonagall began to chuckle, tears of laughter pouring down her cheeks.
"Ugh! I sounded just like my mother! Hope I don't end up like her, old stick in the mud… You should have seen your faces!" she gasped out finally. The class, now completely bemused, glanced nervously across the classroom at each other. "I'm not going to slaughter or expel you if you prank each other," her gaze lingered, like that of many teachers before her, on James and Sirius, "which is just as well, as you appeared to have made a start already. Good work, I like a class who can use their initiative. As you may have gathered, unless your pranks put yourselves or others in danger, I'm not such a hypocrite as to start chewing you out. I'm more than likely to be encouraging you all the way." She noticed the mischievous glint in the eyes of so many of her students and smiled. She could tell she was going to like her new Gryffindors. "You will be punished of course, but I will make it mild and in good humour if I can. The most important thing about your time here at Hogwarts, and in this class, is to have fun. On that note, instead of beginning with the standard match-to-needle switch, which I find mind-numbingly boring, let's have a go at the fish-to-firecracker."
She promptly turned the large halibut on her desk into a purple firework, which chased the plump boy, Peter Pettigrew, around the room, spewing out silver sparks as it went.
She quickly explained the theory behind the switch and the method you needed, and set the class to work.
James struggled for several minutes with his floppy fingers, before giving up and banging his head on the desk, narrowly missing the trout he had been attempting to turn into a banger. The professor noticed, and made her way over to him.
"That was some neat transfiguration you did," she said, nodding her head in the direction of Sirius, who was currently attacking the poor boy sitting next to him with a salmon.
James raised his eyebrows in surprise, before bursting out vehemently, "yeah, but he cursed my fingers, and now I can't even hold my wand, let alone try the damn spell."
The professor – he couldn't bring himself to think of her as Kitty – gave his fingers a cursory examination.
"Not a bad bit of transfiguration," was all she said. "Carry on, you'll manage. Where there's a will, there's a way."
"How do you know?" he all but yelled
at her, "I can barely use them!"
"How do I know?" she repeated
slowly. Her eyes began to shine. "Actually, in my sixth year I got into a duel
with my then best friend over a boy we both liked. In the end she cursed my
arms off. I had to take final exams holding my wand between my toes. She
regretted that curse afterwards, though. As soon as I had mastered magic using
my toes, I cursed her legs off so she couldn't run, turned her hair into worms,
made bubbles come out of her nose non-stop, elongated her tongue and tied her
up with it. She was known as Legless Lynda for years afterwards. Hell, she's
still known as Legless Lynda."
James listened, enthralled. She was his kind of teacher! He thought back to her speech at the beginning of the lesson. Maybe she'd give him some ideas for revenge on Black.
"So what else did you do when you were at school? That can't have been the only thing you did…"
"Well," she began, "in second year I transfigured all the Slytherins' hats into cheese in the middle of summer. They didn't notice until it had melted and was flowing down their heads. And in fifth year, I gave this Slytherin scumbag Gustav Klimt a bunny tattoo on his forehead. He went mental and tried to – "
But what Klimt had attempted to do to Kitty, James was not to discover, for at that moment there was a large explosion from the back of the class, and fireballs began hurling around the room, scorching the desks and setting parchment ablaze.
"Under your desks!" Kitty yelled. Most of the class obeyed, but one girl – the weird one from the boat, James noticed – stood staring at the desk where the fireballs were coming from. Kitty, now with a purple shimmer around her from her defensive shield, approached the devastation, attempting to pull the girl to safety, but she was too late. A fireball headed straight for the girl, who appeared astonishingly calm. She reached out and – James' eyes widened in shock – caught the fireball in her bare hands. Even Kitty McGonagall was staring open-mouthed at the girl. As James watched the girl, the fireball in her hands began to shrink, the fire seeping through her skin as if it was absorbed by her. Lightning leapt among her auburn curls, and James saw with shock that her eyes were glowing a deep, vibrant orange from among the bandages. The girl approached her desk, laid her hand on top of the still blazing firework, and the flame vanished as quickly as it had come.
The entire class stared as the girl withdrew her hand, took a deep breath and collapsed to the floor in sobs. One boy – the sandy-haired boy from the boat, what had he said his name was? – approached the shuddering girl and hugged her.
Kitty had dismissed them after that, a worried look in her eyes. James had hung around the classroom for as long as he could, but eventually he couldn't delay his departure any more. He traipsed through the puzzling maze of corridors, searching for the Great Hall, his mind dwelling on the events of the lesson.
But sitting down to dinner when he'd finally found the Hall, these thoughts were driven out of his mind by hatred for Black. Having missed both breakfast and lunch, James was ready to eat a horse, hooves and all. He sat down and reached for the nearest dish of cottage pie – but then he slowly drew his hands back again, staring at them. Warily, he looked down and fumbled with his knife and fork. He cursed loudly. It was no good. With his sausage-fingers, he couldn't manage a knife and fork. He was going to go hungry again. He opened his bag and wolfed down the few remaining sweets from the hoard he had bought on the train yesterday. It did little to satisfy his growling stomach. James hurried out of the Great Hall. He didn't want to have to look at all that food but not eat it. As he navigated his way back to Gryffindor Tower, he started to plan. Sirius Black was going to pay.
***
Kitty approached the girl, stupefied at what had just happened. Quickly, she dismissed the class twenty minutes early and waited until everyone but the crying girl and her friend had left, all whispering excitedly.
"Now, could you tell me your name please?" she said, kindly but firmly. The boy, seeing that the girl was still convulsed in sobs, answered for her.
"She's Lily, Lily Evans," he replied. "And I'm Remus Lupin." Kitty gave a slight gasp as she recognised the name. So he was the boy who…
"OK then, Lily, could you please tell me what happened?"
"I'm sorry, it was an accident, I didn't mean to, don't hurt me…" the poor girl said between sobs, flinching away from Kitty's gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Of course I won't hurt you, Lily, you'll be fine. Now do you know what happened?"
"No, I was just trying the spell, and I thought I'd done it because the fish turned into a roman candle, but instead of giving off sparks it started to spew out these huge fireballs. I'm really sorry, I don't know what happened. Will I be expelled?"
"Of course not, Lily. It was an accident, if you even caused it at all, which is by no means certain. I don't understand what happened here. I think we'd better have a word with Professor Dumbledore."
***
As Professor McGonagall described the scene in the Transfiguration lesson, Lily, looking at the floor, wondered what on earth had gone wrong. What was wrong with her? Both times she'd tried magic, first in Diagon Alley and then in the Transfiguration lesson, it had been an unmitigated disaster. Maybe Dumbledore was wrong and she didn't belong here after all. All she'd managed to do so far was destroy things. She didn't want to live like that. Like her father…
Lily was so engrossed in these thoughts that she didn't hear Dumbledore as he started to address her. He gave a little cough, and her head snapped up to look at him. Dumbledore drew back a little in shock. Her eyes, now a tawny gold shot with green, still glowed.
Recovering from the shock, Dumbledore cleared his throat and said "I hoped it wouldn't come to this, Lily. But your powers are completely out of control. This is normal for a witch your age," he added, seeing the consternation in Lily's eyes, "but with powers of your… er… magnitude, this is causing problems. I'm afraid that I will have to block your magic until you have developed enough control to keep them in check."
Seeing her mouth open, he anticipated her question and added, "I am afraid you will not have developed sufficient control until the beginning of second year, at the very earliest."
"What?! A whole year? And what do you mean, 'block' my magic? What are you going to do to me?" Lily was incensed.
"Calm down, Lily. I'm sorry indeed to have to take this drastic measure, but unfortunately in order to prevent serious injury, I believe I must. To block your magic I will perform a very strong shield charm around your power. You will be unable, for the time the charm is in place, to perform magic at all. You must still attend lessons, and learn the theory of the spells so you find it easier to catch up when your ability is returned to you."
"What? No spells at all? What's the point of being at magic school if I can't learn magic? And why me? Why am I so different from everyone else down there?" Lily voiced the question she'd been pondering since the Hogwarts Express, but once again, no answer came to her.
"I am sorry, Lily, but to tell you more at this stage of your development would be detrimental to your powers, as well as possibly putting you in danger. Rest assured that when you are ready, I will tell you why."
Dumbledore then performed the charm. Lily still protested, but it seemed there was nothing she could do. The shield felt distinctly strange. She felt, not so much empty, but that she was reaching for something that was just out of reach, like a half-forgotten dream. She also felt detached, slightly out of sync with her surroundings.
Dumbledore was relieved to see that her eyes had returned to their normal state, although she was startlingly pale. As Lily turned to leave looking distinctly disorientated, he tried to reassure her.
"Lily, my dear, remember that every cloud has a silver lining. This may turn out to be of great aid to you in the long run. Stay strong, Lily. Where there is a will, after all, there is a way."
***
James needed revenge. And for that, he needed allies. He cast a critical eye around the Gryffindor common room for potential candidates. He bypassed Peter Pettigrew with a snort – far too wimpy and weak – and considered Ben Callahan and Ryan Crumpet. They were a distinct possibility, although as they were already best friends so probably wouldn't welcome him butting in. Juanita Callahan, Ben's twin, Rohanna Warren and Charlotte Llamar were giggling in the corner, but he dismissed them immediately. After all, they were girls! Discouraged, he sank back into his armchair, but then his gaze fell on the pale boy from the boat sitting in the corner alone, reading a muggle book. Not ideal material, but he'd have to do. What was his name again? Ah, yes, Remus…
***
"Hey, Remus, isn't it? Do you want a game of chess or something?" The boy shrugged, and returned to his book.
"Come on, it'll be fun. I'd like to get to know you better, I don't really know anyone yet."
Remus shrugged again. Lily still wasn't back, and he was a little worried. What if she had been expelled after all? He looked up at James. "Yeah, I guess it'll be OK…"
What's James planning? How's Lily going to cope in lessons without magic? When will James get rid of the sausage fingers? All will be revealed in the next chapter, which I'll hopefully post fairly soon…
By the way, I'm sorry if the PoV changes were confusing. That chapter didn't at all turn out as I had planned. The transfiguration lesson came out of nowhere, I hadn't planned the firework thing at all, the whole lesson was just going to be a couple of paragraphs long! I just can't argue with my muses, though. Hope you liked the chapter. Please review, even if you hated it, to say how I could improve it.
Does anyone have any ideas for how James and Sirius could make friends? I've got a vague plan, but I'd appreciate any help I can get! If you have an idea, review and tell me, please.
Now, here are my thank yous:
hpfan1750: aww, thanks! I'm blushing…
arimel: two reviews! Wahoo! I've sorted the signed review thing, you can be as lazy as you like now…
kerry: yup, the llama thing is a joke with my friends too. It's just such a cool word! Go to frolic.org for words of wisdom from the naked dancing llama…
Tearful Spider: thanks! I like your pen name, by the way. Oh, and another review! Thanks, especially for all those exclamation marks, I'm glad you liked it so much! Hope it continues to live up to your expectations.
Lucia Dreams: thanks, glad you liked it
Musicizdibest: Wow! Four reviews! I must be great! Thanks so much, people like you keep me writing, and I hope this chapter is as good…
Friend to the Spiders: thanks, and I like your pen name as well. Basically, I like spiders full stop. I'd better shut up about now, I'm waffling.
Kerry: you again! Thanks, I'm sorry about the delay, I hope this makes up for it…
Disturbing tha Peace: hmmm, I'll have to think about making it L/R. Too early for ships now anyway, I don't really like fics where they pair up in first year.
Bekken: Thanks so much. I wasn't sure if the abuse scene was very good, as (thankfully) I have no personal experience…
Lady Lightning: Soon enough for you? Sorry, I know I took ages.
Koneko: Thanks for your compliments and your recommendations, hope you like the chapter
Axania chic: I'll try to continue this until it's finished. I hate it when you get involved in a story and then the author gives up half way through.
CasstheCurious: here's more for you. Hope it's as good!
Fireangel: thanks. They just seemed to fit together well.
Chaos: formerly Rini: Thanks, that really annoys be, the irrelevant little details thing. I'm so glad you like the story, and I'm sorry for apologising ;-)
And an extra special thanks to Chaos: formerly Rini and Disturbing tha Peace for putting me on their favourite lists! I never expected it for my first story, thank you so much.