Chapter 11: A Maturing James and an Angry Melissa
(A/N: Both are extremely scary things)
A month after Ginerva Westley magically appeared, the Marauders found themselves in DADA.
"Ok class." Peeler started the class as Miss. Westley sat on his desk. "Today, we will be discussing Dementors. I mentioned to some of you that we will be covering them. Now, who can tell me what a dementor is. Miss. Evans."
"It's a dark creature that sucks the happiness out of everyone."
"Correct. 5 points to Gryffindor. Now, normally, I would say that calling a creature "dark" is being extremely bias. However, it is not in the dementor's nature to be forgiving. It can't distinguish who it hunts and who gets in the way. They force us to relive our very worst memories."
The class shivered.
"There is a way to shield yourself." Peeler continued. "And that, is with the Patronus charm. Repeat after me. "Expecto Patronum.""
"Expecto Patronum." The class repeated.
"Good. Now, to conjure a patronus, you think of a very happy, very powerful memory. Everyone's patronus will be different. To demonstrate, Gin, if you will."
"Is it safe?" she asked before opening the trunk with the boggart.
"They don't have to know why it's in the shape it's in." he told her.
She opened the trunk and the boggart took the shape of a dementor.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!" Harold Peeler screamed.
A flash of white light came from the wand and took the form of…a stag.
"It looks like Prongs." Sirius whispered to Remus who nodded in agreement.
The force of the Patronus pushed the boggart back in the trunk which Westley quickly closed.
Peeler took a deep breath. "That was much stronger than my last one." He observed.
"What did you think about?" his girlfriend asked.
"My sister. And when she said her first word." He laughed. "It was my name."
Westley shot him a sympathetic smile.
"Now, you can produce a Patronus without a dementor around." He told the class. "I don't expect any of you to get it your first try. I didn't."
"May I?" Westley asked.
"What?"
"Expecto Patronum" she said pointing her wand to the open floor.
The same silver light appeared out of her wand and took the form of an owl.
The class, including Professor Peeler, starred open mouthed.
When her Patronus faded,
"Where the bloody hell did you learn to do that?" Peeler asked. (A/N: Remember, they didn't have the DA)
"You've been around my brother too long." She laughed twirling her wand. "After you left, I had our defense teacher teach me. It helped with your disappearance. At least, for me. I'm not too sure about him."
Peeler smiled at her. "Now to work." He told the class
After a couple of tries, most of the class could produce a silver mist. However, it was time to leave.
"I want a foot long paper about what you believe your patronus would look like if it was corporal and why. Class dismissed."
James Potter stayed behind.
"Oh help." Peeler whispered thinking it was about the patronus.
"I was wondering if I could have some help." James said
"With what Mr. Potter? All you need is a little bit more practice with the patronus. You can do that without my help."
"It's not that. Even though I was interested in the shape of yours. Why a stag?"
"Personal reasons." He told the student. "Continue."
"Well, I was wondering if I could speak to Miss. Westley alone." James said
"Is that alright?" a confused Peeler asked his girlfriend
She nodded.
"I'm going to have a word with Professor Dumbledore then." Peeler said as he left the room.
James and Ginerva Westley were alone
"I want a girl's opinion. I think I have real feelings for Lily Evans and I want to know how to win her heart. Please don't tell the guys I asked for help." James told her
"I won't tell." she said. "Let's see, this might be difficult for you…"
"I'll try anything." James quickly. "I think my feelings have actually turned to love now. I see her everywhere. Even in Professor Peeler."
Westley paled a little at this, but quickly recovered.
"That is serious." She said. "When you start seeing someone in other people, then that is a sign of love."
"What can I do?" James asked actually desperately.
"Lay off the pranks." she told him. "Every so often is alright, but not as much as you have been doing. Also, do your duties as Head Boy and as a student. Finish your homework before having fun. And the most important aspect: leave Miss. Evans alone for a while."
"What?" James asked.
"You heard me." she told him. "Leave her alone. She's so used to you bugging her, she's bound to realize it. In other words: You have to mature to win her heart."
"It goes with that detention my boyfriend gave you last year." She continued. "He told me about it. She tells you to leave her alone, you leave her alone. Just do what she asks you do you, and you'll have her attention. Maybe one day she confront you about it. When the time is right, you ask her again."
"How will I know?"
"You'll know." Westley told him. "Trust me."
0000
At lunch,
"Hey Potter, where were you?" Lily asked as James joined the Marauders, John, and Maraudettes.
"Talking to Miss. Westley."
"So Prongs?" Sirius asked. "How about we prank the Slytherins tonight?"
"Sorry Padfoot." James said before Lily could say anything. "With the homework Peeler assigned, it's going to take me a while."
"Just get Moony to do it." Sirius said as Remus and Lily glared at him.
"I'd better do it myself."
Silence
"MADAM POMFREY!" Sirius screamed as Remus felt James' forehead.
"No fever." Remus stated.
"I'm not sick guys." James said getting up. "I'm going to the Library."
Sirius fainted.
0000
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Peter said to the map as Sirius and Remus gathered around while they were hiding in the library overlooking "James".
"It's him alright." Remus said looking back and forth between the map and his friend. "The Map never lies"
"What are you three up to?" Madam Pince said coming from behind them.
"Nothing." The boys said as they turned off the map and hid it on the shelf.
"Well, then get a move on." She told them.
Nobody noticed Flich's prying eyes.
0000
"What are you idiots doing?" James asked when he saw them.
"Who are you and what have you done with James Andrew Potter?" Sirius asked.
"I'm just trying something alright." James said. "Isn't it like Sirius said last year: "the best prank is no prank"?"
"I meant when people are expecting it." Sirius corrected himself.
0000
"Peter? Where's the map?" Remus said that night.
"Oops. I left it in the library." Peter realized.
"And Prongs has the cloak in the Head's apartments." Sirius said.
They decided to head on to the library. When they got to the place where they spied on James
"Where is it?" Remus asked.
0000
The next morning,
"You lost it? James asked them. "For all we know it could be in the trash."
"All that hard work." Remus said.
"Well, if you didn't have a personality change on us, we never would have used it." Sirius said to James.
The four (actually three because Peter was keeping quiet) started arguing.
"Silencio." A voice came from behind.
The boys kept arguing, but no sound was coming out. When they realized this, they turned to see Professor Peeler.
"Come with me boys." He told the foursome.
They obeyed.
When they got to the classroom, Professor Peeler lifted the spell.
"Now, why are four best friends fighting like this."
"Personal matter Professor." James said glaring at his friends.
"Ah. You managed to lose you map."
The foursome forgot their argument and starred at the professor.
"How…? When did you…?" Remus started.
"How did I know? Like my patronus, "personal reason." I have my ways of knowing things. One day, you may find out. Until then, I will not say. As for your map, I can assure you that it is not in the trash or the fire. It is in a safe place. The person who confiscated it does not know how it works. That is no reason to loose a friendship. Betraying someone to the enemy is one thing, but the loss of a map is totally different. Now, I believe you have Transfiguration."
0000
"Guys." James said finally breaking the ice halfway to Transfiguration. "I'm sorry."
"About what?" Remus asked.
"Everything. About yelling at you, not warning you about my changing personality…" James said.
"Actually," Remus said. "I'm not even sure you had a warning about that part. We can blame that on hormones."
"Well, I'm sorry about blaming you." Sirius said to his best friend. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be friendless."
"Are we still mad at each other?" Peter asked confused.
"No Wormtail." Remus told him. "We're friends again. And friends forever."
The four boys shared a group hug. Little did they know, the conversation did not go unnoticed.
0000
That evening in the Head Girl's apartment,
"That was weird." Sara said to her friends.
"What?" Lily asked.
"This morning. The boys got into a fight at breakfast. Then, Potter is first one to apologize."
"Could it be he's actually maturing?" Spica asked.
"Nah." Lily said refusing to believe it. "This is James Potter we're talking about."
"Honestly Vixy. I'm shocked." Melissa said what she had been thinking for several years now.
"Adolpha?" the others asked.
"Here you are saying that Remus, Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Regulus Black, and many MANY others are just treated unfairly!"
"What does that have to do with the subject?" Lily asked.
"Because YOU'RE practically treating Potter the same way he treats Snape."
"I am not." Lily defended. "You don't see me turning him upside down for no good reason."
"No. But I see you jumping to conclusions about him. I've talked to Remus. Yes. I, Melissa Jane Oxford, have had civil conversations with Remus J. Lupin. Did you know that James has a younger sister. She would have been in her second year of Hogwarts if she didn't have to leave England to preserve the family line."
"Just like those purebloods." Sara spatted.
Melissa went up to Lily's bookshelf and grabbed Lily's Christmas present from last year.
"I've done my research Easter." Melissa told her. "I know who ALL of the heirs are. Slytherin's is Tom Riddle; Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were murdered by another one of Slytherin's heir; and Gryffindor, well, take a look." She opened the book to a certain page and showed everyone.
Godric Gryffindor had only one daughter. She was a young witch named Julia Gryffindor. After she left her father's school, she married a wizard named Proteus Potter.
"Potter's Gryffindor's heir?" Lily asked. She had not gotten to that part.
"Do you want Slytherin to be the only founder with blood relations left on this planet if anything happened to the Potters?" Melissa asked the girls. "Personally, I don't. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. Potter has a LOT to live up to. He's probably just trying to find ways to keep the hurt out. And don't get me started on his boggart."
"The dead body of a ten year old year. Most likely his sister." Spica remembered quietly.
"And how he reacted?" Melissa prompted. "he was one of the few that couldn't. Personally, I don't know how to make that funny."
"I don't know either." Sara said remembering her boggart with a dead Jonathan Newton at the side of the large snake. "I just made the corpse vanish as the snake became smaller."
"There was a corpse?" Spica asked.
"To the side." Sara said. "It was Newton. He was killed by a basilisk."
"And then there was the Quidditch incident." Melissa added. "I've never seen Potter so vulnerable until those two weeks. And he TRUSTED you Lily."
Lily was thinking. Maybe she should give Potter another chance.
"I'll tell you what Adolpha." Lily said. "I'll keep an eye on Potter. I won't give him a hard time unless he does it to me."
"All I ask Vixy is don't jump to conclusions." Melissa told her. "Every time he calls you, you say "No" without knowing what he was talking about. Like that time with the test. Just see what he wants before you answer."
TBC