Eleven – Worth Mentioning
Sunday went by for Lily in slow trickle of sitting around, chatting happily and maybe the odd spattering of work here and there, during which she noticed that James had considerable difficulty in meeting her eye. Oh well, she was sure he'd get over it soon.
"Do you happen to have any idea why James keeps going red every time you speak to him?" Verity asked, while they were sat comfortably in the Gryffindor Common Room so that Lily could help a fifth year with his Charms OWL essay. Verity was tucking into a box of Cockroach Clusters and Lily was stealing one every so often for strength when she had to point out to Lewis Bourche that 'magic' was got spelt with a 'k'.
Coincidently, at that moment, the Portrait Hole opened and James himself scrambled in. The girls glanced at each other and tried to pretend that they had not just been talking of him. With their position right next to the boys' staircase, there was no way he could not acknowledge them.
"Hello, Verity," James greeted his Chaser swiftly. "Lily," he nodded, and made his hasty was up the stairs without stopping to chat.
Verity looked at Lily inquiringly.
"I'm sure I have no idea," said Lily, innocently.
"Is this right?" Lewis asked her, passing her his piece of parchment.
"There's a full stop right here," Lily said, tapping the offending sentence patiently.
As the boy diligently went back to work, and Verity went back to throwing clusters into her mouth, Lily wondered why she didn't tell her best friend about the whole bathroom lark the night before. It would have been quite funny, if the story had gotten out to the school at large, as it undoubtedly would have.
She didn't think Potter's herd of mindless fans would be quite as impressed with his 'poise and confidence' if they knew about the funny-looking, half-strangled look on his face as he tore out of that bathroom faster than Simon's Russian broomstick.
So why had she not said anything?
Maybe it was because of the fact that James had done a runner at all. If he hadn't, not only would she have made sure that he couldn't see his own body anymore from her curses, but she would have had no qualms about letting everyone in on what happened and hoping that Potter would be expelled.
But that look on his face had been so funny, and that desperate sprint for the door had been so quaint, that she sort of regarded it as something she liked about Potter, and for now, she wanted to keep it to herself.
At exactly twenty-three minutes past eleven on Sunday night, a figure could be noticed creeping along the ninth floor from corridor to corridor, occasionally hiding behind statues and avoiding moonlight wherever possible.
Such behaviour could have been seen as a little unnecessary, considering that the figure was wearing all black robes, a pair of black shoes and the leg of a pair of black tights over her head. Not a sound was uttered by the individual, apart from a small, strangled squawk when the loose leg of her tights got caught on a door handle.
Maybe these measures were a little extreme, but when you don't want to be seen, you don't want to be seen, and Rita Skeeter didn't want to be seen.
Finally reaching her destination, the gossip queen cum cat burglar flattened herself against the wall and reached sideways to turn the handle of the door to a classroom. Light flooded out into the corridor and disappeared again, as Rita slipped inside, preferring not to acknowledge the fact that she tripped from a combination of the doorframe and her heals.
"Nita!" she hissed into the room. "Nita! Are you here? Anita!"
Another blonde head popped up from behind the professor's desk at the front of the room. A camera swung from the neck attached to the head.
"Oh, it's you," said the girl, scrambling up from the floor, and setting down the camera on the desk.
"Well, who else would it be," Rita asked scornfully. "Hagrid?"
"It could have been a teacher," Anita Skeeter replied in a tone equally as contemptuous, "and I haven't got a detention yet. I'd like to keep my record clean for as long as possible, thanks."
"My heart bleeds for you," Rita said sarcastically, wrinkling her nose in a sneer. "Now shut your irritating little gob and listen. I want you to do something for me."
"Get stuffed."
"It's in your interest."
Anita regarded her sister levelly for a moment.
"Gab on, then."
Rita cleared her throat.
"No one is believing any thing written in Hogwarts Hearsay. All my careful efforts are going to waste and that Evans cow is still bloody queen of the castle."
"Oh, Merlin," Anita sniggered, "don't tell me you're still after James Potter! Haven't you heard? He hates you, after you've been so horrible Evans."
Rita lashed out and seized one of her sister's white blonde plaits, pulling hard. Squealing, Anita clawed away at Rita's face, and the scuffle lasted around five seconds before both of them began to fear for either their hairstyle, or their cosmetic charms.
There followed a few moments where both parties sorted themselves out, huffing and sniffing as they peered into mirror charms and raked fingers through hair.
"He won't hate me for long," Rita said to her reflection above the tip of her wand. "When he reads the next issue of Hogwarts Hearsay, his opinion of me will change for having such amazing reporting skills, and his opinion of Evans will change even more."
"Oh, yeah," Anita nodded dramatically, "because of course he's believed everything you've ever written, along with the rest of the school."
"That's where you come in, sister dearest!" Rita smiled so widely, it looked as if when she stopped, her mouth would make a snapping sound, like a stretched rubber glove. "The next story I have is fantastic, and completely outrageous! Anyone who hasn't been living at the bottom of the lake for the past ten years would never believe it. But the thing that's going to make it work . . . is photographic evidence."
"You want me to take a photograph," Anita said with disdain. "Well, you may not have realised this, Rita, but when you make stuff up, you can't actually capture it on camera!"
"Wrong, as usual," Rita sighed. "I want you to make a photograph."
"What?"
"I know you can do it. You know the charms. You know everything about that odd little machine of yours."
"And? That doesn't mean I'll do it. You said it was in my interest." Rita put a finger to her chin in an act of sudden remembrance.
"So I did! Tell you what, your interest is: I won't tell mum about the photos you've sneakily been taking of Sirius Black, how about that?"
"You wouldn't." Anita narrowed her eyes.
"And why not?" The eleven-year-old changed tracks immediately. She slapped an innocent expression on her face, widening her eyes and pouting.
"You'd blackmail your own little sister?" she asked pitifully.
"Darling, I'd blackmail, curse, sabotage or steal anyone or anything to get James. I won't be beaten by anyone." At the end of her inspiring speech, Rita struck a pose with her chin in the air, pouting slightly. Then she wrinkled her nose. "Especially not anyone with hair that colour."
Smiling in a self satisfied way, whilst her sister sulked, Rita sat herself on a desk and picked up Anita's camera.
"Now off you go," she said to her sister pleasantly, handing her the camera. "Run along and get you little potions ready. I'll give you my commission tomorrow. Oh, it's going to be genius!"
Anita snatched the strap of her machine and stomped furiously towards the door. She stopped level with her sister and turned her head towards her with a face like thunder.
"I hear she's beginning to like him, you know."
Rita pinched her hard.
Wednesday found the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the changing rooms as usual, expecting to be worked to the very edge of their capabilities by James, who seemed to have gotten even more mental in the short space of time between the last game and then.
"Everybody get the sod out of those cubicles quickly!" he hollered into the changing rooms. "We have a mountain of stuff to do today! Those Slytherins aren't going to thrash themselves, you know!"
Lily frowned and bit her lip as she fiddled with the clasp of her necklace and skilfully opened the door of her cubicle using only her elbows. The damn thing just wouldn't come undone, and Lily sat down on the wooden bench against the wall, sighing in frustration.
"Hello!"
Lily jumped as someone sat down next to her. Tinkling, her chain swung around her neck as she turned to see whom it was. Sirius grinned at her, flashing his teeth.
"Hello," said Lily suspiciously, then she went back to fiddling with her clasp. Sirius leaned his elbows on his knees, but frowned when he saw a kind . . . of light, it was only there for a fraction of a second, then it was gone.
"Did you see that?" he asked, frowning.
"See what?" replied Lily in a low, distracted voice.
"Nothing. So, how are you, Lilo?" Sirius asked her, shrugging pleasantly. "We've not had a good old chat in ages, I feel. What's going on, then? How's life?"
"Fine," Lily replied, frowning in the oddness of this conversation.
"Nothing interesting happen to you over the past few days?" Sirius continued agreeably. "Nothing even slightly amusing or entertaining? No? Nothing worth mentioning?"
"No," Lily said distractedly. Her clasp still wouldn't obey her will and Sirius's voice was beginning to irritate her.
"How's you relationship with Prongs these days?" Sirius asked, intent on not giving up.
Lily turned to face him with a frown.
"Are you still here?" she asked exasperatedly.
"You'd better get a move on, you know," he told her conversationally, "or Prongs will come in here and haul you out himself. He's completely gotten over that bathroom incident on Sunday."
Lily froze. Then she faced Sirius with her mouth agape.
"He told you about that?" she asked incredulously.
"Nyes-s-s," Sirius smirked smugly. "Indeed he did." Lily closed her eyes and hung her head. Sirius leaned back against the wall in satisfaction. "It's quite funny if you think about it," he chatted, "and I fully commend you for your handling of the situation. See, me? I would have cursed the bloke's head off . . ."
Sirius was cut off abruptly when Lily suddenly seized the collar of his Quidditch uniform and dragged his face towards hers. The dark-haired boy swallowed in the green blaze of the Head Girl's irises, the pupils of which were small with concrete determination.
"I should probably say," Lily murmured in a low voice, "that if any mention of that gets out, make no mistake, I will make sure that you spend the rest of your natural life peeing through a straw."
Sirius's eyebrows drifted upwards while his eyes squinted at the prospect of such immense pain.
"Thank you," he said weakly, as Lily released her grip on his collar and stood up, striding out of the changing room, with a smile on her face.
It took Sirius a moment to gather himself, frowning and blowing outwards in relief, until he got up and trotted after Lily into the sunlight of the Quidditch pitch.
Lily was still battling with her necklace when James turned around from watching Ainsley checking the elasticity charms on the Quaffles.
"My grandmother gave me her Christmas present last week," James was saying conversationally to the younger boy.
"Bit late for Christmas presents, isn't it?" asked Ainsley, while he bounced a Quaffle on the grass as his long dreadlocks bounced free.
"Yeah, well, my old nan is a bit dotty," James said, the tone of his voice clearly getting at something, "she lives on some massive farm in deepest, darkest suburbia. Herds sheep for a living."
"Oh really?" Ainsley replied, obviously not that interested.
"Do you know what she gave me for Christmas, Tall?" ask James.
"No."
"A pair of sheep shearers."
Ainsley stopped bouncing the ball.
"All right, all right," he sighed, dropping it, and raising his hands to his head. "I'll tie it up, stop getting shirty."
James turned at the sounds of Lily's and Sirius's footsteps approaching.
"There you are," he said. Without waiting to be asked, he turned Lily around by the shoulders and took the clasp from her fingers, frowning.
Sirius squinted when he thought he saw a slight flash of white light again and heard a faint mechanical noise. Looking around, he saw nothing and so dismissed it once more. Lily's chain shook slightly as the Head Boy fiddled with it. "I was beginning to wonder whether you'd gotten lost. What were you both doing in there?"
Lily was just about to say 'talking', when Sirius smirked at her and said "Snogging."
Lily's necklace stopped shaking abruptly.
"What?" James asked oddly, as Lily smiled.
"Snogging," she repeated, while Sirius stuffed a fist in his mouth. "You know, broom closet activity, getting off with each other, pulling for England . . ."
Lily felt her necklace tighten slightly for a moment, then she heard a snapping sound, and soon after, a large 'thump' behind her.
Eyebrow raised, Sirius peered round Lily to see the form of his best friend spread eagled on the grass and completely unconscious.
"Wupsie. Man down."
Quidditch practice that Wednesday was decidedly cancelled, as Lily, Verity and Sirius sat in the Hospital Wing on both sides of the bed that the Head Boy was currently sprawled on.
It had taken them half an hour to drag him up all those stairs because none of them happened to have their wands with them. Once they had arrived in Madam Pomfrey's territory, the nurse had thrown a fit.
"He passed out? With no explanation?"
"Well, Lily and I might have played a joke on him by telling him that we were conducting a sordid affair in the Gryffindor changing rooms," Sirius had told her.
"Yes, well, I think it best not to enervate him after such . . . trauma," Madam Pomfrey had decided, while Lily cringed at the humiliation.
Now the three Gryffindor seventh years were assembled around the bed on which their comrade was stretched out on. Lily was unsuccessfully trying to pry her broken necklace from James clutches, Verity was watching with mild amusement and Sirius was looking rather bored by the whole situation, as though he'd been in his current situation a thousand times before.
"I dunno why she doesn't just enervate him," he remarked offhandedly while Madam Pomfrey was out of earshot. "It's hardly a very serious trauma, if you think about it. I mean, who wouldn't want to snog me in the changing rooms?"
Glancing at each other, both Lily and Verity raised their hands.
"Well, I mean . . . you know . . ." Sirius dithered, and then gave up. Lily went back to battling with the industrial strength grip James had on her chain.
"Hey, Lilo," Sirius grinned from across the bed, "if you want him awake, why don't you try your mouth-to-mouth method again?"
Lily looked up shock.
"He told you about that too?" she demanded, a blush crawling its traitorous way up her cheeks.
"Nyes-s-s, indeed he did," Sirius grinned gleefully.
Scandalised, Lily stared at the impassive face of the Head Boy for a moment, before sighing and letting her head drop forward onto his chest with a thump.
"Twat, twat, twat . . ." she could be heard muttering, hammering her forehead against his chest with every word.
"Excuse me, yes, hi," Verity said from Sirius's other side, "when was this? What are you talking about? What happened? . . . What?"
"I'll tell you later," Sirius said dismissively.
"No you will not!" Lily exclaimed, jerking her head up.
"Face it, Lilo, it was going to get around sooner or later."
"Yes, all because of this arsehole," Lily replied, banging her fist onto James's chest for good measure.
Sirius watched her for a moment.
"What exactly is it that you hate about Prongs again?" he asked, levelly, and Verity looked at her as well. Lily, on the other hand looked back at them as if they were both as stupid as each other.
"Wha- I . . . If you think for one . . . it's . . ." Lily began, and began again. "I don't know!" she said exasperatedly, before she realised how stupid she sounded. "It's just the general way he acts, all right?"
"Yes, but what is there in particular about him that contributes to this 'general way he acts', then?"
Lily didn't say anything, for the simple reason that she could not think of anything to say. Her first thought had been to say something along the lines of 'I don't have to answer any of your idiotic questions, you hopelessly irritating nosey parker!' but that would mean Sirius would win, because she wouldn't have proved her immense detest for Potter. Or she could have said something to the effect of 'I think you'll find there is nothing "particular" implied in the word "general", Black, you freak' but that still would not have proved her (completely valid) point.
So she did what he asked. She tried to think of something she hated about Potter, and the answers came easily.
She hated the way he was nasty to people for no apparent reason.
No, wait, he'd stopped doing that, she hadn't seen him do that in ages.
She hated the way he gave himself an excuse to laugh at other people when he played cruel practical jokes on them.
No, hold on, these days all his stunts seemed to have himself and the rest of the Marauders as the butt of their jokes, and those that didn't were always targeted at people who undoubtedly deserved it.
She hated the way he was an insufferable show off about absolutely bloody everything that he was good at, which, incidentally, was everything.
Oh wait, he didn't quite seem to show off so much anymore, not at all in fact. And the only thing he talked a lot about was Quidditch, which he had a right to, because he was team captain and he knew what he was talking about.
She hated the way he arrogantly obliterated any resemblance of order in his hair.
But now it didn't seem to her as much of a stuck up gesture as much as a nervous habit, really.
Terrifyingly, Lily's mind went utterly blank, completely clean, as clear as the sky on a midsummer's day and hollow as a well of the abyss.
There was nothing there. Absolutely naught to back her up, nil to prove herself with and zip to say.
"Come on, I'll tell you all about it on the way to the Fat Lady," Sirius murmured to Verity, and they both stood up quietly and crept towards the door. As they arrived in the corridor outside Sirius's eyes flashed for the third time that day and a light, clicking noise pricked his ears.
"Did you see that? That flash?" he asked urgently and Verity shook her head, while in the Hospital Wing their Head Girl just stared, seemingly at nothing, looking as though everything she knew has just imploded colourfully away into oblivion.
Sometime during the night, Lily did in fact realise that she had been staring at nothing and that Sirius and Verity had left. She looked at James on the bed in front of her, his fingers still clenched around her necklace, snoring gently.
The candles in the Hospital Wing had long dimmed down to cast a translucent hue over the stark white sheets and the candlelight glinted off James's glasses as his eyelashes flickered slightly beneath them.
Lily stared at his face for a long time during which everything inside her head went through a long and laborious process of consequential shifting, like one of those sliding jigsaw puzzles in a little plastic grid that you got in Christmas crackers every year. One little piece of information had changed, and now everything had to be moved about to try and find an arrangement where everything made sense again.
Such, unfortunately, was Lily's mind.
According to previous records, Lily had been informed that James was a nasty bugger and therefore she hated him.
It was all very logical.
An amendment that had been recently inserted told her that James was, contrary to former information, not a nasty bugger. Therefore she couldn't hate him.
According to previous records, Lily had been informed that James was arrogant and thrived on humiliating others. Therefore she had no right to enjoy his company.
An amendment that had been recently inserted told her that James was actually a very caring and pleasant person. Therefore she was completely free to enjoy his company as much as she liked.
According to previous records, Lily had been informed that James had an immense sense of pride and ego and this was the reason he had not given up on her all these years.
An amendment that had been recently inserted told her that James's pride was, in fact, non-existent (reasoning sources suggested that this was probably because she had been so wretched to him all these years). Therefore he couldn't have persisted shamelessly to save his own face.
Why then? Why had he not given up? Why had he not tried to save himself at least some of his pride? Why had he stuck it through all her hysterical tantrums and frosty glares and life threatening hexes? Maybe, and it was a long shot, but maybe he had been genuine?
Maybe it had been like he'd been telling her all this time?
Maybe he did love her?
Lily blinked, and whereas before she had been watching James shyly out of the corners of her eyes, she turned her head to look at him clearly. Everything in her head had clicked back into place in an entirely new arrangement, and in this new arrangement everything made a lot more sense. She could now explain why he'd been so nice to her this past year. She could now explain why he'd been so nice to everyone else this past year. Moreover, she could now explain why he hadn't decided that being nice to her was a complete waste of his time.
Maybe he did love her?
In this new light, Lily thought, James Potter was something of a fantastic wizard. He was her intellectual equal, he cared about her well-being more than anything else, he had a habit of always saying the right thing when it really mattered, he was the lucky owner of more than his fair share of charm and charisma and despite that dreadful temper of his, it really was quite well placed.
And he had a sense of humour as well, which Lily was in all honesty, quite glad of.
Because she suspected that when someone you had loved for a long time and who had despised you for a long time finally wanted to apologise and be friends, a sense of humour would definitely be a useful thing to have.
Lily curled up in her chair, her cheek resting against her knees, still gazing at the Head Boy's face. When she finally closed her eyes in a bid to sleep, all she could think about was the last thing she had seen before she slipped off into a doze.
The thing was, Lily used to think she had him all sorted out. All in all, he was the opposing team and her strategies and tactics were formulated on the target of beating his arse to a pulp.
It was just that . . . she hadn't even realised when he'd switched teams.
a/n My week off school was fantastic, so lovely and relaxing. Horrah. I also got another chapter done, as you can see. Sadly school starts again on tomorrow, so I expect the next update won't be as quick as this one. (Sniff.)
A lot of people seem to think that I switch the teams Gryffindor was playing against half way through the chapter. I made a mistake in chapter 9 where is says 'Next chappy', saying that Gryffindor were to play Hufflepuff in the next chapter. However, Gryffindor have already played Hufflepuff, and James beat Amos Diggory's arse, thank you very much. ;) I fixed it at the end of chapter 9 where it says the wrong thing, but there's nothing in chapter 10 that says Gryffindor are playing Hufflepuff, they are playing Ravenclaw. Sorry about that, I got confused.
Flame Of Desire: Haha, thanks I'm really glad you liked it.
GlassBroomstick: I know, James is a bit . . . slow when it comes to certain things. Guess what? Since my week off, I've written 3,728 words. Score. Too bad school starts on Monday.
drumer girl: Thank you very much, sweetie, I hope to post soon.
MissMrprk: Oh! Yeah, I had a suspicion that that was what it was. Then I thought well, it could be anything. Well I'm smiling because you reviewed. :).
The Big Dance: OMG, don't stress yourself. I'm quite worried about the medical effects my chapters have on people. I hope it doesn't affect your game. I don't play sports, I only watch them. :)
FrighteninglyObsessed: Yeah, I tend to stay within the PG-13 zone, me. I dunno what it is, but Harry Potter is supposedly a children's book, so something about R-rated fics doesn't quite fit for me, but whatever pops your shutter, I guess. I don't want Rita to die at my party! I just want her humiliated. I may want to use her in another fic. :D Keep reading, my luff.
Thunder's Shadow: Wow! You added me to your C2! I'm so honoured. (Tear.) Thanks you so much for you lovely review.
Unregistered-Animagus: Oh, I'm sorry to get thins stuck in your head. Oh, well. Thanks you for saying nice things in your review. And for putting me on your favourites. (Hug)
ElizabethMorgana: Haha, that would be good. Skeeter and Rys joining forces. You know, I think they belong to the same 'James Potter Appreciation Society'.
walkingcensure: I love James too. Yummy.
LJstagflower4e: Thanks so much, luff. I was always a fan of the subtle humour. Anyway, keep reading!
soccerchic1989: Urg, chores, they keep me from writing, good luck.
Miss Lady Marauder: Ahh! You stole them! Can I have them back for my story? Please? I swear writing is the only we'll get up to. ;)
Call-Sugarhigh-Police: Thank you very much. You seem to like it. I love the fog on the glasses.
helloshanti2: Slow motion, brilliant! Yes, at the end of chapter 9, I said that Gryffindor would be playing Hufflepuff, but I got confused and should have put Ravenclaw. I fixed it now, but in chapter 10, Gryffindor are always playing Ravenclaw, because they already played Hufflepuff before. (Smacks own head)
siriusforeva: Go James! (Waves pompoms)
Jillian Jacobs: Really? I'm sure there are more fics like this out there.
Ethuiliel: Yay for fluff! Um, well, there's lots of luff at the Sugarquill which is sugerquill and then dot net. Anything by JamieBell is fab. And there's lots of fluff in my one shots, plus there's lots of them, they're mostly H/G and L/J.
limbo-gal: Yes, Lily is getting empowered. :D Go Lily.
Tsusetsu: Urgh, that's disgusting. I don't want you to kill her, just to humiliate her. I might wanna use her in another fic, and I can't do that if she's dead, can I?
Anne-Janet: (Cringes) that's the grossest thing I have ever heard. Urg. Congrats on getting internet. Huzzah!
Lady of Masbolle: Wow, that was impressive. But don't give me all your ideas before the actual party. Thank you very much for the review!
The ORIGINAL Meathead: I think Rys was just there to get beaten, sorry about that. I'm glad you liked that bit in the bathroom. Keep reading!
snazzysnez: It was Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw, but I made a mistake in chapter 9 when I said they were playing Hufflepuff. They already played Hufflepuff, so sorry about that. I'm glad you liked the chappy.
SnakeEyesHannah: Thanks for saying nice things about the Quidditch match. I could see it in my head. It must be because I watch so much sport. :D
Tracey: Well, it's true! I'm always more confident when my hair looks halfway decent. When it's doing its weird anti-gravity thing, I just wanna put a bag over my head. :D And thank for writing a whole other review to compliment my matches. (hugs)
mika-mitch: Yeah, I get what the phrase means. I was just messing with you to make it seem like you were trying to put me in jail ;). I guess I was exaggerating when I said it was a musical. It's just the crowd spontaneously bursting into song reminded me of a musical and someone left me a review that just said 'andrew Lloyd webber much?' so I thought it would be a nice tribute to them, whoever they were.
LostConscience: I'm glad you liked it, keep reading, honey.
Alcapacien: Thank you so much, luff.
Queen Elizabeth I: I made a mistake. At the end of chapter 9, I said that Gryffindor would be playing Hufflepuff, but I got confused and should have put Ravenclaw. I fixed it now, but in chapter 10, Gryffindor are always playing Ravenclaw, because they already played Hufflepuff before. Sorry. Thanks for the review.
shortywithbrains: Thank you very much, honey. Don't worry, Rita will get what's coming to her.
Flavagurl: Thank you so much. Maybe I should steal your idea and put James in a bath in this fic. Oh well, I already had his coming out of the bathroom in nothing but a towel.
FCK all that's missing is U: What can I say? It seems James is an old-fashioned prude. (Giggle.)
Elspeth Renee: Random talks about hair are great. :D
IamSiriusgrl: Thank you very much, I'm glad you think so, honey!
razzle-dazzle-me: I love your name.
newsieduckling: Thank you so much. You flatter me!
Sushinase: I love that you review the fic while reading. It's great. I should do that more often. How do I come up with this stuff? I don't know. It's just seems like something Marauder!Remus would do. Why not auction off the Quidditch pitch for eight sickles:D
charbar: Hey, how have your holidays been going? You wish you knew someone like James? Don't we all, honey, don't we all. :)
Victoria87: I think he did like seeing her in the bath, it's just that he's a hopeless prude. :D I suppose it's true what they say about the British, my friends and I went underwear shopping today and my friend said to me 'Underwear shops make me nervous.' I laughed at her. Oh, and feel free to use the idea, the only thing is, my character is not actually Madam Hooch. I thought it would be a bit weird with the canon. Madam Hooch would be a bit friendlier to Harry is she was his mum's best friend. I think my character is some relation to Madam Hooch though, so you wouldn't actually be copying my idea if you wrote JK's character into a fic. Be sure to send me the link to your fic once it's up.
Denierure: Thanks very much for the review! I've been writing a lot.
Naidel: Wymplethwaite, Wymplethwaite,
The way he plays ain't simple, mate. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Amber Tinted: Thank so much, luff.
kiwislushie: Haha, I'm glad my chappy provoked that sort of reaction. Very good.
Phillippa of the Phoenix: Your gold clubs idea was stunning. Save it for the party.
vickiicky: (SMILE) I'm glad you liked the chappy. Keep reading. (Mwah)
Next chappy:
Lily wakes up in a considerably more comfortable position than she went to sleep in
The window panes of Hogwarts get a right rattling
All those flashes take their toll on Sirius's mental health
Lots of Luff, your back-to-school-tomorrow author
