Here it is! Aren't you guys glad I finally got this out?
Okay, I'm not going to blab too much. I know all of you will be wanting to read the actual story.
Ehehe, sorry, this chapter still hasn't shown up for a day, so I think I'll renew it. Just in case! XD
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-Chapter Eleven: Is It True-
-
It was a little bit after curfew, and Grace and I were huddled in our room, looking over the library book on advanced potions on my bed.
Suddenly, the door smashed open with a resounding crash. Grace yelped, jumping at least three feet into the air and accidentally falling off the bed. The door bounced off Lily Evans's outstretched hand. Oh, God. When that girl was really angry at something or someone… and it was very unnerving. VERY. Her face was as red as her hair, and her green eyes were flashing dangerously. I could practically see Lily's chest puffing up, drawing in enough air to blast my ears off—
"I KNEW THAT REMUS LUPIN WAS A LAZY SLOTH! I KNEW IT!" she shouted. I winced and plugged my ears. "THAT GOOD-FOR-NOTHING SLACKER WAS SLEEPING ALL THIS TIME, I JUST KNOW IT!" She paused to draw in new breath, and I took this opportunity to try and calm her down. Grace wasn't going to, as she was busy crawling under the bed.
"Oh-oh really, Lily?" I asked in what I hoped was a placating manner. "Why would you say that?" Lily turned her gaze to me, and I could practically feel the heat from her rage radiating outwards. Her eyes almost shot me down.
I didn't want Lily Evans to ever be mad at me.
"He hasn't been coming to the prefects' meetings at all, and he's been skiving off patrol duty!" she bellowed. "And do you know who's stuck with all the work?"
"Uh…" I mumbled. "No…?"
"ME!" she roared. "And do you know what else?"
"N-no."
"I FOUND HIM SLEEPING IN A CLOSET OFF THE THIRD FLOOR!" Lily shouted. I winced. This was serious.
"Do you know what's wrong with him, Faye?" Lily asked after a moment, visibly struggling to calm herself.
"Haha…" I laughed nervously. "Of course not." God, if Lily knew that it was my fault, then she'd kill me on the spot. She looked just about ready to do anything.
Lily narrowed her eyes at me nervous laugh. I felt a drop of sweat trickle down my neck. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah! Why would I know?" I assured her a little too quickly. Lily was too perceptive. It was disconcerting.
"Okay…" Lily said. "But if you find anything out…"—I gulped—"you have to tell me."
I nodded quickly. "Sure. Sure, Lily. Whatever you want."
She nodded curtly and stamped off down the stairs, which gave me a feeling that she'd just come up here to blow off her steam at whatever poor victim was up here, as she couldn't—of course—yell in the common room. And those poor victims unfortunately had to be Grace and me.
"Hey, Grace," I said, bending over the side of my bed and looking under. Grace was huddled down there, rubbing her ears and grimacing.
"Lily is absolutely terrifying when she's angry," Grace muttered.
"We have to start on that animal transformation potion right away. I have to find out if I'm really the problem that's causing Black to behave like this and make other people lose their sanity."
"You are," Grace grumbled, crawling out. "Trust me. And I still don't know why we just can't take Remus's word for it. Trust me—you can trust Remus."
"You're asking for a miracle," I said, picking up the book again. "Okay. The Animira Potion. I think I'll be a cat."
"You want to be a cat?" she asked, bending over. "I thought you were going to be a dog."
"Nah. Too noisy and panty," I said. "Cats are better. Silent, and equipped with claws, and teeth, and night vision!"
"What do we need for it?" Grace asked.
"Well, it says here that we need some fur from a real cat," I frowned, bending over it. "But after the transformation is complete, I won't look exactly like that cat. So I'll have my own original, cat appearance."
"Where are we going to find a cat?" she asked skeptically. I looked at her and watched comprehension dawn on her face. "Oh, no. You don't mean…"
"Yes. Yes, I do," I grinned.
"No!" Grace groaned. "Why did you have to draw me into this?"
ll-ll
"Shh!" I hissed. "You don't want to get us caught!"
"I can't help it!" Grace whispered back. "Do you really think a pile of Dungbombs in the middle of the hallway is going to attract Mrs. Norris? It's like—it's obviously a trap! You don't think that she's thick enough to fall for that!"
"We have to try!" I whispered back. "The potion's ready! All we need is a bit of her fur!"
"Fine," Grace sighed. "Let's review our plan. "Once Mrs. Norris arrives, we jump out on her and stun her, and then we throw her into this sack,"—Grace shook a heavy burlap bag—"and then we run for it!"
"Yeah," I said.
"Oh, god, it sounds so stupid," she shook her head.
"Shh!" I whispered. "Someone's coming!" We huddled closer together behind the statue that we were hiding in back of.
My heart sank as I saw Professor McGonagall round the corner. Oh, no. I knew what was going to happen now….
McGonagall gave one curious, confused, and suspicious look at the pile of Dungbombs and took out her wand. Within the next wand-wave, all the bombs had disappeared. I had refrain myself from screaming. Grace's jaw fell open, and she gaped soundlessly as the professor swept away imperiously.
"Attempt One of Project COMS (capture of Mrs. Norris)," I stated, "Failure."
"Now what, Oh-Brilliant-One?" Grace groaned. "Those were all my Dungbombs! They cost money!"
"We're just going to have to sneak out at night," I said firmly. "We'll be students who are illegally out-of-bed, and Mrs. Norris will be bound to find us!"
"No!" Grace moaned. I could tell she was close to a breakdown.
"Don't worry," I flicked her shoulder. "At least if we do get caught by Filch, we'll both be in trouble!"
Grace broke down into sobs.
That day, after I was sure that everyone in our dorm had fallen asleep, I crept out of bed silently. I stepped silently towards Grace's bed and drew her curtains back. I looked into Grace's very resigned face.
"I was hoping that you'd fall asleep and forget about this," Grace whispered in a hopeless voice.
"No such luck," I whispered back cheerfully. "Let's go!"
Grace gave me a reproachful look and climbed out of bed. We both froze as Arabella turned over, muttering something that sounded like, "No… don't hurt me… Lily…mercy…"
Grace and I exchanged amused glances. Poor Bella, having to sleep through a nightmare about Lily in a rage. We crept out of the dorm, down the staircase, and past the common room, where Peter was snoring.
When the portrait hole closed behind us, Grace turned to look at me. "Now what?"
I shrugged. "I guess we just stroll around for awhile."
"What if we get caught?" she hissed.
"Where's the fun without a little danger?" I replied, smiling.
"You're a bad influence," Grace shook her head. "Before I met you, I was a good little girl. Now look at me! Brewing dangerous potions against school rules, trying to ambush Mrs. Norris, and wandering out of bed at night!"
"Yeah. Fun, isn't it?" I grinned. "You know you'd be bored without me."
Grace mock glared at me before laughing. "Actually, yes, I would be bored without you. It's kind of hard to believe."
"I knew it!" I said triumphantly.
"Don't get too cocky," she snapped.
"But you make it so easy for me!" I pointed out.
"I do not!" Grace cried indignantly.
"Yes!" I contradicted her.
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"Yes!"
"No!"
"I win!" I said.
"Hey!" Grace cried. "You can't do that! That's against the rules!"
"There are no rules," I replied cheerily. "I claim it, so I get it!"
"Not fair!"
"It is too fair!"
"Not!"
"Is!"
"Not!"
"I win!" I cried again.
"No, I win!" Grace said.
"I said it first!"
"So? I said it second! You know the rhyme, 'first is the worst, second is the best…'" Grace said smugly.
"That's too stupid to actually go by!" I protested.
"So what? We're being really immature now anyways, and like you said yourself, anything goes!"
"Nuh-uh!"
"Yah-huh!"
A soft meow that was threatening and self-satisfied interrupted us. My heart froze, and I exchanged a horrified look with Grace. I hadn't noticed that we had been getting a trifle loud. The object of our search was standing right in front of us. Mrs. Norris had that hah-I-caught-you-and-now-you're-going-to-get-it look in her smug, evil, lamp-like eyes.
For a moment, Grace and I merely stared at the cat dumbly. But when Mrs. Norris suddenly moved, my mind clicked into action. Before that foul walking dustbag could whisk off to get Filch, I threw myself onto her, flattening her before Grace could even whip out her wand.
"Bag!" I grunted.
"There's no bag!" Grace cried in a panicky voice. "We forgot it!"
I swore. "How could we forget the bag? That's like the most important—ouch! That stupid little fur-ball scratched me!" I panted as I tried to keep Mrs. Norris from running off. The obnoxious cat let out an unbelievable yowl and started biting and scratching my hands.
"Grace, do something!" I yelled in anguish.
"What? What do I do? There's nothing to knock her out with!" she shouted back.
"Are you a witch or not?" I bellowed, Mrs. Norris squirming frantically in my severely scratched hands. "There's something called a wand! A wand!"
"Oh, yeah!" Grace said thoughtfully. "I just remembered…"
"GRACE!" I bellowed.
"Right!" Grace cried. She stuck her wand at Mrs. Norris and yelled, "Stupefy!"
Everything went black.
ll-ll
"Enervate," I head a voice from far off say. Slowly, everything came back into focus. I stared into Grace's blue eyes.
"What happened?" I moaned, sitting up. I noticed that we were still in the hallway, so not much time passed since I passed out.
"Um… I sort of… stunned you," Grace said sheepishly.
"Yeah, I kind of figured. Good job," I said waspishly. "And Mrs. Norris?" I added, panicking.
"Oh. When you dropped her, I accidentally stepped on her tail, and that gave me the extra time I needed to stun her," she replied. "I think I'd make an excellent Auror!"
"Right," I answered sourly. "Stunning your own partner and accidentally stepping on the bad guy. Yeah. Sure."
"Hey!" Grace protested. "I still got her! Here." She handed me a limp Mrs. Norris.
"Ugh," I grumbled. "I hate this stupid cat. Look at these scratches!"
Suddenly, we heard footsteps down the hallway. I mouthed, 'holy crap!' at Grace and hurriedly yanked out a handful of Mrs. Norris's fur before Grace and I raced down the hallway, running for our lives. An inarticulate, screechy cry of rage echoed behind us.
Filch loved his cat way too much. He needed to get a girlfriend.
But then again, what girl would go out with him?
Grace and I skidded to a halt in front of the Fat Lady, banging on her to wake her up.
"Blast those skrewts!" I panted out the password. "Blast those skrewts! Let us in!"
"All right, all right," the Fat Lady said grumpily, blinking her eyes sleepily. "Merry Christmas to you, too!" Grace and I pushed our way into the common room, tripping over one another in our haste.
We lay gasping on a pile on the floor, trying to catch our breaths. Slowly, I sat up. Grace did as well. We stared at each other for a moment before we both cracked up. We fell on each other, laughing our heads off. We couldn't stop, even when Peter woke up.
"What is wrong with people!" Peter shouted, obviously losing it. "I can't sleep in my room 'cause of Sirius, and now I can't even sleep in the dorm 'cause of you guys! WHY CAN'T EVERYBODY JUST SHUT UP AND LET ME SLEEP?"
Instead of shutting us up, Peter's words made Grace and I sputter with even more laughter. I couldn't stop; my stomach was hurting from the strain of it, and I was pounding on the ground with the fist that had the clump of Mrs. Norris's fur.
Peter burst into loud sobs and ran out of the common room. The sight of him in a complete breakdown was, not depressing, but really, very, truly hilarious. I think it had something to do with the adrenaline that had rushed into me while running from Filch.
It was a long time before I could even calm down enough to talk. My face was sore from laughing so hard, which was a very strange feeling, and my stomach was cramped up. Even my fists were aching from pounding the ground so much. My eyes were tearing—I'd been laughing with so much wild abandonment that I'd started crying. It had been ages since I'd felt so happy and filled with energy and joy and amusement and—just— happy emotions!
"Grace?" I gasped weakly after we had stopped laughing and silence had reigned for a little while.
"Yes?" she asked breathlessly, her voice shaky and thin.
"I hope Filch didn't catch Peter."
That set us off again.
ll-ll
I woke up with horrible bags the next morning. I had been washing my face with cold water, trying to shock myself into full awareness, and when I glanced into the mirror, I had jumped a whole foot back. I didn't even recognize myself. At least Grace looked the same.
"Faye!" Grace whined as I tried to leave the dorm. "I can't go out with bags like these! Remus will die of fright!"
"Come off it," I scoffed. "It doesn't really matter! I have them, too! Besides, it was worth it!"
"Faye!" Grace protested. "It was because of you that I went out! Now you have to help me in my time of need!"
"Oh, all right," I sighed resignedly. "What should I do?"
We tried all sorts of things, from cucumbers to lotions to make-up charms. Nothing seemed to work.
"I know!" I said finally. My stomach was growling from hunger. "We'll put an illusion over it!"
"Are you sure you can?" Grace asked doubtfully. "You never practice make-up charms…"
"Yeah, yeah," I said impatiently, my stomach grumbling urgently. "I can do this. Don't worry. Close your eyes." I waved my wand at her eyes, saying, "Illusia!" There was a sound like a thunderclap.
Immediately, I smelled a burned, acrid flavor in the air. My heart turning into a lump of growing dread, I leaned closer to look at Grace.
I had singed her eyelashes off. Wait—it was even worse than that. I had singed her eyebrows off as well!
Shit. She was going to kill me.
"Faye?" Grace asked, her eyes still tightly closed. "Is it gone? You know, that spell you used must have been pretty effective. That thunderclap was loud!"
"Erm… right. Effective," I said uncomfortably. "Grace, I need to ask you something. Wait—don't open your eyes yet!"
"Okay…" Grace said in puzzlement, but listening to me all the same. "Anyway, fire away."
"Do you need eyelashes?"
"What?" Grace said in disbelief. "Are you okay? Why are we all of a sudden talking about eyelashes?"
"Oh, no reason," I said in my most convincing manner. "Just… do you really need eyelashes?"
"What did you do?" she had a slightly panicky tone in her voice now.
"Nothing!" I replied quickly. "I just want to know it you really need eyelashes? Are they that important? Do you absolutely, positively need them? For that matter, do you even need eyebrows? I mean, they don't do anything,"—here, Grace had rushed over to the mirror—"and you look… er… loads better now!" I tried a last attempt to console Grace.
It didn't work.
Grace let out an scream of rage and despair and disbelief. "Faye… WHAT DID YOU DO!" Grace shrieked. I winced and tried to calm her down.
"Nothing! Honestly, Grace, you looks loads better—!" I cut off to duck as Grace chucked a book straight for my face.
"No, really!" I cried. "I want to help!"
"Help?" Grace bellowed. "You singed my eyebrows off!" And she continued to hurl objects at me.
"Let me try again!" I said desperately. "I'm sure I'll be able to regrow them!"
The next book narrowly missed my right ear. Deciding that safety came first and foremost, I ran out of the room with my hands over my head, clattering down the staircase. Who was the only person that Grace could trust with regrowing her eyelashes? Duh. Lily Evans, the Charms prodigy of our year. The common room was now empty, as most people were already off eating breakfast. I could still hear Grace storming around the room in a temper, but I knew she wasn't going to come down. I just prayed that she wouldn't try anything else.
I charged out of the common and ran all the way down to the Great Hall, sliding down the banister and tumbling to the ground in an ignominious heap. As soon as I burst into the Hall, I shouted, "I NEED LILY EVANS!"
I staggered over to the Gryffindor table and leaned onto it, gasping for breath. It was a while before I noticed everyone was staring at me, and Lily was sinking down into her seat, her forehead a bright red.
"Lily, come on!" I cried, running over to her and tugging her out of her seat. "We have to go! I need you! Grace needs you!" The Great Hall burst into laughter. Huh? I stared around. Was it me they were laughing at? Suddenly, the impact of my rushed words hit me, and I rolled my eyes. The people in this school were all perverts!
"It's not what you think," I said to Lily wearily, because she was looking at me with a horrified expression in her eyes. "I burned Grace's eyelashes off, and right now she's storming around the dorm, ready to kill! Only you can regrow them! Come on!" I grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the Hall, ignoring the shouts of laughter and catcalls. I couldn't care less what they thought as long as they didn't tease me about it and kept their disgusting thoughts to themselves.
Right now, Grace's eyelashes and eyebrows needed saving.
-Sirius's POV-
"And then Faye and Grace burst in, laughing their heads off," Peter said bitterly to a sleeping Remus. "The noise was killing me! I had to get away from it. Yeah, and then I ran out of the common room, trying to find a QUIET place where I could sleep…. And then Filch caught me! He was carrying that stupid fluffball, Mrs. Norris, ranting about how I'd torn those huge clumps of fur off of her…. Now I have detention for a month!"
"I NEED LILY EVANS!"
I spat out the bit of juice I'd been drinking right into James's face as I heard her— Faye Prewitt— enter the hall. James hadn't even noticed the juice; he was ogling at Prewitt with consternation and surprise written all over his face and the horrendous bags under his eyes. I made a note to myself to tell him to get more sleep. What was he doing every night? I turned to watch Prewitt stagger in to lean on the table for a second, evidently trying to catch her breath.
After a second, Prewitt was up and running towards Evans. "Lily, come on!" she cried. "We have to go! I need you! Grace needs you!" Prewitt grabbed Evans's arm and forcefully tugged her out of her seat.
My jaw dropped at her words. Prewitt couldn't be insinuating that….
Prewitt ran out of the hall with Evans in tow. I stared after them in shock and horror. It was long moments before I realized that everyone in the Great Hall had burst into laughter. I turned to Remus, my mouth gaping open.
"Remus… tell me that that didn't happen," I said hoarsely. James was already trying to shake an answer out of Remus, who was snoring slightly, and I decided to join.
"Moony! Tell me that it's not what it seems!" James was howling into Remus's ear, which cause him to wake with a start.
"Prongs… it looks like you've got some competition for Evans's heart," Peter rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "And that person will probably win!"
"No!" James's eyes grew as wide as saucers. "Evans isn't gay!"
"…Is she?" I finished for him. "Blimey, is this why Prewitt doesn't like me? Because she's a lesbo? WHY COULDN'T SHE HAVE TOLD ME SOONER?"
"Yeah!" James agreed angrily. "Now we're both going to lose our crushes!" He burst into loud sobs while I glared at him.
"I do not have a crush on Prewitt!" I said hotly.
"Right," Remus yawned tiredly. "That's why you looked like you'd eaten a booger-flavored Every Flavor Bean when Faye burst in here, screaming for Lily."
"NOO!" I howled. I was about to jump onto Remus in payback, but James beat me there.
"Moony! Tell me Prewitt isn't gay! I can't lose Evans to a girl!" James howled, banging Remus's head into his soup over and over again in his craze.
"Get off him, James!" I shouted, pushing him off Remus and patting Remus on the back. "Poor Remmy here doesn't need any more soup!" I winked at James. "He needs much more potato salad!"
I grabbed the bowl of potato salad and pushed Remus's head into it, dodging his flailing arms.
"You guys!" Peter yelled. "Prewit probably isn't gay! Stop doing that! Come on, there's probably a good reason that she needs Evans—!" At those last words, James went berserk and leapt onto Peter, mashing his face into the plate of eggs.
"POTTER! BLACK!" I recognized that voice. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
I grinned at Professor McGonagall's red face innocently. "We're helping Remus and Peter eat. You know how they never properly take care of themselves…"
"DETENTION!"
-Faye's POV-
"People have been looking at you funny all day," Grace commented suddenly as we were walking to Herbology.
"Oh, really?" I said absentmindedly. After I'd gotten Lily to help Grace regrow her eyelashes and eyebrows, she'd forgiven me right away, to my relief. "I forgot to tell you I made a bit of a scene when I went to get Lily to help."
"What did you do?" Grace groaned.
"Nothing big. I just ran into the Great Hall, shouting for Lily, and everybody got the wrong idea," I remarked mildly. I was much more interested in looking over my Herbology essay on Fairy Firs.
"WHAT?" Grace yelped. "Everybody in this whole school thinks you're gay! Why the hell am I hanging out with you?"
I shot her an irritated look. "Big deal what they think. It's not as if they're right."
"You're the first girl I've ever met who doesn't really care about her popularity," Grace said disbelievingly.
"Because it doesn't matter, not in the long run," I pointed out.
"Yeah. That's why you're so special," she answered teasingly.
"I know I am," I agreed. "So, we're going to do it tonight, right?"
"Correction," Grace said firmly. "You are going to do it tonight."
"Ew," a new voice interrupted us. There was something vaguely familiar about that voice, though the new, preppy, snobby tone in it threw me off at first. I looked back into Leah's very much altered face. I instinctively flinched.
"I thought it was bad enough that you're hanging out with a lesbo," Leah drawled to Grace, "but I, like, didn't know that you were one yourself. I suppose you two are, like, planning to hit it off tonight, huh?" Since when did Leah start saying 'like' so much? (A/N: No offense to any gay people.)
I stiffened and glowered at her. It didn't matter if I hung out with a gay or straight person! It didn't matter one least bit. I had to restrain myself from jumping onto her and killing her, though. God, she was such a prick! If only Grace would stop defending her! Then I could properly take care of Leah… she'd been asking for it for a long time…. Instead, I had to content myself with sending death glares to Leah with my eyes.
"We aren't lesbos, Leah," Grace said calmly through gritted teeth.
"Could have fooled me," Leah said lightly. I noticed that she wasn't wearing the uniform skirt underneath her robes. Instead, she'd put on something much more skimpy that left her belly exposed. It wasn't a pretty sight.
"Anything could have fooled you. It's not that hard, really," I said coldly, unable to contain my anger. She'd read my diary, accused me stealing her things, which weren't her belongings to start with, and jumped to insult me at every opportunity she got.
She turned to look at me, and I had force myself to look at her face without flinching. I hated the girl she'd become. She made it really easy for me, too.
"I don't care what you say, Faye," Leah sneered. "You're nothing. You're not even good enough to worship the ground I walk on, let alone good enough for me to actually listen to."
That struck deep. I had always not been 'good enough.' Not good enough for Henry and Diana, not good enough to walk this school, according to Bellatrix Black, not good enough to even try to make myself happier.
"Not good enough?" I repeated vehemently. "Not good enough for you? I'll tell what's not good enough for you. Friends aren't good enough for you, huh? A decent word every once in a while isn't good enough for you! Treating someone like a person isn't good enough for you! Even respectable clothes aren't good enough for you! Nothing is good enough for you, which means that you don't deserve anything! You're just a small, cowardly, petty person who loves making someone else feel small!"
Leah stared at me for a moment, her eyes narrowed. Then, without another word, she turned and stalked off. Grace looked after her, looking torn. She turned back to me.
"Faye, I—"
"I know," I said, casting my gaze to the sky. "You have to go after her. Go."
"Thank you!" she breathed with relief. She ran after Leah while I turned my face back to the greenhouse.
"Well, this is a tight spot for you, isn't it?" somebody came up behind me.
"Hey, Remus," I said tonelessly. "Heard the whole thing?"
"Yeah."
"Well, you cannot go ahead and tell me how wrong I was," I sighed, quickening my pace. "We're going to be late."
"I thought that that wouldn't matter to you," Remus said, a touch of humor in his voice.
I shrugged. I wasn't in the mood to do anything.
"Isn't it so complicated?" he asked after a short silence.
That caught me by surprise. "What is?"
"The whole friend thing."
Now this was something I could relate to. I could rant about this for ages. "Yes! It is! I'm glad you can see what I mean! Grace has been friends with Leah for so long, and I just became her friends this year! And then I guess Leah's jealous or whatever, and now she's changed into a terrible person that I want to wring every time I see her! But Grace still likes her, heaven knows why, and I can't! Wring out her neck, I mean. And it's driving me nuts!"
"Er…"
"Every time Leah appears, she's always making fun of me, trying to make Grace think less of me! What is her problem anyway?"
"I don't—"
"And those slutty clothes! It's like she's become a second Prissy Carlson, which is not at all a pleasant thought!"
"Yeah… but…"
"She's nothing but trouble, honestly!" I ranted on. "She's probably feeding Prissy information, just like a spy, that sneaky little toad! Leah is such a—ugh!"
"I hate to cut short your rant, but we're here," Remus said sharply, finally penetrating into my brain.
"Oh," I said as we entered the greenhouse a little behind the rest of the class. "Sorry. I just needed some vent. Leah makes me so mad!"
"Glad to be of service," Remus said dryly, a yawn interrupting his sentence.
"Sorry," I muttered as we took seats at the back of the class.
"It's all right," he answered tiredly, turning his attention to Professor Folia. I shrugged, preparing to do so as well. But then I caught sight of Black's face, turned towards my direction. He was glaring at me, which took me aback.
I glared right back at him. He was probably angry at me because of what I'd said the other day. I noticed that Potter was glaring at me as well. And even Peter was staring at me resentfully. Jeez. It looked like they were all against me, except for Remus. Potter must have thought that I was stealing Lily away from him or something, as his sick mind worked that way. And Peter… he'd probably been caught by Filch last night and charged with attacking Mrs. Norris in Grace's and my stead. Oh, well. I couldn't do anything about that now.
"I want you all to partner up and repot these Devil's Snares!" Professor Folia was saying. "One of you do the actual repotting, and the other must fight away the strangling vines!"
Since Grace still hadn't gotten back, and I had a feeling that she wouldn't be getting here for a long time, I turned to Remus, determinedly ignoring the truly scary circles around his eyes.
"So?" I asked.
He shrugged. "Sure."
Remus got up to go line up for our cutting of the Devil's Snare while I gathered up a pot and some dirt.
"Having fun?" a quiet voice said in my ear. I jumped violently and felt something hard come in contact with my shoulder, and a person swore just above me ear.
"What are you doing here?" I snapped at James Potter irritably. He was rubbing his jaw and scowling at me, resentment plain in his hazel eyes. But then his expression changed from one of annoyance into one of enjoyment.
"Just making sure that you don't get too comfortable," he said in a singsong voice. I crossed my arms and eyed him angrily. So he wasn't annoyed at me anymore—he wanted to be the one doing the annoying.
"I'm sure that there's more than that, Potter," I spat out.
"Oh, yeah, there is," he said brightly. "Sirius said that since he couldn't bother you… I could! Only I wasn't supposed to say that…. Oops!"
I growled and looked at Black, though he was at the moment whistling cheerily and talking to Peter in a spirited manner, even though Peter was looking a bit lost. "Go away, Potter!"
But he was as pesky and weed-like as Black. Persistent and annoying. No wonder those two were best friends. Nobody could stand them but themselves.
Thankfully, Remus came back with the cutting of the Devil's Snare. I felt sorry for him. He was yawning every two seconds and rubbing his tiny, bloodshot eyes. Potter was too, come to think of it, but he was being a git, so I couldn't and wouldn't feel sorry for him. Potter got what he deserved!
"James, why are you"—here Remus yawned—"being such a git? Just go and work on your own!"
"I can't! I was commissioned to bother Prewitt here out of her wits!" Potter replied cheerily. So Potter flitted around the peripheral, throwing in stupid comments and occasionally poking me. He waves his hand in front of my face, he blew into my ear, he moved my things around… all those small things that could build up and slowly kill my patience.
"Get away from me, Potter!" I finally hissed. I was sick of him; I couldn't take it anymore! It was just like another Black!
"Is this how you treat your friends? By chasing them away?" Potter said in a chastising tone. "No wonder Grace or Leah isn't with you right now."
"What did you say?" I whipped around, forgetting that I was supposed to be keeping the Snare's vines from strangling Remus. "I dare you to repeat it again."
"Aww…" he smiled, "have I struck a nerve, Prewitt?"
"Listen, Potter," I spat, striding up to him to glower at him squarely in the face. "I—!"
"Listen to what? You?" he answered thoughtfully. "Now that's something I don't want to do!"
"Shut your trap!" I hissed, completely forgetting about watching out for Remus and keeping an eye out for Professor Folia.
"Is ickle Fairy-poo getting angry?" he drawled annoyingly. I clenched and unclenched my hands, wishing that I could just—kill him!
"Argh!" I heard a strangled cry from Remus, but I barely understood why he was choking.
"Potter, I'm warning you," I said through gritted teeth, "Just keep your snotty nose out of other people's business!"
"Uh… ack! Guys!" Remus choked out.
"What if I don't?" Potter smiled benignly.
"Then I'll have to do this," I said grimly, and I swung my fist up and punched James Potter right of the eye.
"Bloody hell!" Potter shouted, staggering back. "Why do you always do this? My eye looks bad enough without you punching me!"
"That's your lookout, isn't it?" I asked coolly.
"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Professor Folia screeched, swooping down on us both. "Mr. Lupin here is DYING, and all you two can do is FIGHT!"
Startled, I whipped around, and indeed, Remus was turning blue, as the Devil's Snare had gotten a good grip on his neck and was slowly tightening.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, Remus!" I said apologetically, taking out my wand.
"You should be sorry!" Potter yelled, panicking. "That's my friend who's being strangled by that stupid potted plant!" He pushed forward and elbowed me away, shoving my wand roughly. Suddenly, a tongue of flame erupted out of the end of my wand, engulfing the Devil's Snare cutting and reducing it to nothing but fine gray ash on top of a coughing Remus.
"YOU KILLED IT! YOU JUST KILLED AN INNOCENT PLANT!" Folia erupted. I refrained from pointing out that that plant had been strangling Remus, so it couldn't possibly be classified as 'innocent.'
"Get out! Out, OUT, OUT!"
I was kicked out of class early, to my displeasure. Potter hadn't even gotten a detention, and he'd been the one that pushed me! And I thought that saving Remus would have counted for something. But no… Folia was more concerned about plants than humans. She'd cooed over the remains of the Devil's Snare I'd burned for a long time before she allowed Potter to take Remus up to the hospital wing. And she'd thrown me out of the greenhouse while everyone else snickered at me. UGH! Folia was a stupid, unfair, mad lady….
So, having nothing else to do, I roamed the halls of Hogwarts pointlessly, waiting for the next lesson. I walked around aimlessly, distantly wondering how Grace and Leah were sorting everything out. I decided to go back to the common room and go lie on my bed; there was nothing better to do anyway.
As I slowly climbed the girl's staircase, I heard voices floating down towards me. I had a feeling of who was up there talking right now. The better part of me urged me to get away from here and not listen in, but curiosity demanded that I stay and listen. Curiosity won. I crept up the stairs, the voices getting clearer and clearer as I went up.
"…Leah, just tell me what's wrong!" Grace was saying with intensity and concern in her voice. There was no answer to Grace.
"Is it Sirius?" Grace persisted.
"It's not all about him!" Leah suddenly burst out. That took me by surprise. "Okay, so maybe some of it is about him—but he's not all of it!"
"Then what's wrong?" Grace asked softly.
"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Leah's voice rose hysterically. I didn't need to move closer to the door to hear anything; every word was clear and sharp and ringing in the silence of the room.
"I'll tell you what's wrong!" Leah screeched. "You! You and your wonderful, beautiful, perfect, funny, BEST friend, Faye!" I was taken aback at this. What had I done… other than 'steal' her stuff, as Leah had claimed?
"What are you talking about?" Grace interrupted Leah's rant.
"You can still pretend that you don't know?" Leah shrieked. "Just—you two! Together! Always ignoring me!"
"What? You're jealous?" Grace asked, disbelief in her voice.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Leah yelled. "Ever since Faye came into the picture, I've been shunted aside! Faye took everything! I thought we were best friends! But no… once Faye came prancing in, everything had to change—for the worse!"
Had I really done that? Had I really taken everything from Leah? Suddenly, I felt remorseful and full of guilt. I knew what it was like to feel like everything had been taken away from me. I knew what it was like to feel unwanted.
"Leah, I never—!"
"But you know what? I DON'T CARE ANYMORE!" Leah shouted. "You can go ahead and be best friends with Faye! Now I have real friends, like Prissy Carlson! I don't need you, and you've shown that you've never needed me! Go ahead and go play with that Mudblood!"
I flinched at the word 'Mudbloood.'
"She's not a Mudblood!" Grace actually raised her voice. "If you'll just listen to me—!"
"I don't want to! I don't care about what you have to say! It doesn't matter anymore! And Faye… I can't evens stand her! She's perfect." Leah's voice was laden with sarcasm. She hated me this much. I felt terrible about myself. Here were these two people who'd been friends for five years—breaking up because of me.
"I don't even know why you deal with her! She's a Mudblood, and obviously she's just trash! We're purebloods, Grace! Purebloods! We can't associate with people like her!" That washed out some of my guilt and shame.
"I can't believe you said that!" Grace snapped, anger in her tone. "I can't believe that you'd even think that just because we're purebloods, we're better than other people! I thought I knew you! I thought that you wouldn't stoop so low as to think that way!"
"Well, then, I guess we know less about each other than we thought," Leah said icily. There was a very pregnant silence.
"Leah…" Grace started softly.
"I'm going to give you the final choice," Leah interrupted her coldly. "It's either Faye, or me."
I felt my jaw drop. Leah was trying to make Grace choose between us? How could she do that? How could she sink so low! And what if… what if Grace chose Leah? Then I'd have to go back to being a loner. And I wouldn't be able to stand that.
"Leah!" Grace said sharply. "I can't choose one friend over the other! I never saw this side of you before! Why are you so—selfish, so domineering? You can't tell me who I can make friends with!"
"I knew you'd say that!" Leah yelled. "You choose Faye." In another second, the door slammed open, almost smashing into my face, and I came face-to-face with a very angry Leah who had twin spots of pink on her cheeks and her eyebrows drawn together dangerously.
"YOU!" Leah snarled. She shoved me to the side, hard, and I fell against the wall painfully. I looked up at her red face. "Eavesdropping little sneak! It's what Mudbloods do, isn't it?"
"I—!" I tried to explain myself.
"Shut up!" Leah hollered. "I hate you! Why couldn't you stay in California? WHY!"
Anger flared up in me. She was such a pain, always thinking about herself! Maybe that was why I'd never liked her! I leapt to my feet, words ready to fly out of my mouth. "You'd know the reason, wouldn't you, Leah," I snapped, "as you were the one who looked in my diary!" I still hadn't forgiven her for it, and I never would!
"Your diary?" Leah said incredulously. "You have a diary?" She was good. I almost believed her. "Why would I bother looking into you diary? Besides, I bet you're pleased now."
"What's wrong with you?" I yelled. All I wanted to do was shake some sense into her. "All I wanted to do when I came here was make a few friends, make my like a little more worth living! Would you begrudge me of that, too?"
Leah looked at me coldly. "I don't care what your motives are. All that matters is that you ruined my life!" She shoved me again before she ran down the stairs. I stared after her, rubbing my back painfully. I looked up after the portrait hole closed with a loud bang.
Grace was staring down the stairs, too. I could see tears in her eyes. My insides squirmed with guilt and remorse and shame and self-reproach and a myriad of other emotions.
"She was my friend… for five years…and now…" she whispered softly, more to herself than to me.
"Grace…" I said, biting my bottom lip. "I'm sorry. I really am."
She didn't reply for a long time. It was the longest moment of my life, with all the coils of guilt in my stomach warring with the anger at Leah that I felt as well.
"It's okay, Faye," Grace finally dragged out. "It's not your fault."
"But Leah…"
"Leah is wrong," Grace said firmly. Her voice only quavered slightly. I wouldn't even have noticed it if I hadn't been listening for it. "She has to see that she can never try to control anyone else's life."
"Thank you," I said in a small voice, looking down at my toes. "Sorry I was listening in. Folia kicked me out of class… I didn't know where else to go… and then I just heard you…"
"So the potion is still on tonight, right?" I said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Yeah…" Grace replied, scrunching up her face and taking a deep breath. "Yeah, it is."
"Are you going to cry?" I asked gently. Grace seemed to be struggling with herself.
"No!" she finally got out. "No, I'm not!" She sank down to sit on a step, and I sat down next to her, sadness washing up higher and higher in me.
"Just let it go," I said softly. I knew that keeping it inside was a horrible way to go—it had almost destroyed me, and yet I still couldn't let the habit go. I didn't want the same thing to happen to Grace.
"It's alright," I whispered, hugging her. "You still have me." I did my best to comfort her…. It wasn't everyday that a person lost a friend of five years.
ll-ll
"You sure you don't want to come?" I asked Grace gently. It was near midnight, and we were huddled in a tiny corner of the common room. We'd already cast a Sleeping Spell over Peter, who was still sleeping on the couch every night, so he couldn't listen in.
"Yeah," Grace managed a weak smile. I knew she was still bummed out over Leah; I had to get her up and smiling again.
"But you did more than half of the potion!" I protested. "It'll be fun. Really."
Grace shook her head. "Nah. I'll just sit here and wait for the news. Besides, that one trip into the boys' dormitory was bad enough."
I smiled and decided not to press her. She had enough to think about anyway. "You're right on that," I agreed. I held up some fur that I'd stolen from Mrs. Norris. "Well, here goes." I dropped the fluffy gray mass into a cupful of the potion that Grace and I had scooped out of our whole store. It immediately hissed, bubbling and frothing madly.
I glanced at Grace apprehensively, and she nodded at me reassuringly. Taking a deep breath, I raised the cup to my lips. "Cheers!" I said with fake joviality, and then I downed the whole thing in one gulp.
For a moment, nothing happened. Confused, I looked at Grace, who was as confused as I was. Then it struck. Pain hit me, and I shrank down, almost retching. My knees hit the ground; my skin almost seemed to shrink, closing in on me tightly…. My flesh was bubbling… stinging prickles ran all over my body… fur sprang up in the blink of an eye…. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the pain receded, leaving me panting on the ground.
Shaking my head slightly, I got up. Then I realized that my whole body felt wrong. My arms were too long, my neck was too short, my legs were too short, and my body was so small…. I looked around, and I noticed that everything came in sharper detail, even though it was nighttime. Sounds also came in greater detail and more range—I could hear Peter's every snore down in the common room and Grace's soft breathing.
Grace. I looked around for her, and what I saw nearly scared me out of my wits. She was a looming shadow, towering above me. Letting out a screech, I scrambled back, trying to get used to my new body.
"Faye, it worked!" Grace whispered excitedly. "You're a cat now!"
I tried to say, "How do I look?" but it emerged as a soft meow. Hey, I sounded pretty cute, actually. I'd always liked cats; they're so soft and fluffy and at the same time so able to scratch people's eyes out.
Grace giggled, and reached out a hand to pet me. I obliged, and she petted me lightly around the ears. Her face was lighting up already, losing the gloom that Leah had cast over it for a second. Instead of fear or irritation, I felt pleasure as her hand rubbed my head. I started purring. It felt quite nice, the purring, starting in my throat and vibrating throughout my whole body.
"You purr really loudly, Faye," Grace laughed. "Okay, now you have a few hours! Go get 'em, Tiger!" She slapped my butt, and I leapt up with a yowl, offended.
"Still so touchy," Grace sighed. I tried to toss my head, but it obviously didn't work, as Grace burst into giggles. "Stop trying to be majestic," she gasped out between giggles. "It's not working."
Affronted, I walked off with my tail held high, ignoring Grace's laughs.
I slunk past Peter, enjoying the feel of my new, graceful body and how silent I padded along the carpeted floor. As I climbed the staircase, I stopped and decided to try out my new claws. In amazement, I unsheathed and sheathed my claws, admiring their curve and sharpness. I looked down at myself—I was all black and white fur with pretty tiger stripes. I was pleased; I certainly didn't look like Mrs. Norris, that scruffy dustbag.
Giving a satisfied meow, I continued up the way. Luckily, the door to the sixth years' door was slightly ajar. I slipped in silently into the familiar unclean room, hearing nothing but snores from all three beds. Then Remus was lying! Black wasn't really obsessing over me! They were all sleeping soundly.
I went through all this trouble for nothing! Sighing—or trying to sigh—I padded over to Black's bed, just in case. I should stay a while. Bending back a little, I tensed my leg muscles and jumped, amazed at the smooth, powerful action.
I picked my way over to Black's head. Minding four feet was a lot harder than minding two. I paused when I reached the place where his head was, and I surveyed his sleeping face. He looked so innocent right then, with his eyes closed and a little frown in between his brow, his black hair flopping onto his forehead, and—most importantly— no words coming out of his mouth. I almost forgot that I hated him. Well, actually, I didn't exactly hate him… it was more like held him in contempt…. But I had to admit that what I'd said to him that day had been really harsh. Harsh and uncalled for.
I yawned. I was so tired… BUT I HAD TO KEEP VIGILANCE! I sat down and curled my tail around my feet, enjoying the unique sensation of having a tail. After a few more minutes dragged by, my eyes were drooping shut, and I blinked them sleepily. After several more moments, I had to give in to temptation. I put my head on my forepaws, turning to watch Black properly. My back had just been getting so tired…! But of course, I wasn't going to fall asleep. No, that would be just plain stupid…
I fought the urge to drop off into sleep, but it wasn't working…. The night was so peaceful! I settled myself more comfortably into Black's pillow. My eyes blinked slowly yet again….
ll-ll
"BLAST YOU, PREWITT!"
The roar scared me out of my wits. With a frightened yowl, I jumped up, my hackles up. Black was thrashing around in bed, his flailing arms and legs threatening to take me down. The blanket was thrown off in his wild flings, and I suddenly noticed—with shock and horror—that he only slept in boxers. Even in this situation, I couldn't help but note that he had a nice body, one that was lean and muscled, but not overly muscled or fat. In fact, his physique was quite impressive—WAIT!
I was disgusted at myself for thinking that. I mentally slapped myself. I was turning into some sort of girly girl, thinking of Black in this way…!
"PREWITT!" he yelled. Potter and Remus woke with a snort. Horrified, I scrambled away from Black. Had I changed back to human form? I inwardly cursed myself for falling asleep! If I were found sleeping on Black's bed, with him only in boxers… I WOULD DIE OF EMBARRASSMENT! People would get the wrong idea, and who could blame them with such an incriminating scene!
My panic subsided as I realized that I was still a cat. Confused, I looked back at Black, who was now howling incoherent words. James and Remus now groaned—Remus burst into tears again.
"I thought that quiet spell was too good to last!" he sobbed. "We actually got an hour, James! An hour!"
Quiet spell?
Black started muttering under his breath. Taking a chance, I crept closer, trying to hear what he was saying.
"I hate you… no… your fault… your fault… meanie butt-head… bully… monster…" he was saying. I sat up, offended. If he was talking about me, then I'd make sure that he had one bad scratch on his face, one that'd scar his good looks for life.
I slunk a bit closer.
"ARGH! Stop slapping me!" he yelled, twisting around and making me jump once again. "What's your problem? I haven't done anything to you…" he subsided into unintelligible mumbles once again.
So he was having a bad dream about me slapping him…? Interesting. Not all that bad.
"HAHA! I knew that you'd be sorry after all those things you said to me!" Black shouted out triumphantly. "Apologize! Go on!" Feeling indignant, I nonetheless slithered a bit closer to see if his eyes were really closed. They were! He was really asleep!
After another moment of silence, Black started up again. "I can't stand this! I want to—need to—talk to you! Bother you! Do something!"
Now that was just creepy. He was really… obsessed over me…. I didn't know what to think. Did my opinion really matter to him that much? Thinking back to what I'd said that day, I felt my insides squirm uncomfortably. I was wrong in saying that. Definitely wrong.
So I was going to apologize to him. Mission accomplished.
With that settled, I got up, preparing to get the hell out of the boys' dormitory just in case I turned back. But just as I was padding over his bed on my way, Black suddenly had another panic attack, or sleep-moving attack, or whatever it was called. His flailing fist came out of nowhere, striking me right on the stomach in a harsh blow.
I suppose my newfound cat instincts took over. Letting out a frightful hiss, I swiped at his hand with unsheathed claws, scratching deep cuts into Black's hand. I was horrified at myself. Shit! What was I thinking? Here I was, sneaking into Black's room, Black's turf, trying to see if what I'd said to him had really affected him, and I scratched him!
The pain seemed to have woken Black up to a groggy, not-quite-awake-but-not-asleep stage. He howled, no duh, and thrashed around even more, yelling at the top of his lungs.
"What the…?" he mumbled, lifting up his hand to inspect it groggily. "Bloody hell!" He turned onto his side, and I could see that his eyes were half-open. They lit on me for a second, and I could see myself reflected in them from the little moonlight that streamed into the room. The world seemed to stop for a moment, seeming to hang right on the edge of teetering down a hill. Then Black broke it.
"C-c-c-cat!" he hollered. "Guys! Guys! It's Mrs. Norris!"
"Shut up, Sirius!" James cried.
"Now he's dreaming about Mrs. Norris," Remus muttered. "It makes you wonder, huh?"
I was insulted. I did not look like Mrs. Norris! I was much too pretty a dustbag like her! But the rest of my indignant thoughts scattered when Black sat up in his bed, a crazy light in his eyes, and—
"Don't worry!" Black shouted dazedly. "I'll kill Mrs. Norris, do her in for good! Then we'll be rid of that walking dustbag forever!"
—turned into a big, black, shaggy form with long canines.
He turned himself into a dog.
Which meant that…
Black was really an Animagus. I wasn't dreaming. Was I?
A real Animagus.
And probably unregistered—which was illegal!
All these thoughts flashed inside my mind in a second, but a moment later, as Black the dog leapt for me, growling and barking madly, the only thought in my head was: Black is a dog; I am a cat—DOGS DON'T LIKE CATS! Letting out a frightened screech, I instinctively scratched him again on the nose before scrambling away while he barked and snuffled loudly, obviously enraged.
I jumped off the bed, nearly tripping over several dirty, untended clothes that were just laying on the ground and trying to get all four of my legs underneath me. A low growl warned me—I got out of the way just in time as Black came crashing down onto the floor.
"BLOODY HELL!" Remus screamed as I streaked for his side of the room, Black hot on my tail. "Sirius, WILL YOU SHUT THE HELL UP FOR ONE FREAKING NIGHT!"
I had a feeling that he'd finally lost it, but I couldn't really worry about him. I whipped my tail out of Black's snapping teeth and jumped onto Remus's bed. Remus grabbed his pillow and threw, and it narrowly missed me. Deciding that Remus wasn't safe to be around at the moment, I jumped off the bed again with a meow just as Black came leaping down on me.
"Okay, THAT'S IT!" Remus bellowed. I shrieked—or tried to— as Black crushed me in his huge paws, and I aimed a cruel slash on his paw. Escape—do anything to escape! That one thought was echoing inside my skull. Black yelped and lifted his paws for a moment; it was only a moment that I needed to free myself and scamper away.
"Stupefy!" I heard a voice that had more than a touch of derange in it shout. A red light lit up the room for a moment, illuminating every individual hair on Black—wait, Padfoot. No wonder his nickname was Padfoot! But I had no time to ponder this more. The Stunning Spell missed Padfoot as he lunged for me.
"Remus, what are you doing?" James shouted.
"I'm going to make sure that poor Sirius here gets a good night's sleep!" Remus yelled back. "Don't worry, Padfoot! It'll only hurt for a second! Wait, no, it won't hurt at all! Just stop moving, damn you!"
"GREAT IDEA!" James shouted. "HAHA, PLAYTIMES OVER! WE'RE GOING TO PROPERLY SHUT YOU UP, PADFOOT!"
Oh, no. A second stunner shot right past me as I made a break for the door. I didn't want to be caught in the middle of this. If I got stunned here… then they'd find out that it was me who was in here, sneaking around, and then the worst sort of rumors would be circulating! Like: Faye Prewitt wanted Sirius Black so bad that she snuck into his room and tried to get into bed with him. EWW! The thought disgusted me.
"Hold still, Padfoot! It'll only hurt for a second! A little sting, and it'll be all over!" James's voice came through as I darted out the door.
"Get him, James!" Remus shouted. There were several thumps and grunts. Then, "Stupefy!"
"ARGH! James, how could you miss! He was two feet in front of you!" came Remus's anguished voice.
"No, he's getting away!"
"Stupefy, stupefy, STUPEFY!" Remus shrieked just as Padfoot was pushing the door open, his nose snuffling and sniffing me out. The dog dropped, to my intense relief, and in the next second, Sirius Black the human was back, half on the staircase and half in his room.
"Got him!" James cried gleefully. "Finally! Let's get some rest!"
I ran down the stairs, Remus's mad laughter still ringing in my ears. I streaked past several sleepy-eyed, tousled-haired boys who were stepping out of their rooms, peering up the stairs with confused, worried, but mostly God-they're-at-it-again expressions on their faces. I raced across the common room and up the girls' staircase. I distantly noticed that Grace had already gone up, and she'd left the door ajar for me. Thankfully, I nudged it aside and ran in. Wow. I was barely even tired from all that running.
But pain hit me suddenly just as I was walking over to Grace's bed, relatively calmer. My skin felt as if it were bubbling again, and my fur seemed to be retreating right back into my flesh. Just as before, it left immediately. Gasping, I lay on the ground for a moment, gathering my wits and cataloguing my senses and body once again. My eyesight was so poor compared to a cat's, and I felt so big and bulky, and I couldn't smell anything!
Shakily, I tried to stand up, but my legs retaliated, wanting to go back on all fours. I struggled for a moment, trying to remember how to walk. After I got the hang of walking again, I tread softly around the room to practice a bit without waking any of the other girls up.
"Faye?" I heard Grace say sleepily. "You back?"
I whirled around. "Yeah."
"How was it?" she whispered.
I shrugged. "It was alright, actually. I think I found out all that I needed to find out," I whispered back.
"Tell me about it in the morning. It's three in the bloody morning," Grace groaned. A second later, she'd rolled over on her bed, and her soft, even breathing told me that she was fast asleep.
-
That's it! Okay, now it's time for the thanks. I'm sorry I don't have enough time to do individual reviews for everyone!
Sam, EW4eva, Emily716, Amanda-gurl, siri-lover, pirate grlee, amfmchic, Xaien, Cassiopeia91, pyro-2389, Lothliana, emmy, hunnydukes chocolate, DarkKestrelSilkeQueen, Ciolets-in-spring, lovergirl, kalea, siriusfan, Alicia, rupertissexy, goldfish682, imaredhead, RueNeko, Fayte's edge, blossomlite, xxxsaphiretearxxx
Assasin's dreamer: Hehe, all your "really"'s make up a lot of the review! XD I'm glad you like Faye! Though I do have to admit she is very… well, not likeable sometimes. :sigh: And yes, I will probably definitely make a sequel now.
Megamuffin: Oh, yeah, in my sequel the genre will be much more romance and serious stuff, instead of mostly just humor, like this one is. It's going to be a turnaround, but hopefully it'll turn out with enough humor in it to suit my liking!
Jalo4: "Hidden Flames" is your first review? Thank you! I'm so touched! And I'm very sorry I didn't get this chapter out for you to read over Christmas break. XD Well, I did give you other suggestions, right? I think… I don't remember!
I love CHEESECAKE: Hm… well, "Hidden Flames" will probably be about fifteen chapters, and I'm not going to put in an epilogue for this story, since I'm also going to have a sequel. But I can promise you right now that the last chapter will be a NICE, SUSPENSEFUL CLIFFHANGER! Hehe.
Cottonmouth: I'm a stress reliever! Yay! Hehe, well your review was a stress reliever for me as well—all reviews are!
Joy: Yeah, all the guys' names with a –poo behind it… :shudders: Lol! Yes, and Leah is an extremely biy person, though hopefully she'll get better. Actually, what am I saying? This story is my creation, and I will make her get better if I want! XD THANK YOU for your nice long review!
Lauren321: I hope you get better soon! I can't imagine not being able to type! The horrors!
Madderthanyou: Your friend really had these same type of problems? Wow… I hope she's better! That's really scary! I hope I'm doing an accurate job of portraying the situation.
Under-the-moonlight: Happy birthday! (Even though it's already too late… XD). Ahahaha, yes, poor Sirius… POORER James and Remus… XD And as for the apologizing, you'll just have to wait and see!
Okay, I'm done with the thanks! Remember, take a look at my other story, A Fossil in the Mud, and tell me what you think! PLEASE!
And of course, DON'T forget to leave a review!
-
1/22/05
Okay, I've just been informed that someone on has been copying my story. This is really a big blow... T-T I might not be updating for some time. I need to get this sorted out first. If any of you see anybody else plagiarising my story, please tell me. PLEASE!
2/16/05
Everything is now cleared up! I'm so happy! Hehe... actually it was cleared up some time ago, but I forgot to say anything about it. XD