Chapter 6: Hairy Situations
Lexie slowly began to adapt to living at Hogwarts. Guaranteed there were days when she couldn't get the spell right and she still refused to sit on a broom despite Josef trying to convince her otherwise during the weekly lessons, but Lexie decided she definitely wasn't the worst first year.
Frank Longbottom, the boy she had met on the first day who had been sorted into Hufflepuff was just as bad at charms and Theodore Vaisey was by far the worst potions student to walk the halls. It was small details like those that made Lexie feel much better about her own abilities.
Of course it also helped that she made a point to hunt down her professors after class when she didn't understand a spell so they could explain it again. By now all the professors pretty much expected Lexie to turn up sometime after class begging for help, even on spells she had already mastered.
Lexie kept these secret tutoring sessions to herself figuring they would only lead to embarrassment should the rest of the school find out. She also made sure to do all of her work on time. She had decided that if Dumbledore was going to pay for everything she might as well show him that she was trying her hardest to do well. Lexie had never actually been a good student and when she was staying with Celine she was absent from classes too often to do well, but at Hogwarts her only distractions were four boys who had a knack for pranks.
"Lex come on, you have to admit it is a little funny," Sirius was saying as a green haired Lexie who was pointedly ignoring him and trying to finish her Transfiguration essay instead.
"Lexie, Lex, hey, hellooooo," continued Sirius now poking her arm. Lexie gritted her teeth, she wasn't normally a very short-tempered person, but Hogwarts seem to have uncovered a new side of her personality that had been suppressed for years. Sirius poked her again, this time a little harder.
"Sirius Black I swear if don't leave I'm going to stab you with my quill. You nitwits turned my hair green without bothering to look up the counter curse, is it so hard for me to get some peace now that you've had your fun?"
"Aw come on Lex, it's not too bad," said Sirius trying not to laugh, "Plus you heard Remus, he's in the library with James right now trying to find a way to fix it."
"I don't give a damn!" yelled Lexie losing her patience, "Who the fuck cares, green, orange, whatever, it's just stupid hair, next time make it rainbow colored for all I care. What's bugging me right now is you, can't you see I'm trying to finish an essay here?"
"Wait, so you're not mad that we dyed your hair green?"
"Sirius, last week you and James thought it would be funny to make my eggs explode in my face, the week before that you somehow turned my completed essay into invisible ink causing me to have a momentary freak out, and the week before that you tied my shoelaces together so I tripped in front of everyone at breakfast. So no, I don't really care since you seem to find it greatly entertaining to fuck with me and green hair seems pretty mild compared to your usual. Now that you've gotten your answer would you leave? Now." Lexie answered exasperated, sometimes these boys were more immature than the kids at the orphanage who were half their age.
"Oh come on Lex, that Transfiguration essay isn't even due for another week I don't know why you're even working on it now," countered Sirius.
"SIRIUS BLACK LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE OKAY!" screeched Lexie drawing attention to her table in the common room.
"Okay, okay, I'm leaving. Geez, you sound just like my dear old mum sometimes it's scary," he replied dodging the balled up piece of parchment she had thrown at his head and walking over to the couch by the fire where Peter was currently organizing his chocolate frog card collection.
"Hey Sirius, Lexie send you away again?"
"I don't know what she's so mad about, I was just asking her a question," grumbled Sirius grabbing a stack of Peter's cards and flipping through them.
"Well you did dye her hair green, that might have something to do with it," said Peter.
"You know Pete, that's the funny thing, she wasn't actually upset about her hair. She seems to care more about her essay."
Peter frowned, "Why would she care about that, it's not even due for another week."
"That's exactly what I said! Girls," scoffed Sirius as he watched the redheaded girl who he knew as Lily Evans approach Lexie.
"Hey, I um, couldn't help but overhear that you are working on the Transfiguration essay, mind if I join?" asked the red head timidly as she reached Lexie's corner.
Lexie looked up and smiled, she only knew a little bit about Lily and that was from her dorm and classes, but from what Lexie had gathered, Lily seemed nice enough and diligent with her schoolwork. Lexie shrugged and gestured to an empty chair.
After a few minutes Lily looked at Lexie, her teeth nervously chewing her lower lip, "I couldn't help but overhear, why do you hang out with those boys anyways? They don't seem very nice. I mean your hair is green because of them."
Lexie looked up and then back down at the green hair spilling over her shoulders, "It's not that bad. Who knows, maybe I'll start a trend. As for the boys, they're just that, boys."
"But they're constantly pranking you. You can't honestly call them your friends."
Lexie frowned at Lily's not-so-thrilled attitude towards the four boys who had rapidly become good friends, "No offense, but you hang out with that boy Severus Snape who isn't exactly the most joyful boy in the world, at least my friends know how to have some fun."
"But Sev never pranks me, Lexie he's really nice. I mean you could hang out with us instead, we would never turn your hair green. You shouldn't have to resort to hanging out with them just because they were the first people you met here."
Quickly growing tired of the conversation Lexie replied, her voice tinged with annoyance, "Look, I don't hang out with them because of that and it would be really great if you could stop insulting my friends. I appreciate the offer but I think I'll stick with the friends I've got."
Before Lily could reply, she was interrupted by a gleeful shout as James as he entered the common room followed by Remus.
"Lexie guess what? I found it!"
Lexie turned at her name being called, "Found what James, I'm kind of busy here with my essay."
James looked from her to Lily with a crease between his eyebrows.
"Lexie, why are you sitting with the know-it-all of Hogwarts? You do realize this is the same girl that has to answer every single bloody question in every single class? I mean weren't you saying the other day that you wish she'd shut up so someone else could get some points?"
Lily looked down with a hurt expression on her face while Lexie smacked James in the arm, despite her annoyance with Lily's pestering, she still felt like James' comment had been rude., "James stop being a prick. She's just trying to do her essay too, it's not my fault she has faster hand-raising reflexes than me. Be nice for once."
Lily still hadn't looked up and had taken to starring at the same spot on her essay while picking at her quill, "Lily I really didn't say it like that, I was just a little jealous that you get all the points is all."
Lily shrugged, "It's okay Lexie, thanks for the help. I'll uh see you later, sorry about, well, just sorry," she said grabbing up her essay and her bag and heading up to the girl's dormitory.
"James you ass! See what you did, you hurt her feelings! I didn't say it like that and you know it, sensitive much?"
"Well it's true, you've seen her in class Lexie, she's such a suck-up."
"Oh yes, because flaunting your flying abilities in front of some famous seeker isn't at all the same," snapped Lexie.
James suddenly looked a little hurt, his face turned downward and his shoulders drooped.
Lexie sighed realizing she hadn't exactly been the nicest to Lily either, "Sorry James, I'm just tired. I didn't mean to insult you and to be honest my conversation with Lily wasn't going great either. What did you find?"
James grinned forgetting Lexie's low blow, "I found the spell to make your hair normal again. Admit it Lexie, I'm bloody amazing."
Lexie growled looking annoyed, "Well if you and Sirius hadn't dyed it green in the first place I wouldn't need a bloody reversal spell would I?"
"Okay, well you have a point. Come on Lexie, it's not that bad."
Lexie smiled, "No James, it's not. I'm not mad about my hair. Although it would be nice for it not to resemble seaweed… About Lily, you should try to be a little nicer. I mean she likes to nag a little, but I don't think she means to."
James scoffed, "Well being a know-it-all teacher's pet isn't exactly going to make me like her is it? Plus, she sticks up for Snape, the greasy git" he finished with disgust.
Lexie sighed. She wasn't exactly a fan of Severus either or Lily's teacher's pet attitude either, but she also knew what it felt like to be an outsider. Clearly James' perspective of Lily wasn't going to be changed anytime soon and she decided to drop the topic, "Okay, so what did you find?"
James frowned, "About what?"
"The spell James, the spell. Make my hair normal again."
"Oh right!" James took out his wand and pointed it at Lexie's head "Avehochromo"
James frowned and Lexie reached her hand up and pulled some of her hair in front of her face, "James, why is my hair still green?"
"Uh, I uh, I'm not sure" he stuttered.
Remus who had remained behind James completely silent finally spoke up, "It's because James didn't flick his wand, here," he said repeating James' words but adding a flick at the end of the spell."
Lexie grinned when her hair returned to its dark brown color. "Thanks Remie."
"Show off," muttered James with a scowl.
"Oi, why aren't you getting mad at them for interrupting your studies?" yelled Sirius across the common room.
Lexie grinned in Sirius' direction "Because unlike you Mr. Black they turned my hair normal again." Lexie was suddenly inspired by her previous conversation with Sirius and her mouth twitched, "Well, now that my hair is normal again, I guess I better get going to bed. You know, I'm awfully tired."
"Lex it's not even nine, how could you possibly be tired?"
Remus seemed to be the only one to catch the evil smile slowly making its way across her face and watched warily as she gathered up her things.
"Oh, just had a long, rough day you know, things just seem so much more exhausting when your hair is green," she replied making her way towards the girls staircase. As Lexie reached the stairs her maniacal grin was now on full display. Before Sirius could even contemplate the reason for the smirk plastered across her face, Lexie had drawn her wand and yelled "Chromopluribus!" and had disappeared up the stairs before Sirius even felt a slight breeze lift his hair.
James, Remus, and Peter took one look at Sirius and broke out in obnoxious laughter. "What? What did she do?" asked Sirius feeling his face for deformities.
"I'll give her one thing, she's way more creative than you two were with the color change spell," mused Remus trying to contain his amusement.
Sirius frantically reached up to his hair relieved that it was at least still there, but it was too short for him to see it, "Seriously, what did she do?" he asked panicked.
The other three broke out into more laughs and fearing the worst Sirius announced to the common room, "Who has a mirror? Give me a mirror anyone!"
The whole room turned to look at him and immediately began laughing with the three boys, mortified Sirius saw a girl across the room fixing her makeup and dashed across the room grabbing it from her hands ignoring her cry of outrage.
His jaw dropped when he looked into it noticing that his previously black locks had been turned into a shimmering rainbow. Inwardly Sirius was impressed with Lexie's revenge, but he wasn't about to let everyone know a girl had impressed him and instead yelled up the girl's staircase, "LEXIE HALL DON'T THINK I WON'T GET YOU BACK FOR THIS! YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR BACK TOMORROW!"
All he heard in reply was Lexie's sweet laughter echoing down the stairs joining the laughter still bouncing off the walls of the common room while Sirius continued to scowl into the mirror.