Well, here's Chapter 2! First of all I'd like to thank everybody who reviewed.Five reviews is absolutely amazing to me, believe it or not! As a newbie, every little comment I get is like sweet, sweet candy for my little ego. So thanks, and keep 'em coming! And asian.marshmallow, I hope the hair works out for you! ;) Thanks for the advice, clichebusters! Actually, Alice is semi-based on my best friend, and Lily is sort of like my mom...except I didn't mean for that to happen!
Anyway, I have to correct a mistake I made last chapter. If you noticed a 'Venus' and 'Bridget' in Chapter 1, don't worry. They're not mysterious disappearing characters or figments of your imagination, just representative of my horrible editing. Marlene, Alice, and Dorcas (Rae) were originally OCs named Venus, Bridget, and Rae, respectively (as you can see, I loved the name Rae too much to part with it!). I changed them to try and stay as far away from Mary-Suedom as I could. So apologies for that!
Also, this might be the last update for a while since the dreaded NYS Regents tests are this week and next. Since I slacked off all year, I now have to study like a maniac for two days so I can go to a semi-decent college. Oh, the joys of high school. Anyway, I hope you like the next chapter!
I woke up late the next morning. See, I told myself, everything's the same. Even though I had to rush around and listen to Lily's impatient foot-tapping, things evened out since there was no time for Marlene to "fix" my hair.
Unfortunately, however, a look in the mirror told me that I was in dire need of Marlene's help. I grimaced and tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to pull my choppy hair back in a ponytail. About half of it went up, the rest sticking out at odd angles. Oh well. It isn't as if I have anyone to impress, I thought bitterly.
When we finally made it down to breakfast, Professor McGonagall was already handing out timetables. Mine was predictably brutal. I wasstudying to be an Auror, as were Lily, Marlene, and Alice. It had become a popular career choice with the recent increase in Dark activity. I myself had only gained the required amount of OWLs with a whole lot of help from my more scholastic friends.
"What's the verdict?" I said gloomily to the others, who were still poring over their schedules.
"Not bad," answered Lily. "Potions and Defense this morning, Transfiguration and Arithmancy after lunch. More tomorrow, though."
"Not bad? Not bad?" I said somewhat hysterically. "Lily, this schedule is brutal, and I don't even have Arithmancy!"
Marlene and Alice nodded gloomily in agreement. McGonagall, who had obviously overheard my little outburst, stalked over to our seats.
"Well of course your schedule will be brutal, Ms. Meadowes. What did you expect? It's NEWT year, and you're not going to be coddled."
She shot me another admonishing look and returned to the fifth years, who were complaining loudly about "Double Potions with the Slytherins!".
After we had scarfed down some breakfast, we grabbed our things from the dormitory and hurried to Potions (minus Marlene, who had met Sirius in the hall and was probablyenjoying"stimulating conversation"with him in some broom closet).
Potions classes were taught by Professor Slughorn, a clever but hard-to-like man (he was the Head of Slytherin, if that tells you anything). Slughorn had a few favorites, topped by Lily, who he practically worshiped. I wasn't really on his radar, which was fine by me.
Anyway, as we walked into class, Slughorn jumped up and waddled over to Lily. He immediately startedbabbling away about something or other. To Lily's credit, she didn't like him anymore than the rest of us, and she was often quite cheeky to himand almost rude.Of coursethis just endeared her more to the Potions professor.
Lily and Alice, the brainiacs, sat down together. They'd been partners ever since first year, when they both knew the properties of the Drought of Living Death. Sickening.
I was usually paired with Marlene, but as she wasn't in class yet (and would probably be with Sirius anyway), I sat down at an empty table. It would be just my luck if I had to work with some greasy, sniveling Slytherin (and believe it or not, there was more than one to choose from).
"Hey Rae, is anyone sitting with you? I thought maybe we could be partners since our friends are currently snogging their brains out in a closet."
I looked up to see the bespectacled face of James Potter. Not too bad, I thought. He might be a jerk but at least he's good at Potions.
"Sure," I answered, giving him what I hoped was an encouraging smile and patting the bench next to me. Consequently, I heard Lily hissing behind me like an angry cat.
"You're partnering with Potter?" she snarled. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was jealous.
"Who do you suggest, Snape? Or Rosier? Lily, he's good at Potions and you know it!" I retorted. James feigned deafness during this exchange, although his cheeks were turning a deep shade of scarlet.
Professor Slughorn finally left Remus Lupin ("you look so pale, my poor boy!") and came to the front of the room. But instead of beginning class, he watched the door patiently until Sirius and Marlene entered, red-faced and disheveled. I felt my stomach clench at the sight.
Slughorn merely smiled mildly. "Now that Mr. Black and Ms. McKinnon have joined us, let's get started, shall we? You all have a busy year ahead of you!" He looked around at us, grinning as though it was a perfectly wonderful prospect. "We are going to be preparing for your NEWT from the very first moment in class to the very last, as in all your other classes, I'm sure! The workload will be intense and the potions difficult..."
I felt my mind drift away. Surely I'd hear this speech ten different timestoday anyway. Staring at Sirius' messy but shiny and soft-looking hair was a far better use of my time.
Or so I told myself. Anyway, about ten minutes later, James and I were working on an Unveiling Potion, which forced the drinker to return to a normal state from any magically altered one. Slughorn wasn't joking - it was a tricky and complicated potion, and I was already sweating in the heat of our cauldron.
James, however, was cool as a cucumber. He barely consulted the instructions in our textbook, just throwing in ingredients seemingly at random. Despite this, the potion was actually looking good, a rare occurance for me. No matter how hard he tried to act like he didn't care, James knew his stuff.
Potions abilities notwithstanding, I began to have doubts about James' real reasons for partnering with me. He began our first real conversation with this gem:
"Wow, your hair looks really nice like that."
He actually said it with a straight face. Well, two could play at that game.
"So does yours," I replied. James grinned and ran his fingers through the mop that was on top of his head. He seemed completely oblivious to the fact that I was teasing him. This guy really had an ego.
"You haveabsolutely gorgeous eyes," he continued.
Okay, now I knew something was up. "What do you want?" I hissed. "Because if you think I'm gonna tell Lily you're some amazing guy -"
"Shh! Not so loud, she'll hear you!" James looked genuinely petrified, so I shut up. "I just want you to...you know, tell her I'm maybe not so bad."
I looked at him skeptically,dipping a bowl of mashed beetle heads into the steaming cauldron. "If you weren't so bad, I might."
James sighed. "Look, I know I come off as an arrogant idiot sometimes, but I'm not. I'm an okay guy, really! I even stopped hexing Snape and told Sirius to treat Marlene right, but I don't think Lily even knows I'm alive. I really care about her, you know!"
Absolutely shocked by this spontaneous burst of...niceness..., I quit stirring the potion. Of course, that was the very thing you were not supposed to do during step thirty-five, and the potion exploded out of its cauldron and splashed all over James and me. Everyone looked up from their work, and as a few other people were also on step thirty-five, the room was soon full of people in varying states of disgustingness.
Fortunately, the stuff had no negative effect other than staining clothes and smelling awful. Slughorn chuckled good-naturedly and managed to get most of us clean. Of course, our beautiful potion was ruined, and I now smelled curiously like mouldy cheese. James and Sirius, of course, thought it was absolutely hilarious.
"Your face!" Sirius moaned on the way to Charms, almost doubled over with laughter.
"My face? You should have seen yours!" James replied. The rest of the seventh-year Gryffindors and Slytherins, skin painfully raw and still smelling slightly, found it less amusing, and for the rest of the day I received many annoyed little glances. Never mind that the only reason I had stopped stirring was because James decided to act like a human being.
Go figure.
Anyway, the rest of the day was mostly uneventful save a badly-aimed Feather-Growing Charm. (I had the suspicion that there was more than bad aim at work, though, since the newly feathered person was Severus Snape and the charm-caster Sirius Black.)
After classes finally ended, I gave in to Marlene's pleas and let her do my hair in the dorm. She actually pulled a little scissors kit out of her bag. I wouldn't be surprised if she had one of those Muggle hair-drying chair gizmos under her bed.
All in all, it was a pretty painless task. Well, not literally painless, since Marlene had absolutely no respect for my scalp, but the haircut turned out all right in the end. Maybe not gorgeous, but at least even, and I liked the way the shorter layers framed my face and subdued my waves.
Of course, being Marlene, she had to parade me around in the common room like a mannequin: "Did you see it before? Isn't the transformation just wonderful?" Which, let me tell you, was not a great ego-booster. Anyway, I tried to imagine that the half-smile and raised eyebrow I got from Sirius was caused by more than Marlene's hair-cutting abilities.
Back in the common room for the evening,my fellow seventh years were either talking about the alarming amount of work or their still-noticeable cheese odor.
It was wonderful, really, to sit in front of a cozy fire and listen to Sirius' deep, throaty drawl (even if Marlene was sitting on his lap), James' quicker, more excited voice, Remus' hoarse rasp, and even Peter's squeak. Since Sirius and Marlene had been dating, the boys hung out with us more often, and I have to say it was nice. Even Lily didn't look horribly uncomfortable, sitting next to James on the sofa.
I was almost dozing off by the time the conversation turned to Quidditch. James had been made Captain and he was holding tryouts that weekend. He and Sirius (who was a Beater) were talking about prospects for the newly open positions of Seeker and Keeper.
"I think I'll try out for Seeker," said Alice out of nowhere. Seven heads immediately swivelled in her direction. This is what I meant when I said Alice surprises me sometimes.
"I've been practicing. I'm actually all right," she said, her face reddeningfrom all the attention.
"Well, you'll have to be more than all right to join," James said, puffing out his chest. He glanced sideways at Lily. "The team's excellent this year, we're expecting the Cup again, with me as Captain and all."
Lily scoffed, her eyes flashing. "Typical, Potter. Alice will try out and she will make it too, you absolute -" Here she paused, unable to find a word for exactly what James was - "Ego-head!"
After this slightly anticlimactic ending, she stomped upstairs, dragging aquietly protesting Alice with her.
"And we're getting up bright and early to train!" she shouted from the top of the stairs.
Marlene and I shared a skeptical look. For all we knew, Alice couldn't even sit on a broomstick, let alone catch a Snitch. She'd never shown any interest in Quidditch before.
After Lily's outburst, our newfound camaraderie was pretty much ruined. James looked ready to either cry or hit something, Remus was tense, Peter was twitchy, and Sirius' lip was curled like a snarling dog. Marlene and I knew it was time for bed.
After a ten-minute, entirely nonverbal good-night from Sirius, Marlene followed me back up to the dorm. Upon entering, we were shocked to see Lily curled up on her bed, crying into her pillow. Alice was stroking her back and looking up at us worriedly.
"Lily!" I said. "What's the matter?"
"P–P-Potter!" she sobbed. "He's s-s-such a jerk!"
"Well, yeah," I said, uncomfortable, "but there's no reason to cry about it!"
"Oh very nice, Rae," Marlene said sarcastically, even as she gave me a meaningful look, gesturing towards Lily. I got the picture and we both crouched down next to her bed to comfort her.
Once Lily's sobs had subsided, we got into our own beds. No conversation tonight - the long day had been absolutely exhausting. I was out in about five minutes. What a way to start term!
Hope you liked it! Feedback is, of course, very welcome!
