I don't own JK Rowling's Harry Potter, but I own this fanfiction. ;-)
Chapter 6: Halloween Part I
There are some days when the weather is crucial, no matter how optimistic a person can be. Halloween was one of these days, and luckily for all the Hogwarts students, and it turned out perfectly. It was sunny, blindingly bright, and comfortably cool for the last day of October.
Lily went down to the Entrance Hall, and met Joseph to walk down to the village. When they reached their destination, Lily insisted that they go to the Three Broomsticks last.
"I love to save the best for last!" she said smiling.
Joseph rolled his eyes. "Ok."
"Where do you want to go first?"
Lily's eyes twinkled. "Hmm. Let's think about this," she said mockingly. "Zonko's, of course!"
"You of all people, Miss Perfect Prefect."
"Oh you!" She slapped him on the shoulder. "I love jokes like any other person!"
Joseph and Lily made fun of each other all the way to the joke shop.
"Do you remember that time that when Professor McGonagall burped for an entire Transfiguration class last year? She belched for and hour and half straight, pretending like nothing was wrong."
Joseph proceeded to do a very good impression of Professor McGonagall with too much gas in class. Lily laughed until there were tears in her eyes.
Joseph, also laughing, said, "That was a good joke, especially since she gave us four hours of homework the night before. Remember how mad we all were?"
Still laughing, Lily nodded. Joseph went on, "When she was burping up a storm, she never assigned us any homework!"
Joseph even tried to transfigure his hair into a very tight bun to imitate his Transfiguration teacher. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a lovely shade of orange. Lily was shaking on the floor of Zonko's from laughter after seeing his bun.
Lily refused to turn his hair back. Joseph kept on trying to fix it, but it was useless. Instead of returning to his natural blond hair, the bun just grew larger and larger.
"Lily, come on! You know how to reverse the spell!"
"So what if I do?"
"Lily!" Joseph protested, as the immense bun at the top of his weighed his tall head down. "You're torturing me!"
Lily laughed evilly. ""I like orange on you!"
"No you don't! Orange is bad on me! Come on, Lily!"
Lily shook her head no.
"You're so cruel!"
Lily just continued to giggle.
Somewhat angry now, Joseph muttered, "What?"
"It was me."
Joseph's eyes grew wide. "WHAT?"
Lily was a little more solemn now, but there was still a smile playing at her lips. "You have to promise not to tell!"
"It was you?" Joseph stammered.
"It was a dare," Lily protested. "I was teaching Monique, Alice, and a few other girls this muggle game I used to play when I was little. It's called Truth or Dare.
"How does one play Truth or Dare?" Joseph asked cautiously.
"Well, you ask the girl 'Truth or Dare' and the girl picks one. If she chooses Truth, you ask her a question and she has to answer it honestly. If she chooses Dare, she has to do whatever you tell her to."
Joseph asked, "And what if she says neither?"
Lily looked at him incredulously. "Well, then you're a big old wimp! Why would you even play if you're not going to choose one?" Joseph shrugged. "And of course, I just had to pick 'Dare'. Of all things for Alice to dare me to do…To put Belch Powder in Professor McGonagall's tea. I was so scared that I'd get caught, but then…"
In disbelief, Joseph whispered, "James Potter got the detention for it."
Lily bit back a smile for a second, but she couldn't resist. "Well, if he and Sirius Black had never magnified the sound of her belches so everyone in the corridor could hear her, she would have had no reason to suspect them!"
Joseph laughed, and his bright orange bun wobbled and shook. "Oh yeah!"
Lily grinned wickedly and stated, "And you thought and Alice and I were sweet little girls. You did, didn't you?"
"Sweet little girls would set my hair back," Joseph said sardonically.
Lily said innocently, "But I like it that color. It really suits you!"
"Whatever", muttered Joseph, defeated.
In truth, he really didn't mind the hair; it was sort of entertaining, what with the wide array of eyes upon him. It was rather amusing to see people point and stare in Zonko's. Lily and Joeseph finally began to look around Zonko's. To one befuddled Fourth Year boy, Joseph even said seriously, "What, you've never seen a guy with orange hair?"
The boy ran off quickly. Joseph chuckled, as Lily gave him a very serious stare.
Lily found some rather mild jokes like Whizzing Worms and Hiccup Sweets that she really liked, and she bought a few. To celebrate the occasion of letting Joseph in on one of her many little secrets, Lily bought a whole stock of Belch Powder for both her and Joseph.
They laughed all the way to Gladrags Wizardwear, as they planned who they'd use the Belch Powder on. In the store, Lily stared longingly at all the elaborate, pretty witches' dress robes. Joseph sat uncomfortably in one of the hard chairs by the fitting room while the owner of the store stared at his giant, orange bun. When Joseph just smiled widely and waved at her, the old woman was so startled that she hurried into the storage room.
Lily finally pulled Joseph out of the clothing store, feeling rather melancholy.
"If I just stopped buying useless things like jokes and sweets, I'd be able to afford those gorgeous green robes. I need to stop wasting my pocket money." She scolded herself.
"Always bullying someone. Absolutely wrong!" Joseph muttered.
"What?" Lily asked, confused. Joseph was staring at the front of Honeydukes Sweet Shop, looking rather annoyed.
Following his sight, she rolled her eyes. As if replaying a scene from the previous June, Lily let out "Hmmph." Wand pointed out, Severus Snape was surrounded by Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, and Sirius Black. All four boys looked livid.
"You slimy, sleazy, greasy little dirtball! What do you think you were doing with that list anyway!" shouted Sirius.
James told Sirius, till staring and aiming at Snape, "He was trying to out-prank us! Look at this order form. Dungbombs. 50. Stink Pellets. 30. Did you actually think that you would outdo us, Snivellus!" James snarled. In a flash, he had ripped a long piece of paper into shreds with his wand.
"Shut up, Potter. You once again outdo yourself, proving that you are the most arrogant idiot alive. Expelliarmus!" Snape spat.
James easily deflected the spell. However, he suddenly felt stinging all over his face as he felt red welts rose all over it.
"Furnunculus!" roared Sirius, seeing the welts on James' face. Then, disgusting, long tentacles covered Snape's face.
"Petrificus Totalus!" James yelled. In an instant, Snape's body hit the hard ground, stiff as a board. Then James placed the same stinging spell on Snape's already altered face. In an instant, there were red welts all across the spots on his face without tentacles. "Do you like the taste of your own medicine, Snivellus?" His eyes were wide with glee.
"James Potter!" James looked at Lily stalking up to him, and he rolled his eyes. "Oh no, not you, Evans. It's a shame you have to see this."
"Well, I don't want to see this anymore. Take the curses off this instant!" Lily ordered in a forcefully calm voice. Her green eyes were ablaze with fury, and James seemed to back away just a slight bit.
Lily stepped up, and even though she was a bit shorter than him, she looked straight into his eyes, unblinkingly. "Fix this, Potter, or it'll be your arse." She looked threateningly at Sirius and Peter. "The same goes for you two."
James smirked. "Fine." He pointed his wand and undid the tentacles and red welts on Snape's face. He was still unable to move, though. "But I can't resist. Go out with me Evans. On my honor, we'll never give Snivellus ugly tentacles on his already ugly face again!"
If Snape could move, it would be obvious that he would have forgotten wands. He would have tried to rip and tear James apart with his own bare hands. The evidence showed on his face; it was usually sallow and pale, but at this moment, it was a bright red.
Whack. Lily slapped James across his face with considerable force. For a few seconds, everyone present was too shocked to speak. Already red and swollen, James' left check was now glittering red; it was almost bleeding. He was open-mouthed, agape.
Lily felt a tug on her robes. It was Joseph. "Come. Lily. Let's just go."
James muttered angry. "You know Evans, you seem to love violence yourself, you know. Compared to you, how can I be so bad? First you dump an entire basket of chocolates on my head…"
Sirius was pulling James back, and he muttered, "Come on, Prongs. Let it go. Come on, James." James looked ready to strangle someone. He was livid and he was proving to be a very difficult person to hold back.
Giving a glare of death, Lily stomped away. Trying to drown his voice out, Lily said very loudly, "Yes, Joseph. I need to buy a few quills from Scrivenshaft's. Let's go."
"And then you butt into my business and slap me as hard as you bloody can! I don't see what I did that was so bad. Hey, Evans!"
"Come on, hurry!" Lily whispered to her friend, and the two walked away rather quickly.
"Oy, Evans! What is your problem? EVANS! I LOVE YOUR BOYFRIEND'S HAIRDO; IT'S REALLY HANDSOME! EVANS!" James roared.
When they reached the quill shop, Lily was breathing very heavily. She didn't know if she wanted to cry or scream out in anger. She said desperately to Joseph, "I've never seen him so mad!" She looked a bit worried.
Joseph frowned. "Yeah. You didn't have to slap him, though. You and Potter, you have matching tempers."
"I have absolutely nothing in common with James Potter!" spat Lily.
She tried picking up an elaborate golden feathered quill but her hands were shaking. "I shouldn't have slapped him, though…Joseph?"
Joseph replied soothingly, "I don't know, Lily. It's not like he's going to hex you. I mean, he keeps asking you out, right? I don't think he'll bother you too much. I'm more worried about myself."
She laughed shakily. "He only asks because I'm the only girl who says no to him. I'm the only girl who doesn't fall for him."
Joseph said again, "I don't know, Lily. Maybe you should've smacked him, maybe not. The point is, he was doing something wrong too."
Lily sighed. "Whatever. I'll just…I'll just…"
"Apologize?"
"No!" Lily said too excitedly. "I can't. It would, it would justify what he did to Severus Snape. He should apologize to me. Then I'll gladly apologize to him."
There was a moment of contemplative silence. Joseph said nicely, "Lily. My friend, my sister, my darling. (Lily grinned, despite herself at the way he was addressing her. ) It's Halloween!"
"Yeah." Lily said. "Yeah. Let's forget about that, Joseph."
Joseph egged her on. "I can smell the butterbeer from in here."
Lily giggled. "I think that hair's getting to you, Joseph."
"Well you wouldn't change it back!" he said, looking hopeful that she would finally change it back.
Lily shrugged. "To the Three Broomsticks?"
Joseph's face fell. He said sullenly, obviously disappointed that she still wouldn't change his hair back, "Yep. Let's go."
Lily laughed. "Oh, Joseph." She waved her arm and muttered an advanced charm she had learned the previous year. Joseph's hair was blonde and short again.
Looking in the glass window near him, Joseph ran a hand through his hair. He turned to Lily and grinned. "Thank you!"
Lily smiled. "No problem."
The two friends walked to the Three Broomstick, which was very full. As Lily and Joseph walked in, she noticed that Alice and Frank were sitting comfortably in the corner. Alice had a smile on her face, and she looked very happy. Lily walked by, catching Alice's eye, and winked.
When Lily and Joseph seated themselves, and Lily had order their butterbeers, Lily asked Joseph if he'd ever play Truth or Dare with her.
Joseph wrinkled his nose. "That sounds like a girl's game."
Lily said evasively, "Oh, no. Not all the time."
Joseph looked at her suspiciously. "Maybe another time."
"Fine, then." Lily's eyes were gleaming. "Next time, then."
The door to the pub swung open and in walked Monique. She ran in hurriedly and went to sit down next to Lily. "Lily, you'll never guess what I heard!"
