"Now, your potions should be turning a pale shade of lavender now and emitting a green haze. Remember to stir clockwise every seven-"
Tuning out the rest of Professor Slughorn's instructions, Jennifer prodded Alexandria on the shoulder.
"How's our potion, is it purple at least? I know lavender's too much to hope for." Alexandria sighed glumly. "See for yourself." Jennifer hesitantly peered into the cauldron.
It was orange. Alexandria threw down the wooden spoon she had been stirring with and it fell with a loud clatter. As one, the two looked over at Lily who had been paired with a girl from another Hufflepuff. Their potion was just fine. Lily was stirring it now with the Professor standing over her shoulder, singing praises to her potion-making skills. Lily always had been the better one at potions. She said it was rather like chemistry which they had no idea as to what it was.
Disgruntled, the two turned back to their own abysmal potion which was now starting harden into a cement-like form while giving off a horrible smell.
"Shoot! We need to have a potion in a flask, not a brick in a pot! Hurry, maybe it's still watery enough to pour." With that Alexandria snatched up their flask and with some difficulty, Jennifer managed to lift up the heavy cauldron to tilt towards it. As they watched, the potion trickled down and they grew more hopeful when right before the first drop entered the flask, it all hardened.
"No! We were so close!" Suddenly Jennifer's face brightened. "I've got it!"
Quickly drawing her wand from her robes, she cast a silencing charm around them. Then she looked around for some trash, finding it in the form of a crumpled sheet of parchment and a broken quill. "Now, what would be better, just a hammer or a chisel too?" Jennifer mused to herself.
"Chisel and hammer," said Alexandria, now that she had realized what Jennifer was trying to do. "But we better hurry, class is almost over." Nodding absentmindedly, Jennifer waved her wand over the junk and they transformed into the tools she had needed. Working quickly, they managed to chisel out enough chunks to fill the flask. Thanks to the charm, Slughorn didn't hear the clink-clink of the hammer and chisel. As Alexandria closed the flask, Jennifer took down the silencing spell and heard the bell. Rushing, they placed their rather lumpy and hard flask next to all the others before racing out of class to meet a laughing Lily.
"Slughorn didn't see but I saw along with half the class. Did you know watching you guys hammer and chisel at your potion cheered me up immensely?" Jennifer rolled her eyes. "Hey, we got it in the flask, right Alex? Alex?" Turning around, Lily, and Jennifer saw that Alexandria was staring at the sleeve of her robe with a look of horror on her face. Concerned, the two raced over to her and asked what was wrong. Wordlessly she pointed. They winced. About an inch of her robe's sleeve had been singed by the fire they had been using to heat the potion. To make matter's worse, it was one of Alexandria's favorite robes.
"Um, maybe you could singe the other sleeve and the bottom so it matches," offered Lily lamely. Alexandria just looked at her in a condescending way.
"No, really Lily, that might have worked in October but it's September. Plus it's singed, not tattered. And it's the wrong kind of fabric for that, see? It's-" By then Jennifer cut in.
"I don't think Lily was being serious Alex…"
Continuing their discussion about Alexandria's robes, the Prowlers walked down the hall, completely forgetting about the three boys who probably wanted revenge.
Remus glanced at his fellow Marauders as they fed flobberworms and pretended to listen to their Care of Magical Creatures professor.
"So mates, any ideas? Wait; let me make that more clear, any ideas that don't involve maiming, killing, torturing, or extreme humiliation?"
With a disappointed look on his face, the now snake-less Sirius lowered his hand. A thoughtful James poked a flobberworm with a leaf of lettuce.
"How about changing their hair like Sirius'? Only, let's do something other than snakes." Sirius nodded considered the prank.
"That could work…" Flobberworms forgotten, the threesome quickly began whispering and planning. After a few fiercely whispered arguments and a couple rejected spells, the prank was ready. Glancing behind them, James looked over at their future victims. They seemed to be engrossed in a magazine that the blonde was hiding from the teacher behind their flobberworm container. He nudged Sirius.
"Perfect opportunity, they aren't on their guards." The corners of Sirius' mouth lifted upward in a smirk as he rubbed his hands together. "Yes, perfect opportunity indeed Prongs." With James and Remus watching eagerly, Sirius gave an expert little flick of his wand for show and then recited the three different spells.
The girls suddenly froze as they felt their hair change. Slowly and hesitantly, as if they were afraid of what they'd find, the girls looked at their hair. Their reactions were entertaining at the very least; Lily's being the most violent.
A wet and slimy noise. "Please tell me that I am hallucinating when I say that my hair is seaweed."
A gasp. Then a voice starting out calm and ending hysterically saying, "How odd. My hair seems to have turned to yarn! It most certainly is not this season's look!"
Immense heat. "AHH! My head is on fire!"
Watching Lily run around in circles with literally flaming red hair trailing behind her, Jennifer sit with a nauseated expression on her face as water dripped from her long, slimy, and wet locks of seaweed, and Alexandria gingerly prod the yarn with her wand producing random sparks that scorched the yarn, the Marauders laughed loudly. At the sound of their voice, Alexandria turned and put the two and two together. Sending them a dirty look, she waved her wand and uttered a single word.
"Silenco!"
Now mute, the three boys glared at Alexandria who smiled smugly. Since they couldn't utter the counter-curse due to them all being mute, they were stuck this way.
Lily had now calmed down enough to figure out the flames weren't burning anything and were mainly show. She turned her Death Glare on the boys and they flinched visibly. Having brilliant and intense emerald eyes that just radiated the promise of future pain and misery in your direction wasn't very appealing.
Still, even thought they were now mute and shaken from Lily's glare, the Marauders had to say it was worth it all.
"Ergh! I can't believe we forgot about them. Of course they would prank us for retaliation, we should have been ready! And of all the pranks they could have pulled, they just had to copy-"
Alexandria and Jennifer's heads moved side to side as they watched Lily pace as she ranted in their dorm. Thankfully the two other girls in their dorm were empty. As she looked through yet another book, Jennifer asked Alexandria, "You figured out the counter-curse yet?" It was a well known fact between the girls and their old school that though she certainly didn't act like it, Alexandria was one of the best when it came to hexes, curses, and their counter-charms. When pranked, it was to her they turned to. And books of course if she didn't know, she was only human after all.
Now that we're on the subject of specialties, let's see about the other two girls. Lily was rather gifted when it came to charms. She was good at potions too but it was in charms where she really shone. Able to do most in her first try, she made it seem astonishingly easy. Jennifer was amazing when it came to transfiguration. As she had demonstrated in class, she had a knack for it. Jennifer was also the bookworm of the group. She conducted most of the research.
Together, the girls made a pretty good team. As they had found out in first year, if they all contributed, they could go far.
"Got it!" Gleefully motioning her friends over, Alexandria waved a slim journal at them. In it was a record of some of their more memorable pranks and the spells involved.
"This one's from fourth year, remember when we had charmed everyone to have grass for hair and it backfired had got us too?" At the girl's nods she continued. "Well, here's the spell we used to reverse it, it should work since the circumstances are similar, both are hair changes."
Whipping out her wand, Alexandria waved her wand over them and muttered, "Finite morrie!"
Their hair let off a soft shimmer before gradually changing back. Lily let out a thankful sigh of relief as she felt her normal hair again.
"Thanks Alex, you're a lifesaver.
Shrugging, Alexandria merely returned to the magazine they had been looking at in class.
Sorry this chapter is so late but my computer broke a month or two ago and after trying multiple times to fix it, it seems like it's dead for real so this is a different computer. Not new but new for me. On a sad note, all my files are gone so any future chapters I had are gone. So, back to the drawing board, eh? Review as always!