"I can resist everything except temptation."

            -Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Where You Belong

Chapter 6

            Andrea walked through the halls heading to the Slytherin common room to drop off her bag before dinner. She had her music playing as she drifted down the various halls and was in quite a good mood until she entered the common room. There crowded towards the front of the room was the very group of slytherins she had been tactfully avoiding for the past three and a half weeks. Quickly she turned her music down knowing that they were there to talk to her.

            "Well if it isn't the little double crosser herself." Lucius murmured upon seeing Andrea.

            "Can I help you Malfoy." Andrea coldly asserted knowing that she was going to lose her good mood for the next few days.

            "Maybe you can explain what you were doing conversing with a mudblood and a blood traitor?"

            "I don't know what you're talking about." Andrea dismissed as she made her way to the dormitories. Before she could reach the stairs though Regulus and Rodolphus were blocking her path. "Move."

            "No. They're on my orders to keep you from escaping this little chat." Lucius answered.

            Andrea didn't even bother responding to Lucius instead she took out her wand and moved the boys out of her way before anyone could stop her. She quickly slipped up the stairs to her dormitory and dropped her stuff down on her bed. A few seconds later the door was thrown open by Bellatrix and Narcissa as they stood in the doorway glaring at her.

            "You will listen to what we have to say. We have ways of keeping you here until you listen and learn." Bellatrix threatened.

            "What like you had ways of keeping me in the common room?" Andrea asked sarcastically. The two sisters just glared at her obviously not that happy with her, not that she cared. Andrea gave a slight chuckle before holding up her hands in surrender saying "Alright, alright I'll listen to you. All I had wanted to do was to put my stuff away before you cornered me for this talk."

            Andrea obediently followed the two down the stairs to the common room where the rest of them stood waiting. Just by looking at them Andrea could tell that they hadn't expected her reaction to their bullying tactics and were more then a little ticked off at her. She quickly grabbed her necklace and turned on her music to a low enough volume that she could hear them to know when to respond to their talk. Other then an occasional nod and subservient yes Andrea ignored them and their preaching of how it was disgraceful for the whole house for her to been seen with Lily and Remus. The only thing that Andrea really got out of the talk was strong resolve to be seen as often as possible with either Lily or Remus.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            "Alright boys we haven't played a prank in almost a month. Poor Snivellus must think we don't love him any more." Sirius began.

            "And we don't want him to feel unloved now do we?" James asked.

            "Of course not Prongs which is why we're having this meeting."

            "Ok what have you two got up your never ending sleeves?" Remus asked half afraid of the answer.

            "Well now that you ask…"

            For the next hour the boys discussed various prank ideas. James and Sirius would dish out all their ideas and Remus would point out the flaws and the success rate of each one. Occasionally Peter would give an idea but it was usually so ridiculous that the other three would look at him in amazement and then laugh at him.

            "Hey guys I've got an idea!" Peter shouted.

            "Go ahead Wormtail what've you got this time?" James questioned.

            "Why don't we prank the new slytherin?"

            "You know I think Wormtail's had a genuine bright idea!" Sirius exclaimed. "I mean she has yet to be inducted into the tradition of pranking slytherins."

            "Guys I don't think pranking her would be a very good idea." Remus warned.

            "Why not Rem?" James inquired.

            "I just don't think it's a good idea alright. Something tells me she won't take it as lightly as the rest of them take it."

            "Aww moony you just don't want your study buddy to stop helping you pass potions." Sirius joked.

            "Fine but don't come to me later when once again I'm right."

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            The prank was set up to go off Friday morning at breakfast. Remus had agreed to help set it up on all the other slytherins but he would have no part in pranking Andrea.

            Andrea entered the great Hall for breakfast as oblivious as the rest of the school and ate her breakfast not catching the warning glances Remus was sending her way. Breakfast was halfway over before the prank began to show it's self. Andrea suddenly felt a tingling feeling spread over her head and quickly grabbed her hair to see her red-gold locks changed to a puck-green, and then she saw her hair transform into hundreds of tiny snakes that had a mind of their own. Furthermore she noticed that her hands and arms were now covered in green tinted scales. Once her transformation was complete she looked down the table to see her classmates with red hair and phrases like 'I love muggles' coming out of their mouths, obviously she was the main target. When she looked back at her plate she noticed smoky words beginning to form in front of her.

            "Welcome to Hogwarts, Enjoy your stay. Entertainment brought to you by three-fourths of the Marauders."  

            Andrea read the note twice before looking over to the Gryffindor table to see James, Sirius, Peter and even Remus watching her. She noticed that Remus was trying to send her apologetic looks. She then looked around at her housemates to see them all with angry looks on their faces and trying to curse the marauders, they were obviously expecting her to react similarly. She turned back to them and sent them a smirk before pulling out her wand. She pointed her wand at the smoky words in front of her and muttered an incantation. When she was done the words dissolved into smoke and lazily floated across the hall and stopped right in front of the marauders. There the smoke began to form words once more.

            "Don't start something you can't finish!"

            Once they were done reading her message she smirked once more before grabbing her bag and casually making her way out of the hall. She knew that by now the whole hall was watching her and that the marauders were just waiting for her to try and remove the transformation so that it could only get worse but Andrea wouldn't give them that satisfaction. She left the hall and went to her dorm to see what pranking supplies she had before heading to potions still looking like a scaly version of medusa.

            Remus tried to apologize for the prank in potions but Andrea stopped him before he could even utter a word.

            "Don't. They need to realize who exactly they're dealing with." Andrea stated sitting down in her seat. "I know that you had nothing to do with my lovely transformation and that was kind but don't expect the same from me."

            The rest of the lesson was spent in silence as the two worked on their potion. Andrea caught up in making the potion right and Remus worried about what she would do to them.

                                    *                                  *                                  *

            Whatever the marauders had expected from Andrea was not what they got. Her retaliation wasn't quick, instead she opted to let them wait and either worry about it or forget about it, but either way she was ready to attack.

            About two weeks after their prank Andrea launched hers at dinner when everyone was guaranteed to be in the great hall. After all four had eaten their first course of dinner the prank began to show. All four boys' hair began to grow changing color as it went, after a minute or two all four had shoulder length oily black hair, but there was more to come. Peter began to grow a huge boil on the very tip of his nose while James and Sirius began to sprout crooked hooked noses.

            Andrea had a smile of pure bliss upon her face as she watched her prank unfold. Next Remus discovered that he was turning a sickly green as he drank his pumpkin juice. He tried to warn the others but found that he had no voice, but instead he hissed like a snake. Finally the first phase of her prank had finished and smoky words appeared in front of the four of them.

            "Had enough? I didn't think so."

            The words disappeared and in their place appeared a glowing orb that resembled the full moon. Before they could wonder what would happen next the orb flashed a blinding light and James, Sirius and Peter were transformed into flobberworms with oily black hair. The orb flashed again and they were now back to their previous state of hideousness. The words once again reappeared in place of the orb.

            "Enough? You would think so but there's more let's just see how long it takes you to realize what it is."

            With that Andrea stood up from her seat waved her wand in a complex sequence before calmly leaving the hall with a satisfied smirk firmly planted on her face. No one was able to see her green-blue eyes glowing with mirth and anticipation as she headed out to the Quidditch pitch.  

            Andrea entered the Quidditch stands and took a prime seat. She knew that the Gryffindor team was practicing tonight for the match against Ravenclaw the following afternoon and she wanted to be able to see everything that would happen. About a half hour later the team and a few spectators entered the pitch and went about getting ready for the practice. Andrea was soon accompanied by Lily and Remus who still had his oily hair.

            "That was brilliant!" Lily complimented as she sat down on Andrea's right side. Remus was sitting down on her left side and Andrea could see that he was about to say something. Smirking Andrea turned to Lily.

            "Did you really like it?"

            "Yep."

            "Good! Then you'll be glad to know that there's more to come."

            "Ooh I can't wait."

            Andrea laughed at Lily's enthusiasm realizing that the whole school had been waiting for some brave soul to step up and prank the marauders back as bad as they pranked everyone else. On her left she could hear the hissing sound of Remus trying to talk to her.

            "Don't Remmy…don't bother you'll be a snake for the next two hours." Andrea explained trying to hold back her laughter. Remus looked at her for a minute as if to make her take off the spell but then gave up and turned to watch the practice.

            When Andrea saw the Gryffindor team walk out onto the pitch she turned to Lily once again.

            "Hey Lily, you know how you've always wondered at how James' broom could get off the ground because his head was so big?"

            "Yea." Lily responded now quite interested in what Andrea had to say.
            "Just watch him and you'll see what you've always wanted to."

            With that everyone in hearing distance turned their heads to watch James as he walked out into the middle of the field before stopping to mount his broom. James threw his leg over his broom and kicked off from the ground. The instant he kicked off his head grew ten times its size and his broom struggled under its extra weight causing it to get very little altitude at all. James immediately turned his gigantic head towards the stands and spotted Andrea in the crowd.

            "What the hell did you do to my broom?" James roared causing his face to grow bright red and his oily hair to fall into his face.

            "I've done nothing to your broom James, I'm not that vicious. I swear that I've touched none of your personal belongings."

            "Then why the hell can't I get any altitude?"

            "Well it's as Lily here has always wondered. How can your poor broom possibly get off the ground with you head as big as it is." Andrea ended her statement with a flick of her wand producing a mirror in front of James allowing him to see his newly enlarged head. James just stared at the mirror in disbelief before turning back to Andrea.

            "Change it back, NOW!" He snarled out.

            " 'Fraid I can't Mr. Potter these things just need to run their course sometimes." Andrea replied sweetly.

            "Fine! What do I have to do to get rid of it?"

            "Fly higher."

            "I can't! If you hadn't noticed my broom won't go any higher because of you."

            "Anything is possible Mr. Potter. You of all people should know this."

            After about twenty minutes James realized that all he had to do was will himself to go higher and he would while at the same time his head would shrink back towards its normal size. While he was busy figuring this all out the rest of the team was practicing their newest moves and reviewing their old ones.  When James was finally able to get his head back to its original size it initiated the prank on Sirius.

            Sirius, who seconds before had been laughing his head off at James, found himself suddenly surrounded by dozens of owls. He quickly took off in the other direction to rid himself of the owls but to his dismay they followed him wherever he went. No matter how fast or fancy Sirius flew the owls kept up with him making it impossible for him to concentrate and hit the bludgers away from his fellow players. James, seeing this, called a time out for the team hoping that the owls would go away and was happy to note that the owls didn't follow Sirius when he landed.

            "Finally. Now maybe we'll get some practicing in." James commented. "Alright everyone back in the air we've got lost time to make up for."

            The team dutifully mounted their brooms and took to the air only to have to owls surround Sirius again.

            "Sirius get rid of whatever's attracting the owls so that we can practice!" James yelled across the pitch to his best friend and beater.

            "James I don't have anything on me! They follow me everywhere except for when I land!" Sirius yelled back.

            The distant laughter of Lily and Andrea brought James to look to the stands and realize that this was all part of Andrea's prank. He turned his broom and took off towards the stands stopping abruptly in front of the giggling duo.

            "Alright Taylor you've had your fun now let us practice, and for Merlin's sake change us back form Snape clones."

            "Potter, you should know the quality of a time induced prank. I hate to break it to you that you and your cronies will continue to look like Snape for some time and poor Sirius will be attacked by owls for the next few hours." Andrea replied.

            "But we have a match to practice for!"

            "Do you think I really care? Besides I know for a fact, as do you, that you and your team will do just fine tomorrow." 

            James looked at Andrea's glee filled face and realized that she indeed had gotten the better of him and his friends. It was then that he noticed the extremely silent Remus, who was quite by nature but this was taking it too far he should've intervened by now.

            "Moony what's up with you? Aren't you disgusted about having to look like Snape?"

            Remus shook his face fervently in agreement to James' statement and opened his mouth as if to reply before he remembered that he still couldn't talk and closed it. James just looked horrified at his silent best friend.

            "He can't talk." Andrea replied.

            "Why not!? What did you do to Him!?"

            "Relax Potter! I did nothing permanent; remember he's a friend of mine too. He can talk it's just that it comes out as hissing like a snake. Remmy here will be able to talk again in about,…oh say another hour and a half." James looked at Andrea once more before flying back to his team.

            "Practice is cancelled. Get plenty of sleep and be ready to play hard tomorrow. Oh and you can thank Taylor for your night off." James snappishly ordered as he landed and headed toward the changing rooms.