A/N: Oh wow. looks extremely sheepish Um. Yeah. About fanfiction. Long story short, I kinda haven't been around for...months. Computer problems (our internet and computer basically didn't work for about...months...lol), and THEN I couldn't find this story...THEN thought I should leave it because I couldn't find the next chapter (I was so not going to re-write it! No, never!) ...but then I found it and, fingers crossed, should keep it and edit and have it posted soon after this one. Ten thousand million apologies...what can I say? Year twelve...it sucks. =(
But I'm using all the spare time I get (like the ten minutes I'm stealing now) to get back on track! Honest!
A/N2: This is for Shel, who used to try and get me to write the fanfic with her in it, and I promise, it's on its way! It's just not chaptered or edited yet. It's also for Izzi, who has encouraged me to start writing again...who has encouraged my creative spirit! =P Lol.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately...I own nothing. Except the plot. Which seriously isn't worth much, considering I don't even own any of the characters IN it. Except the ones I made up. But without the ones I don't own...yeah, you get the picture =D
Chapter Four: Stop with the Disappearing Thing Already!
'You know what? It's just rude,' James announced to Sirius as he sat down abruptly in Transfiguration. 'To just disappear when you're talking to someone! And to not tell your name, and...'
'James, James, James.'
'Yes, yes, yes?' James asked exasperatedly. Sirius took a deep breath then observed James with mock solemnity.
'It is at times like these that one must wonder why you care so much.'
'I don't care.'
'Yes, you do.'
'No, I don't. Do I look like I care? No!'
'James, if you didn't care, would you harp on about it all the time?'
'Who plays the harp now?' Callie collapsed in her chair next to Sirius, running in just before Professor McGonagall. 'Phew, I was nearly late!'
'You're always nearly late,' James pointed out.
'Yeah, well...doesn't mean I like it,' she argued. 'Stupid Monday mornings...'
'Good morning, everyone,' Professor McGonagall said. 'Today we'll be having a further look at the transformation of people...as you approach your leaving year, you come to the legal age where you might consider becoming an Animagus. I am here to firmly dissuade you from that idea unless you have a reason for wanting to become one.' James and Sirius exchanged glances, trying to stop themselves laughing. Remus poked them and Peter as a warning. 'Something funny, Potter? Black?'
'No, Professor McGonagall,' they replied cheerfully, and James bit his lip to stop from smiling. When Professor McGonagall's back was turned, Sirius leaned across,
'Forget about the redhead, James. You haven't been yourself for on...'
'Mr Black!' Sirius snapped back to his seat like an elastic band and smiled angelically.
'Yes, Professor?'
'Are you concentrating?'
'Naturally!' She shook her head and frowned at him.
'Please refrain from speaking to Mr Potter in my class.'
'I wouldn't dream of it!'
James grinned as Professor McGonagall sent Sirius a death stare.
'You're walking on thin ice, mate,' James whispered to him.
'Potter!' It was his turn to smile sweetly at Professor McGonagall. Sirius noticed, and made a note on his parchment.
Monday Morning Report:
Prongs acting more like himself. Smiling innocently to get out of certain trouble. Step One of Recovery: complete.
That day, James certainly started feeling more like himself. Now he'd actually had a full conversation with the redhead, only to have her disappear again, he had started to forget about Lauren (if he was honest with himself, he hadn't really cared about her anymore, anyway) and he'd been told off by Professor McGonagall.
'Jamesy-boy, we haven't pulled any pranks for ages,' Sirius declared that night, sending paper aeroplanes magically across the room at a group of second years, who still hadn't worked out who was doing it.
'No, that's true,' James said, looking up from the idle scribbling he was doing.
'What are you doing?' Remus asked James, who had been watching Sirius' secret bombardment on the second years.
'Oh, pretending to do Potions,' James told him. 'See...if you scribble long enough you feel like you've done work, and then you can put it away without a guilty conscience.'
'It's genius,' Sirius told him, and James watched the paper plane land in a second year's hair.
'Why are you doing that?' James asked his best friend. Sirius shrugged.
'Better than what you're doing...I'm not even pretending.'
'That's genius!'
'Oh, my God, it's in my HAIR!' Laughter burst from the group of second years. 'How'd it get there? Oh, get it out, get it out!'
'You'd think it was a bat,' Sirius said disgustedly. 'Maybe I should aim for the sixth year girls. They at least don't scream when a paper aeroplane lands in their hair.'
'How would you know?'
'So, what are you up to?' Sirius asked Remus pointedly, leaning over and falling off his chair. 'I'm okay!' he called up to them in a muffled voice as James laughed at him.
'Sure.'
'Is this what you've been degraded to?' Remus asked Sirius as he got to his feet, offering no help whatsoever. Sirius finally clambered onto his chair and collapsed for a few seconds, hardly moving.
'Thanks for you help.' Remus shrugged.
'It's the least I could do.'
'The very least,' James laughed, writing another random note onto the parchment. 'These notes will be an essay one day...don't look at me like that, they will be!'
'Uh huh.' Sirius pushed his floppy fringe out of his eyes and rolled his eyes at James. 'Just give up, would ya? You're making me feel bad. And yes, this is what I've been degraded to,' he informed Remus. 'Throwing aeroplanes at people. Paper ones.'
'You don't feel remotely bad about not doing your work!' Peter accused as he joined them, collapsing onto an empty couch near James.
'Yes, I do,' Sirius wailed, and jumped as a paper aeroplane hit him on the side of the head. 'Who threw that?!' he demanded, jumping up dramatically and whirling around. The group of second years were giggling madly, one of them struggling to not laugh and look innocent. The whole point of which was completely ruined by her giggling comrades. 'What kind of person would throw a paper aeroplane at a sixth year trying to study?' Sirius asked them, shaking his head. 'Don't do it again!'
'You threw it at us first!' a brave second year piped up, giggling. 'We're just retaliating!'
'Did we know words like that in second year?' Peter whispered to Remus, who had pulled out his Charms homework. The latter shrugged, absorbed in what he was writing.
'I'd guess no.'
'Speak for yourself,' James said, sitting straighter. 'I knew lots of words in second year!'
'Oh, please.' Remus rolled his eyes and finally looked up. 'You did not. You were proud when you used the word sarcastic.'
'...shut up! And Sirius, would you stop challenging the second years?' James asked his best friend, noticing Sirius was in the middle of an argument with one of them.
'Yeah, stop challenging us!'
'Yeah, that's mean!'
'You want mean?' Sirius had a gleam in his eye.
'Sirius!' Remus and James cried at the same time, both recognising the look on Sirius' face and expression in his voice. Sirius hesitated, then threw one last glare at the second years.
'Just you watch out! You messed with the wrong person!' he warned them, turning around and sitting down happily on his chair. 'I already have the prank planned! James, I'm fantastic!'
'And you wonder why Bella called you conceited?' James commented sardonically, throwing his parchment down. 'You know what else is conceited?'
'Mention the red-head and I will curse you,' Remus threatened. 'All you ever do is talk and talk and talk and talk...'
'...and talk and talk and talk...' Sirius took up the annoying chant, and James glared at both of them.
'No, I wasn't going to say that!' He grinned slyly. 'But since I realise how annoying it will be for you if I do mention her, I will.' He took a deep breath, but before he could speak Sirius had leapt up and shoved a pillow in his face. James struggled but his best friend had the upper hand, literally.
'Mmph...mmmph...MMPH!' With an extra hard shove, James managed to push Sirius and the pillow off him, causing both to tumble to the floor, thrashing wildly.
'James, gerroff me!' Sirius shouted, his voice muffled by the pillow. 'Oww, my arm doesn't bend that way!'
'Neither does my NECK!'
'Stop kicking me!'
'Get your foot out of my face!'
'Should we help them?' Peter asked Remus, watching the two sixth years struggle to get up and yell at each other with interest. Remus shook his head, grinning.
'Nah. This is entertaining. They could keep up like this for hours; why spoil the fun?'
'Good point.' Peter settled back to watch, deciding to discard his History of Magic homework in favour of watching James and Sirius.
'I still have bruises,' Sirius complained at breakfast the next morning, cocking his head to one side and stretching one arm experimentally. 'I hope you feel guilty.'
'Nope.' James was busy trying to decide if pumpkin juice and pineapple juice would make a good combination. 'See, you've got the sweetness of the pineapple juice, and the...uh...whatever of the pumpkin juice, which should cancel one another out and make a drink I actually like.'
'You like pumpkin juice.'
'Only because I hate pineapple juice,' James replied, sounding wise. 'Lesser of two evils. So by my figuring...'
'You're a git, James,' Callie informed him, staring at him with disgust clearly written on her face. 'I've never known anyone to talk so much about what they're doing. Just drink it and let us all forget it's even happening.'
'Hey, James!' a familiar voice called, and James inwardly rolled his eyes. How he hated having relatives at Hogwarts! Well, relative, anyway. Although he had to admit Sirius had it worse. At least Lucy wasn't a psychopathic evil Slytherin weirdo. He hoped. 'James!' Lucy appeared next to him, grinning and dragging a girl who was smiling goofily. Sirius snorted into his pumpkin juice, and Remus hastily hid behind a copy of the Daily Prophet Callie had received that morning.
'Hey, gimme that!' Callie demanded, grabbing the newspaper, the irrepressibleurge to laugh nearly taking over.
'James, this is Anne. Anne, this is my cousin, James.'
'I know!' Anne seemed breathless and at a loss of words, too busy gazing at James and smiling strangely to really say much. 'Everyone knows him!'
Oh, God, James groaned to himself, writing an internal memo to hex Lucy later.
'Hey,' he said aloud, giving Anne a half-smile that anyone else would have written off. But Anne acted as though he'd given her a bright, friendly smile and blushed bright red, starting to giggle.
Why do they always giggle?!
'Can she sit with you, James?' Lucy asked, nudging her friend to shut her up.
'Yeah, James, offer her a seat, be a gentleman!' Sirius called cheerfully, enjoying watching James squirm. James scowled angrily at Sirius, who grinned it off and took a sip of juice.
'There really isn't much room...' James' voice trailed off as Remus got to his feet.
'Well, I'm full after that breakfast! See you later, James.'
'Remus!'
'Goody!' Lucy quickly shoved Anne into the seat Remus had so helpfully vacated and grinned at them all. 'I'm sure you two will get along great!' And with that she disappeared down the other end of the table, smiling happily. James threw Sirius a helpless glance, but Sirius was too busy snorting into his pumpkin juice and reading the paper upside down to pay any attention.
'Hi James!' Anne repeated, bright red and giggling. 'What's it like being a sixth year? Is it fun?'
'Uh...sure, it's great.'
'I'm a fourth year! It's soooo hard. Did you like fourth year, James? I was in the second year then, you know. I thought that was so hard, but now I'm in fourth year I realise how easy second year was!' James seriously hoped Callie would choke herself on laughter...and from the sounds she was making, it sounded like she was fairly close. 'Oh, am I babbling? I always babble when I'm nervous! I'm sorry.' She giggled again. 'And I'm babbling even when apologising for babbling!'
'That's fine,' James told her quickly, in the hope that she would be quiet. 'Um, I'm sorry, but I needed to get to class early this morning...I'll see you around.' He got to his feet, and Anne looked disappointed.
'Oh, James!' Sirius cried in an exaggerated voice. 'But why?'
'I just need to,' James replied in gritted teeth, sending him a warning glance.
'Oh, James!' Callie cried, imitating Sirius. 'But why?'
'Yes, James?' James whirled around, and to his mild surprise that disappearing girl was there again, grinning at him. 'Why?'
'Don't you start,' he muttered, nearly tripping over his robes in his attempt to get away from the table quickly.
'She's rather young,' the red-head observed, peering over his shoulder as she walked backwards in front of him. 'Go for younger girls, do you?' James knew he was going red...damnit! Of all the times to get embarrassed...
'No, uh, she was set up...I mean, we were set up...I mean...' The red-head laughed and raised an eyebrow.
'Were you set up, or were both of you set up, or...how can only one of you be set up?'
'Look, she's friends with my cousin, and my cousin decided we'd make a great couple, and no amount of dissuasion would tell her otherwise...ahh, there's a wall you might want to avoid.' They had reached the doorway to the Great Hall, and a quick look over her shoulder guided the red-head from a collision with the side of the doorway.
'Thanks.'
'And so she ended up sitting next to me because my friends are traitors...and I was just escaping when you turned up,' James finished, walking slowly down the hall. The red-head grinned.
'Uh huh.'
'It's true!'
'I know; I said uh huh, didn't I?'
'It was a doubtful 'uh huh'.' The red head pretended to be shocked.
'Doubtful? Me? Never!' She grinned. 'Now, I suppose I'd better let you get back to your...uh...girlfriend.' She smiled sweetly at him, then turned and ran. James followed her as she turned a corner, and watched as she leapt into a nearby classroom. James dived to follow her, but she'd disappeared in the split second it took him to jump into the classroom.
'Damnit!' He clenched his fists in annoyance, prowled the room once, then gave up and headed off to get his books for his first class, realising he was dreadfully early and still hadn't eaten a proper breakfast.
What a great way to start the day.
