Out of the Blue
Chapter 21 – We chose trick.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything…
RATING: PG-13 (T) to R (M) - violence, language, angst, horror, mild sexual interactions, etc. If you can watch BTVS/AtS and read HP, I doubt you'll have any problem with this story.
TIMELINE: Takes place after season two in BTVS, and during the marauders last year at Hogwarts.
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. Life sucked for Buffy Summers. After taking her refuge to LA, she had hoped she would finally have some of that peace the Hellmouth couldn't provide. She should have known she was hoping for the impossible. When she gets propelled into another dimension, her life changes forever - but is it for the better or for worse?
CENTRAL PAIRING: Buffy/Remus
OTHER PAIRINGS: James/Lily, Sirius/OC
Special Thanks to: My Beta - CharmedChick
Different explosions came form different sides of the room.
"Lily!" (Buffy)
"How did you know?" (Sirius and James)
"Have you told anyone?" (Remus)
"Let's obliviate her!" The last one came from Peter. James turned to glare at him quite furiously, making him shrink several centimetres. (Although not literally – unfortunately.)
"Okaaay," Eliza said slowly. "Apparently, I'm the only one confused here, so something is obviously very wrong."
"Well…
"It was like this…"
"You promise you won't tell?"
"OKAY!" Eliza rasied her voice as everybody started to speak at the same time. "Let me ask the questions, alright?" She took a deep breath.
"First thing first: You're illegal animagi?" The marauders (except Remus) nodded guiltily (except Peter, who just looked proud).
"Okay…and they did it to keep Remus company on the full-moon?" More nods.
"And can anybody tell me why Remus would need animals to keep him company on the full-moon of all days?" Eliza continued.
Silence.
"No? Then let me tell you, shall I? I'm not stupid. Remus must be a werewolf, you found out about it, and decided to help, and pull a marauding-stunt at the same time." She paused. "How am I doing so far?"
"A little…too well," Sirius muttered. "By the way, Lily, how did you find out?"
"No!" Eliza pointed a finger at Sirius. "I'm talking!"
"So you obviously managed to do all that, and during one of your explores in your animal-forms, one of you - I don't care who - got the idea 'hey, let's make a map!'. And now the map is stolen. And let's not forget the fact that somewhere down that bumpy road both Lily and Buffy found out, but decided not to tell anyone, including me. Am I right?"
They all nodded guiltily.
"Okay. Just wanted to make sure I didn't get anything wrong. I didn't want to jump to conclusions, like certain people do." She cast a quick glance and a smile at Sirius. "Your turn."
"Wait, you're not going to yell at us?" James asked.
"Or scream or run away?" (That was Remus)
"Or…damn, I can't come up with anything else to say!" (That was Sirius)
"No, I'm not. I've kept my share of secrets," Eliza threw another glance at Sirius, "…and knows what it's like. As far as werewolves goes…well, I can't say I like them – hell, I'd even go as far as say they're beasts in wolf-form, but who am I to judge? Anyway, they're human all the time, except once every month, and I don't plan on spending any time with you at all during that certain day…I mean night. – No offence, Remus, but I don't really fancy being wolf-fodder. And I don't think you'd fancy eating me either: I'm quite bony," she finished with a wink, showing she didn't mind him being a werewolf.
Remus grinned.
"Thanks."
"But," Eliza continued, "if anybody has anymore secrets to share, I'd say it's time for them now." She looked around. Buffy bit her lip. Should she tell Eliza about her being the Slayer? However, she didn't had any chance to, as Eliza clapped her hands together.
"Well," she said, "Let's find the map, and get this bitch over with, shall we?"
An hour later, they all were truly exhausted, not having either the power, or the will, to look for the map anymore.
"I think I'm gonna die!" Buffy complained.
"Water!" Lily said.
"If I have to look through Remus' stuff one more time, I think I'm going to drown myself in the lake," James said, moaning.
Remus looked up.
"Okay, who are you, and what have you done with James? Are you sure you're him? The same one who just about a little more than an hour ago was willing to do anything to get the map back?" James was too tired to answer, and gave Remus the finger instead. The only one seemingly unaffected was Peter, who'd barely helped at all. He'd even been laughing as he saw the others look for a map that he knew wasn't there, but in Filch's office. It had probably already been put in the box that said 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous' by now.
"Hey, guys, let's sleep," Peter said. "I'm exhausted."
Sirius gave him a glare.
"Is that all you think about? Sleep? Besides, you've barely done anything, how can you possibly be tired!"
"No, I think about eating too!" Peter said, ignoring Sirius last question.
"Guys, please, can we not?" Eliza said. "No more fighting. No more raised voices. I think my ears are on their way to fall off."
"Oh, I'd pay to see that," Sirius mumbled. This earned him a kick (although a tired, not even hard one) on his leg.
"Shut up," Eliza said. She then frowned. "Hey, I never found out what animagus forms you guys are!"
"Oh, I know this one!" Buffy sat up. "It's all in their nicknames, if you think about it. Moony, it's Remus, kinda obvious, he's the werewolf. Wormtail, Peter, is a rat, right?" Peter nodded.
"And James…Prongs…well, we were lending towards a deer at first, because you're so feminine," Buffy smirked as James shot up.
"A deer! Never! Me? Feminine? Pfft!"
Sirius would have laughed out loud if he hadn't been so tired.
"…But we decided to settle on a stag."
James nodded approvingly.
"Much better."
"Sirius. Padfoot. We were thinking in the lines of a bear, but decided a big, black dog was more like it. Is it ringing any bells?"
Sirius only grunted in response.
"A dog?" Eliza cooed. "That is so sweet! A loyal, big thing…but…is he trained? I mean, he does not walk around licking his balls everywhere!"
Sirius sat up at this.
"What? No!"
James and Remus snickered.
"Well, there was this one time…"
"Shut up! That was only once, when I transformed for the first time! Plus, they were itching!"
This only made James and Remus snicker even worse. Sirius growled, but Eliza just patted him on the head.
"Good doggie."
"Can we not talk about this anymore?" Sirius grunted, swatting away Eliza's hand.
"Let's talk about the upcoming Halloween feast. Just twenty days left now…"
"Ooooh, are you going to play a prank?" Lily asked excitedly. This made everyone turn to stare at her in surprise.
"What!" She said. "I can actually enjoy a good prank as well! I'm not the boring, responsible student all the time! Right?" She asked Buffy, who just smirked.
"Sure you're not…only ninety-nine point nine percent of the day."
Lily looked so shocked and put out at this, the others had to laugh.
"But," James said, suddenly getting an idea. "If you help us with this prank, along with Eliza and Buffy, we promise we won't think that ever again."
"I don't know…" Lily said, hesitating.
"Come on! Don't you ever feel you want to do something rebellious?" Buffy asked with a twinkle in her eye. Lily made up her mind.
"Fine...But only entertainment, right? Nothing that will put anyone in danger?"
"Of course not!" Remus swore. He gave James and Sirius a look.
"Guys!" he hissed, and nudged them hard in the sides. James and Sirius sighed.
"Fine, we promise."
"Then I'm in," Lily said. "But I do want your word that if we get busted, you take the blame. Eliza, Buffy and I shall not have to be punished."
"Fine," the marauders shrugged.
"It's not fine!" Buffy said. "I want to have detention!"
The others stared at her.
"What! I'm muggle born, I've never had any fun detentions!"
"Fun? Detention?" Sirius said incredulously. "That's not what I would call it."
"Fine," Buffy snapped. "Any detentions not involving wiping of the blackboard, doing homework, or – " she shuddered, "…having to plan a Parent-Teacher night."
"Oh, that sounds like fun!" Lily said.
Buffy shuddered again.
"Not that one, I promise you."
"Okay, any ideas?" Eliza wondered, putting her head in Sirius' knee.
"Well," Sirius said carefully, "I was actually thinking of this idea McGonagall gave me…"
"…"
"Padfoot, are you sure you are feeling well?" James asked carefully. "First, you freely want to go to the library, and then you actually helped us look through Remus' mess…"
"…Hey!" Remus exclaimed, but James pretended not to notice.
"…and now you're telling us to follow an idea Minnie gave you!"
"Well…yeah. It was actually my idea, but it was thanks to her I got it. Remember the coloured horn-potion we came up with to stop the rumours about James' gay-ness?"
The others snickered at the memory, except James, who smacked them.
"Hey, Prongs, you forgot to smack Lily!" Peter piped up, and this earned a glare from a bright red James.
Sirius coughed. "Can I continue?"
"Yes, please do," Remus said, who thought he knew were Sirius was going with this, unless his memory served him wrong…
"Anyway, we all got dragged into her office, and she told us she wished we would have done something less…"
"…Colourful," James finished for him. "Yeah, I remember, Padfoot, but what does that have to do with anything?"
"Everything," Sirius said. "Do you remember what I said next?"
"You said we could make the Slytherins dance hula-hula next time," Remus spoke up.
"Something in the lines of less colour, more movement."
Sirius nodded, grinning from ear to ear. Soon, all the others were grinning as well, although Lily's smile was a little hesitating.
"Isn't that a little…mean?" She asked. James looked at her, still grinning.
"Nah, just a bit of fun. It's just dancing! Pure entertainment."
Lily sighed.
"Fine then."
The next fifteen minutes were spent planning how to do it. Soon, however, they came up with a problem.
"I saw this potion in a book that will make you dance whatever you desire, depending what the last ingredient is," Remus said. "For example, if you put in a polka-stick, you should dance polka, if you put in chocolate-frogs, it's disco. I don't remember what the ingredient for hula-hula was, but I do remember all things were stuff you could eat, so getting that won't be a problem. However, the rest of the potion was quite complicated. Lots of stuff are things you can only find in a very well sorted, expensive potions-shop, or…" he said with a dramatic pause.
"In professor Slughorn's private potions-store," he finished. Professor Slughorn was the Potions professor and theSlytherin's head of House. In sync, everyone turned their heads to look at Lily, who suddenly found herself feeling very nervous.
"Why are you all staring at me for?"
"Well," Sirius said, smirking. "Who is professor Slughorn's favourite student?"
Lily gave them all clueless looks. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Really, Lily! Everyone in the entire school knows Slughorn practically adores you and worships the ground you walk on!"
Lily blushed.
"He does not!"
"Yes, he does," Remus agreed. "You can't deny it."
Slughorn wasn't much for prejudices, except that he tended to favourite good students and suck up to those who was well connected. Lily was the best student he had ever had the pleasure to meet, and, as Buffy said, worshipped the ground she walked on. She was also a member of what was jokingly called 'the Slugclub' - agroupof peopleSlughorn had picked out personally, contending his best, and his most favoured students, and the well-connected one, trying (and succeeding)to get himself important connections in the wizarding world.
Peter frowned. He didn't take Potions (as he had failed really big during his OWL's – a T, Troll)but when he had, he had hated Slughorn. He didn't understand why the teacher hadn't liked him. Peter didn't really think it was his own fault for blowing uphis cauldron at least once a week, made explosions and other things with disastrous endings...
"Well," James said. "This should be easy. We just have Lily to go knock on his door and ask for the stuff we need."
Lily looked horrified. "I can't lie to a teahcer like that!"
"You wouldn't be lying! You would need it!"
"Yes, but I would have to say it was for a special project or something..."
"Well, it sort of is," James argued.
"...or a personal experiment..."
"...which it is..."
"...and he would know it was us after the feast - I am sure he knows of the potions and the stuff in it. It wouldn't take a lot of him to figure out who was behind it."
James grew silent.
"Damn," he finally said. "So we just have to steal those things instead. Great! This would be so much easier if we had the map…" he muttered.
"Well," Peter said. "Maybe we could ask Filch to get it back…?" He suggested, and then put his hand to his mouth.
Everyone turned to look at him.
"FILCH HAS OUR MAP?" James shrieked in horror, making the others wince.
"Jeez, do you have to be so loud!" Buffy muttered, rubbing her ear. She gave Remus a concerned look – as his hearing was very good (better than hers), that had to have hurt. Sure enough; Remus was very pale.
"What did you do to the map, Pete?" Sirius said through gritted teeth.
"N-nothing!" Peter stammered, and pointed a fat finger at his 'friend.' "R-remus had it! He lost it to Filch!"
"I have not!" Remus said. "I haven't even been using it! Somebody stole it…!
"…and why did you know Filch had it in the first place?" Buffy asked calmly, although she was glaring.
"I-I…"
"Don't lie to us, Wormtail!" James said.
"YES! I took the map, happy!"
"NO!" James exclaimed. "How can I possibly be happy!"
"So you took it…" Sirius sighed. "Why?"
"Well…I asked, but you refused to let me borrow it!"
"And for good reasons – you would only lose it! And hey, big surprise – you did!" James said, quite upset.
"Wait, was this when you were going on your stupid DATE?" Sirius asked.
Peter whimpered, but nodded.
"So you told us you were going to 'brush your hair', ran up to your dorm, roamed through Remus stuff, stole the map, left for your little date, came back, and pretended like nothing when Remus noted the map was gone, letting him take the blame!" Buffy concluded, her eyes blazing fiercely.
Peter whimpered again, slowly backing towards the door.
"How could you?" James said. "Why didn't you tell us you took the map?"
"Because you were so mad at R-remus when you thought he took it…" Peter stammered. "I-I was afraid you wouldn't let m-me be part of t-the m-marauders."
"Oh, we're going to do so much more than that!" Sirius said. "We're not even going to talk to you!"
"Guys, come on," Lily tried. "Aren't you a bit hard? It's just a map."
"It's not the map we're upset about! It's the fact that he lied to us! And the fact that he then blamed Remus for it – you don't do that to your friends!" James said.
"Wormtail, get out. None of us want to see you right now…"
"B-but…"
"I said get out!" James raised his voice.
Pete squeaked, and stumbled out of the door. In the opening, however, he turned around.
"Am I still a part of the marauders?"
"ONLY IF YOU GET OUT!" Sirius said. Peter disappeared. Two seconds later, he was back again.
"Can I be a part of your prank?"
"NO!" Six voices said at the same time. Peter hastily shut the door again.
"Guys…maybe we should let him in," Lily said carefully. "If he wants to be a part of the prank…"
"Oh, he will be," Sirius said evilly. "Only this time, he's going to bea victim."
Two days later, it was time for the full moon. Remus had looked pale all day, and hadn't been eating anything – nor slept, did it look like, Buffy thought, as she watched him, concerned, during their History of Magic. Peter was, from time to time, sending them glances from across the room. This morning, Peter had summoned up all his courage (not much), and begged the marauders and Remus for their forgiveness. Remus had been too tired to argue, and accepted his apology right away.
'I bet he knew Remus would be too tired to fight,' Buffy thought. 'And he probaply knew James and Sirius would forgive him as well, without a second thought, just because they're too worried about Remus to care…stupid rat.'
She sighed, and cast a concerned glance on Remus, who was resting his head against his hand, eyes closed. She made up her mind.
"Rem?"
"Hm?" Remus eyes fluttered open. His eyes looked even more amber today, as if the wolf was just waiting to emerge from behind them.
"I'm gonna go with you to the Shack tonight," she whispered, determined.
Remus eyes widened.
"You can't! It's too dangerous. I can hurt you!"
"No, you won't," Buffy said, remembering their last encounter in the woods, and the voice in the back of her head whispering the same word all over again: 'Mated, mated, mated.'
"You didn't last time, remember?"
"That was different!" Remus hissed. "You can never know how the wolf is going to react…how I'm going to react. If I hurt you…" He lowered his voice. "If I hurt you, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Please, stay inside. You can meet me in the hospital-wing later, just…don't come."
Buffy sighed.
"Fine," she muttered. 'But one day, I'll be there…'
Halloween. The word made Buffy shiver. The one night when the Forces of Darkness should stay calm…at least in her time. However, that hadn't been a guarantee there, and probaply wasn't here either. She just hoped nothing would happen…she wanted her first Halloween at Hogwarts…with Remus…would be a complete success.
"You're ready for this evening?" She asked Sirius, who nodded.
"Yep, James stole the potions-ingredients from Shrikin's office last night in his cloak, while Lily distracted him.Seriously though, don't know why she insisted not asking for the stuff we needed. I mean, even if Slughorn would have figured out it was us, everyone will know it was anyway. Plus, I think he wouldhave foundit all hilarious. Anyway, Lily's brewing it at the girl's bathroom right now along with Eliza."
"The girl's bathroom?" Buffy asked, disbelievingly. "Are you sure that's so smart? Anyone could come stomping in."
Sirius smirked.
"Not this one. It's Moaning Myrtle's bathroom."
"Moaning who?"
"Moaning Myrtle," Remus said, coming up behind her.
"She a ghost, haunting the toilet. No one ever goes there."
"Why not?" Buffy asked, curious.
Remus and Sirius just grinned.
When they neared the bathroom, Buffy saw the spot in front of the bathroom door were splashed with water. From inside, you could hear a girls moaning, crying, and whining, and what sounded like tears splashing into the ground.
As they entered, she saw a ghost soaring over the toilet seat, crying. Her tears were falling on the already wet floor. Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.
"Do you understand why, now?" Remus whispered in her ear, and Buffy nodded, eyes widened. Was it even possible to cry that much? Probaply not, she decided. But since Myrtle was dead, she guessed it was.
"Eliza?" Sirius called.
"In here!" Two voices were heard from the toilet-stall furthest from Myrtle, and closest the door.
When Remus, Sirius and Buffy entered, she was surprised to find she fit nicely, and nothing was even the slightest wet. Sirius must have thought along the same lines.
"Hey, how come you're not affected by the crying river out there?" Myrtle must have heard, because soon she was crying even more loudly than before.
"Lily cast a drying charm which updates itself every ten seconds," Eliza explained, "and a widening-charm to make us all fit."
Buffy nodded.
"Is it done soon?" A voice was heard from outside, and the door opened. James stepped in.
"Soon. We're just going to put in the final ingredient…the most important one," Lily said, actually grinning. The closer Halloween came, and the further they got in their planning of the prank, Lily got more and more excited. She was actually looking forward to this.
"There!" She put in the sliced pineapples, and Eliza mixed it all together.
"Done! Dance potion á la hula-hula completed!" She said.
"Alright. How long do we got before the potion takes effect?" James asked.
"About two and a half hours after you drink it," Remus answered. "So we should have the house-elves put it in Peter's andthe Slytherin's glasses from the beginning."
"Right…by the way, Remus, how did you find out about this potion in the first place?" James asked, frowning.
Remus blushed.
"I was looking it up in a book."
"And why were you looking for a potion like that?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows.
Remus mumbled something inaudible.
"What was that, Moony?" James said, amused. "I didn't quite catch it."
"I said my mum wanted me to learn how to dance, okay? And I refused to take lessons!"
The others roared with laughter.
When they'd stopped laughing, (it took awhile) James brought them back on track.
"Alright. So after Dumbledore's speech…that should be somewhere after two and a half hour, I throw the transfiguration-spell on the Slytherins, andWormtail,which should turn them into you-know-what, and right after that, the music should start – don't forget to do the music-charm, Lils – and, if our timing's been correct, the potion should take effect here. And then – laughing-time!"
As dinner started, the marauders (now including Buffy, Lily and Eliza) sat down at the side closest to the Slytherin-table. Soon, everyone was munching on their food (which were delicious), and Dumbledore had just finished his speech, wrapping up the evening.
James decided it was time for the entertainment. He pointed his wand at the roof over the Slytherin-table (he didn't care doing it discreetly – McGonagall would still know it was them), whispered an incantation, and watched as glittering orange sparks flew out, exploding over the Slytherins as a firework. Everyone must have thought it was all part of the evenings schedule (which it was, but not the one the teacher had planned), because soon everyone was 'ooh-ing', and 'aah-ing'. After awhile, the sparks seemed to disappear in the thin air, and everyone went back to finishing the food.
However, soon the Slytherins found themselves dressed in short straw-skirts, flower-necklaces, coconut-bras (in case you were a girl), and pineapples balancing on their head. Music sounded in the Hall, and the Slytherins found to their horrification that their legs seemed to get a will on it's own, as they found themselves jumping up on the table (now clothed with fruit and flowers), and started to dance – you guessed it – hula hula. The marauders couldn't stop laughing, and neither could the other students. And if you looked carefully, you could see the lips were twitching on some of the staff, and some of them weren't even trying to hide they were enjoying it (like Hagrid).
Peter hadn't laughed so hard in his entire life…that was, until James shot the transfiguration-spell on him as well, under the table. He found himself in the same situation as the Slytherins – even he jumped up on the table and started to dance, making everyone laugh even worse. He looked so ridiculous in his skirt, flower-necklace and pineapple, as he jumped (you could hardly call it dancing – it seemed like Peter couldn't dance even if he was affected by a potion) around with his short legs, and fat stomach.
Once the potion and the transfiguration wore of, and the music stopped, it was less funny. McGonagall came striding towards their table, with a look that could kill.
"BLACK! POTTER! LUPIN!" She screamed, nostrils flaring. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"
"Only some Halloween fun, professor," Buffy said innocently. "That's what you do in Halloween - trick, or treat. We chose trick."
McGonagall turned her narrowed eyes to Buffy.
"Don't tell me you were in on this as well, miss Summers?"
"I'm afraid I was, professor."
"And me too," Eliza added. "It was just a bit fun! Besides, you looked like you were enjoying yourself as well."
McGonagall glared at Eliza, but for once seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Hmph! I still can't believe you would do something like that! And on your friends as well!" She said, with a glance at the blushing Peter.
"Well, as Eliza said," Lily spoke up, (the Halloween and pranking spirit was really starting to get the best – or worse – of her) "it was just a bit of fun. And Peter did deserve it, didn't you, Peter?" Lily said, boring her eyes into Peter, making him whimper, and nod. He hadn't seen Lily angry before (at least not at him, only on James and Sirius), and since he didn't want her wrath, he thought it best just to admit he was wrong. 'Even though I wasn't.'
"Miss Evans!" McGonagall sounded shocked. "You were in on this too?"
"Well…yeah…" Lily muttered. From the Head-table, she thought she saw professor Slughorn laughing, saying something about how he knew she had it in her, but she wasn't sure.
"I thought much better of you!" McGonagall said. "Head-girl! Highest grade in your year!"
"Hey!" James and Sirius chorused, offended.
"You don't count," McGonagall snapped.
"Discrimination!" James said, clearly offended.
"QUIET, POTTER, or I'll take fifty points from Gryffindor from each and everyone of you who were in on this!"
That shut him up.
McGonagall took a deep breath, as if to calm herself.
"Detention, all of you, with Hagrid in two days," she said, and turned back to the head-table. As soon as she was out of earshot, the marauders turned to eachother.
"Only detention!" Sirius said excitedly.
"With Hagrid!" James added, grinning. "She really must have enjoyed this. What's up with you, though, Lils? I thought you were going to let us take the blame?"
Lily looked uncomfortable, and blushed.
"Well…I was…but I guess I got caught up in the moment…plus, it wouldn't be fair to let you take the blame," she said, with a quick glance at Peter.
The others grinned.
"Go, Lils!" James said. Lily blushed again. 'Why in Merlin's name is he calling me 'Lils' all suddenly? And more importantly: Why do I like it! He's just James!'
Suddenly, the door to the Hall burst open. Everyone turned to look at the visitor, and Eliza paled. Her good mood was gone, but her problems back. Sirius cast her a worried look.
"Eliza?" He whispered. "Who is that?"
Eliza gulped.
"My father…"
A/N: I hope you liked it! REVIEW!
/Ida
