Trapped in Thought
In the morning, James gathered in the Great Hall with his roommates before their first class of the day. Having little time for chatter, they only paused long enough to read a short letter that a tawny owl dropped onto James' plate early in the meal, which explained what had happened after they left the Blacks on Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. According to James' parents, Mrs. Black had left the Potters with one last scathing remark before marching off with Regulus and her husband, but James' father described her manner as "cornered and cowed;" whether accurate or not, the portrayal brought a smile to Sirius' face before the boys left the Great Hall.
On their way to class, James and his roommates met Frank in the corridor and waited for him to fill them in. "I spoke with Professor Slughorn about the incident on the train last night, and he had a talk with Wilkes' gang. I think that they're staying after classes today to clean up the dungeons a little."
After exchanging grins, James, Sirius, and Peter waved goodbye to Remus, who headed down an adjoining hall to Study of Ancient Runes. As the others walked towards the Muggle Studies classroom, James shared a nod with Sirius, and they pulled Peter into an abandoned classroom and shoved the door shut.
"Hey, what's going on?" Peter demanded.
"Have you been practicing Transfiguration over the summer?" James interrogated him, and Peter flushed as he understood the reason for his roommates' sudden need for privacy. Glancing between his feet, he scuffed the ground with his toe.
"Kind of . . ."
"Kind of?" Sirius repeated, and Peter glared at him defiantly.
"I've been reading plenty about it!" he defended. "I just haven't been able to practice, is all. We aren't allowed to use magic outside of school until we're seventeen, you know."
"Did you try nicking your mum's wand?" James asked. "The Ministry won't be able to trace hers."
"She'd kill me if she suspected that I was using her wand!" Peter objected. "I've been lucky enough about the reading. I told my mum that I was studying extra hard for Transfiguration, and she was pleased enough that she didn't think to look at the book titles in detail."
"Then offer to keep the fire going under the pot while she's making supper," James suggested. "It works every time."
"My mum insists on me using magic as little as possible over the summer," Peter mumbled, glancing at his feet. "She says it improves character. Besides, even if she did allow me to use her wand, you know that I'm not as clever with spells as you are."
"That's no excuse not to keep up!" Sirius admonished him. "You need to keep practicing, especially now that we're almost done with the Animagus Potion!"
"You've almost finished it?" Peter asked, his mouth falling open.
"We might be able to start brewing by Christmas," Sirius answered.
"Christmas? Then that's still months away!" Peter sighed in relief, holding his chest.
"It'll be here before you know it," James told him, "and we need to be ready. Animagi in the Making doesn't explain what could happen if your body isn't used to Self-Transfiguration by the time you take the potion, and you don't want to be the first person to find out."
Gulping, Peter allowed Sirius to shove The Home Lives and Social Habits of British Muggles into his arms. "Here, I wrote down a few more spells in the first chapter. Remus will never think of looking in a textbook for a class he doesn't even take!"
Accepting the book with a grimace, Peter shuffled after the others as they exited the classroom and continued up a nearby flight of stairs. Once the boys had reached their destination, Professor Merryweather called the class to order and began her lecture, though James and his friends paid little attention as they perused Sirius' notes on Self-Transfiguration. Because it looked like the three of them were studying the class textbook, Professor Merryweather only thought to interrupt them once.
"So Squibs are different from Muggles in that they are non-magical people born into wizarding families. They're thought of as the antithesis of Muggle-borns, and although the British Ministry does not require them to live apart from wizarding society, Squibs have often faced distrust from the magical communi—Potter! Black! Pettigrew! Stop snickering at the illustrations and pay attention! I'll separate you!"
Excluding the one incident, the lesson passed rather quietly, and the Gryffindors soon left for the Hogwarts grounds, where Professor Sprout would be teaching Herbology in the greenhouses. Joining the Hufflepuff students in their year, James, Sirius, and Peter entered the third greenhouse and found that Remus had not yet arrived. Marion Norfolk, one of the Hufflepuff fifth-years from the previous class, was conversing with Professor Sprout in the front, and most of the other students were fighting yawns as they waited for the lesson to commence. Stopping a few paces inside, James stared at the owl-sized plants settled on the tables inside the greenhouse, their bulbous heads waving back and forth on top of thin stems. If they had not been moving so listlessly, James might have thought them partially sentient.
"Black, you're blocking the doorway," a voice complained, cutting into his thoughts, and James turned around to see Lily Evans attempting to squeeze around Sirius with her friends Alice Newshod and Hillary Vance.
Making no effort to move aside, Sirius crossed his arms and announced, "There's a fee to get in, Evans. One Galleon and a quick peck on the cheek."
Rolling her eyes as Hillary fought back a giggle, Lily shoved him away so as to step inside. "Har, har. You seem to be forgetting that we aren't all as well-off as you."
"Nor anywhere near as attractive, unfortunately," Sirius replied after regaining his footing. "It's my cross to bear." Passing him, Hillary slapped her hand to her mouth to prevent another laugh from escaping.
"Have you heard the good news, Evans?" James cut in, giving the back of Lily's crimson hair a lopsided grin.
"Did you fall off your broomstick?" she inquired in mock hopefulness as she turned about.
"Nah, even better—ol' Snivellus landed in detention, and it's only the first day of school!" James answered. "How's that for a stroke of luck?"
"I'm surprised that you aren't there with him," Lily retorted, narrowing her bright green eyes. "Merlin knows that you must have been involved in whatever happened."
"So you didn't know," James said, crossing his arms with another smile. "Are you turning over a new leaf, perhaps? Vowed to stop associating with confirmed creeps?"
"If I had, we wouldn't be having this conversation, now would we?" she responded, and James felt the corner of his mouth lift as she tossed her hair over her shoulder to face the other way.
"Merlin, I've missed her winning personality," Sirius commented, giving her turned back a grimace.
"Yeah," James agreed before catching himself. Throwing him a quick look, Sirius moved out of the doorway as Remus entered the greenhouse, breathing hard after the long walk.
"Venus Thought-Traps?" he asked aloud upon setting eyes on the potted plants around the room. "I thought that we wouldn't get to those for another year."
Giving the swaying bulbs another sweeping glance, James soon turned his eyes back to Professor Sprout as she shooed Marion away and addressed the class. "All right, students, it's time to begin." As a few of James' classmates began to pull on their gloves, Sprout held up her hand. "Put your gloves away. You won't be needing them."
Exchanging looks, the students obeyed while Sprout directed them to the plants around the room, each person stopping in front of a pot. Picking up one of the ceramic containers, Professor Sprout extended her wrist until it brushed against the plant's thin tendrils inside, which quickly unfurled and wrapped around her arm.
"Pick up your Venus Thought-Traps like shown and allow the vines to touch bare skin. Don't worry, they won't hurt you."
Knowing better than to object despite Herbology's reputation, the students slowly obeyed. Expecting the pot to be heavier, James brought his up a little too suddenly and compensated by lowering the plant to chest-height. Touching his wrist to the plant, he allowed the Thought-Trap to wrap around his arm all the way up to his elbow, its grip hardly more noticeable than the air. The thin vine tickled at his forearm, and he looked back up at Professor Sprout as she called out to the class.
"Venus Thought-Traps are extremely sensitive, so avoid pulling too hard on their tendrils," she warned, and the students all stiffened. Petting her own plant on its crowning bulb, Sprout said, "These plants are, in fact, sensitive in another way, as found out when first discovered by Claudius Gunter in—"
"Is it still okay to breathe?" a raspy voice interrupted, and James whipped his head around just in time to see Peter's Thought-Trap open a seam in its bulbous head and speak again. "Wait, why is everyone staring at me? Do I have something in my—OH!"
Staring down at his plant with wide eyes, Peter let out a shrill shriek as the other plants around the room opened their bulbous heads to laugh derisively at the sight. Shocked, James glanced down at the pot in his hands as the plant inside cackled loudly, many of the other students doing the same. Throughout the room, exclamations of, "Is this plant talking?" and "Whoa, groovy!" echoed from students and Thought-Traps alike while Professor Sprout tried to call order back into the greenhouse.
"Calm down! Things will only get worse if you panic!" she yelled, and the gravelly voices of the plants gradually died down so she could speak at a normal volume. "Venus Thought-Traps can pick up your inner dialogue just by touching your skin, and their rudimentary respiratory system allows them to repeat what they sense. If you refrain from thinking too much, we should be able to carry out a relatively quiet class session."
"That shouldn't be too hard for most people in here," Lily's plant spoke up. As a few of the other Thought-Traps began snickering, James' plant burst into raucous laughter, causing a few of the students to glare in his direction as he reddened and tried to make it quiet down. Eventually, his plant calmed with a few cries of, "Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!" and Sprout cleared her throat after giving James a heavy frown.
"As I was trying to say earlier, Venus Thought-Traps carry a special sort of bond with the first person that they come into contact with, although they will not hesitate to connect with other sentient beings. In fact, a tribe of Red Caps once 'adopted' a garden of Thought-Traps, and they would carry the plants wherever they went. Unfortunately, the tribe died out rather quickly, as the Thought-Traps tended to reveal the Red Caps' locations to nearby predators."
"That's unfortunate," Alice's plant spoke up, and Alice's round face flushed as everyone turned to look at her.
Going on, Sprout said, "Aside from their disabilities regarding concealment, Thought-Traps have several uses when it comes to potioneering. However, the Ministry of Magic has tried to limit their commercial use when their habitat receded to the Cley Marshes and some southeastern regions in the Americas. Their survival is valued for their therapeutic purposes, as many wizards and witches find it useful to hear their thoughts voiced out loud. Can anyone guess as to why Venus Thought-Traps are sometimes preferred to Pensieves?"
Raising his hand awkwardly with his plant's tendrils hugging his arm, James caught Professor Sprout's attention. "Pardon me, Professor," he said, "but if one of us has a question, should we raise our hands or let the Thought-Traps ask for us? Or will they raise a vine if we think of it?"
Although she looked a tad disappointed, Professor Sprout nodded his way. "Raising your hand is fine as long as you don't let go of the pot. Does anyone else have a question?"
"Yeah," Sirius answered, lifting his hand in a similar fashion to James. "If one Thought-Trap grabs another, which will do the speaking?"
"Venus Thought-Traps are not sentient," Sprout responded. "They don't have the ability to think on their own."
"What if you're holding two?" James piped up. "Will they try to yell over each other?"
Nodding, Sirius added, "Suppose that you get a song stuck in your head—"
"Does anyone have a serious question?" Sprout demanded, raising her voice over the chuckling of the scattered plants.
Raising his hand again, Sirius waited until Sprout could no longer ignore him before speaking gravely, "But Professor, all of my questions are."
At this, the room erupted into laughter, and Professor Sprout held her head as students and Thought-Traps alike began to cackle. However, everyone hushed a few moments later and stared at Remus as his Thought-Trap groaned over the commotion.
"I swear, Sirius, say anything else and I'll toss your stash of Cauldron Cakes down Gryffindor Tower again!" Looking between his hands, Remus flushed bright orange as his Thought-Trap continued to speak loudly in the new silence. "Oh, Merlin, they're all staring at me! Wait, how do I make this thing stop talking? Don't think, don't think! Oh no, whatever you do, don't think about—"
Releasing his hold on the plant, Remus stared with wide eyes as the ceramic pot shattered on the floor. Gasping, a few of the closer students jumped back as the writhing plant tumbled free, its thin tendrils pawing the air.
"Oh, Lupin!" Professor Sprout sighed, lifting her eyes to the ceiling as she moved forward to clean up the mess. "The rest of you, take some of the fertilizer on the tables and start feeding your plants. No more than a few pinches at a time, please! Thought-Traps are very delicate!"
Moving away, the students arranged themselves in several oblong ovals around the room, thunking their pots down on the tables in front of them. Following Lily and her roommates to a nearby table, James stood next to them as Remus stayed behind to hover over Professor Sprout. When James set his pot down next to Lily's, the red-head shot him a brief scowl and slid to the side. Moving closer again, James grinned at her.
"Do you have somewhere to go?" he teased just before Sirius slammed his Venus Thought-Trap directly onto his resting hand.
"Oops! Sorry, mate! It slipped!" Sirius apologized when James yelped and wrung his fingers, drawing a smirk from Lily as her roommates giggled. Placing his hands back around his pot as his Thought-Trap rewrapped its tendrils around his arm, Sirius said, "These things really don't have that good of a grip, do they?"
"Watch it next time!" James' Thought-Trap snapped while James sent Sirius a glare to match.
"Let's see what you've got here!" Professor Sprout cut in, approaching their table with Remus, who was holding his newly-potted plant. "Newshod, place your pot on the table, please. Your Thought-Trap is about to fall."
Blushing, Alice quickly slammed her pot onto the wood and hugged it to her midriff, the Thought-Trap promptly returning the gesture. Snickering at the mutual embrace, James and Sirius did their best to muffle their laughter by burying their mouths into their shoulders, and Lily glowered at the two of them before Professor Sprout turned to James.
"Let's see yours, Potter."
Holding his plant out in front of him, James waited while Sprout poked around the base for a moment and then straightened. "Do you see this here?" she pointed out, allowing James and the other students to lean in. "The dirt has been moved recently. That means that your Thought-Trap has been restless. It's good that it has your mind to feed off of now. It needs the mutual bond to thrive."
"Wait, it's feeding off my what?" James' plant spoke up.
"Poor thing, no wonder it's nutrient-deprived," another raspy voice commented, and Lily's Thought-Trap started chuckling as Remus flushed again.
"Nice one, Lupin," Lily's plant said, and Lily and Remus shared a brief smile. Feeling his face grow hot, James interjected by speaking without the aid of his Thought-Trap.
"Don't think too hard, mate," he jibed, and Remus' face fell as he stared down at his plant again.
Noticing nothing, Professor Sprout walked over to the next table. Sirius shot a glare at James and turned his back to him, facing Remus and Peter instead. Although James immediately felt bad, he set his jaw and ignored his roommates for the rest of the class period, which passed in relative silence save for the chatting voices of Lily and Hillary (Alice being too focused on holding her Thought-Trap to talk much). When the lesson finally ended, James deposited his plant at the front of the greenhouse with the rest of the students and felt brave enough to join his roommates again.
"Well, what do you think?" James asked the others, rubbing the back of his neck with a small laugh. "Would you let a Thought-Trap do the talking for you while you slept through class?" They chuckled in response, and James drew himself up with a smile. Lifting the corner of his mouth, Remus shook his head.
"I don't know, it seems a little risky," he answered. "It might start narrating your dreams."
"It might be fun to try at least once," Sirius said. "Potions might become more interesting if a Thought-Trap started snoring in the middle of class."
"Instead of people, you mean?" James joked, and the others laughed on the way out of the greenhouse. Once outside, James considered saying goodbye to Lily and her friends, but he decided that the effort would not be worth it when he and his roommates set off in the other direction.