Chapter 17: Black Cats
"Stop trying. I'm not getting up Annie, not until I have a Diet Coke." Jamie grumbled from beneath her blankets on the floor. Annie stood above her, fully dressed in jeans and a dark blue sweater, frowning. "I'm not kidding, this chick isn't moving her butt anywhere without by Coke." Jamie stated like a holy testament.
"Jamie, you're out of Coke."
"I don't believe it, I can't be." Jamie said, as if uttering the impossible. Lizz came and stood next to Annie after going through Jamie's trunk in search of a stray can.
"If you'd saved a can we might have been able to replicate it or something, Stupid." Lizz said.
"Shut-up" was Jamie's sole reply. Lizz harrumphed, but then James walked up. Lizz turned to him with a smile.
"Hey James, can you help us?" she said.
"With what Lizz-beth?" James replied, walking over. He dropped an arm over Lizz's shoulders. The portal grated as it opened and they waved at Remus, who had just come through the portal. Remus's dark blue robes were splattered with mud from working in Hagrid's garden, but his smile was cheerful.
"Jamie refuses to move unless she has a Diet Coke!" Annie was exasperated, they were causing a scene. After all, she was sleeping on the floor in the middle of the common room at one in the afternoon. For crying out loud she was their prefect.
"Really?" Remus asked. He came and sat on his haunches next to Jamie.
"Really." Jamie's voice asserted from below. She yawned and snuggled deeper into the rug.
"Hey James, wouldn't Drenk be of some help?" Remus said, getting up and putting a hand on James's shoulder conspiratorially.
"Yah, except we'd have to bring her to him." James replied just as cryptically. In response, Jamie clutched the rug she sprawled across desperately and growled. Remus chuckled at the blonde.
"I'm assuming that's a negative. We could always bring him up here, but we'd have to clear the common room, you know how he is around crowds." Remus said, his eyes twinkling with the well known Marauder mischief.
"I'm thinking we implement the maneuver we finished last weekend." Sirius said suddenly, making Lizz and Annie jump in surprise at his sudden arrival. "It'd clear the room."
"A maneuver? If you mean a prank, you can't. Remember our little dare last night Potter?" Annie said smugly. James groaned as his day grew suddenly bleaker by the prospect of two whole prank-free weeks. Sirius patted him on the shoulder in mock sympathy.
"It's okay Jamesie, me and Moons can handle it." Sirius said. On the floor, Jamie was wondering if they just wanted to prank someone, or actually get her up off the floor. It didn't really matter; she was just being stubborn. If they left her alone for five minutes she'd get up on her own. But, hey, if she was going to get a free Coke out of this than she had no problem playing along, and she was really comfortable in her nest of blankets anyway. On the other hand, Moons?
"Ready Sirius?"
"Yep, on the count of three?"
"One, Two… Three!" Sirius and Remus's wands produced a noxious purple fog. It creeped along the floor and around the feet of students not behind the basic shield Annie and James rapidly created. The fog creeped up, amid alarmed yells and screams, wrapping it's victims in a purple sheath, and then all at once everything stopped. People were still yelling, but it seemed different to the ones unaffected by the prank. As the fog cleared, Annie laughed loudly to see the sixth year from last night trying to deal with the fact that he now had boobs and no bra. Jamie was snickering quietly under her blanket as she noticed the changes as well. Lizz just looked shocked. The Marauders, however, were just high, simply high off their mischief. Even Remus was smiling, even if "he really did disapprove" (though I think he just says that out of habit).
Yet, despite the horrendously terrible fact that each person was dealing with a sudden sex change, there still wasn't a mass exodus as had been planned. After everyone had stopped yelling things like "Merlin's beard" or "Umm, my pants feel a little tight", the guys to girls were being crude, the girls to boys were traveling in insecure packs, trying not to cause too much attention as they discarded bras they didn't need anymore. Several had gone screaming down the halls, but they were the fidgety quiet types and that was expected of them. Jamie was laughing harder, now haven given up all pretense of pretending to sleep, and James was turning red in anger at a "failed prank" that they had worked on all summer to complete.
Jamie finally gained control of herself and stood up, realizing on cue she should do something responsible right about now. Pulling her blanket regally around her like a queen, and clearing her throat, she shouted. "Excuse me; I would like to know who cast that spell, right now!" (in a voice eerily like McGonagall's).
"Well that's obvious isn't it? Those bloody idiots are always doing pranks like this!" A girl(?) squeaked indignantly. "Anyway, they're the only ones who didn't change!"
"Oh, is it possible that you're talking about my fellow prefect? Is it possible that someone who wasn't bloody stupid managed to put up a basic shield? And is it possible that the reason Lupin and myself are prefects is because we're not bloody stupid?" Jamie demanded, while staring the girl named Jake down. "Now all of you to the infirmary, see if you can get and anti-curse. MARCH!" she yelled.
"Seriously Jamie, you sound like your mom." Lizz said with a malicious smile. James, who still had his arm around her, tried to hid a laugh in his free hand.
"Shut it, I'm getting dressed and then I'm getting a Diet Coke, right?" James nodded quickly despite himself. "Thank you, dearie." The moment of quiet hung for a second in the air, but popped like a great silvery bubble. Jamie's motherly demeanor broke and they all laughed at the prank, even if it didn't cause as much distress as planned. Jamie slowly began climbing up the stairs to her dorm, still laughing. She paused and looked back down at the chuckling group for a long second. Remus looked up at that exact moment and their eyes met. His eyes, which were always so readable, looked up at her with simplistic joy, but some melancholic part of Jamie's heart told her that the joy easily seen before her was a rare sight in Remus Lupin. With a sweep, she turned back up the stairs, not willing to listen to the depressing voices in her head. She had been lending an ear to them too much lately.
She descended later in purple robes with silver embroidery and a low v-cut white ruffle shirt. A froth of even more white ruffles spilled from the sleeves. She smiled at the glances the Marauder's gave her strange period outfit, and smiled wider at Lizz's eyes rolling. She flipped her newly combed hair over her shoulder and asked, "So where's my Diet Coke?"
"We have to take you down to the kitchens and have you meet our friend Drenk." Remus said.
"Drenk?
"Just come on." Remus said, pulling her out of the portal. James smiled at Lizz and led her after them. Sirius, Annie, and Peter trailed behind, talking about pranks mechanics.
------))))))))
The house elf was relatively young, considering they lived up to two hundred years, and was very happy to help the masters and mistresses. Abnormally big blue eyes peered at them questioningly from beneath a large forehead bare of any hair. Jamie smiled down at the strangely shaped elf.
"Actually Drenk, can you please perform the trick you showed us last week?" Remus asked.
"Yes, Yes, if you would please bend down Master Lupin." Drenk replied, holding his hands out expectantly.
"No, Drenk it's actually Miss Bilden over here that needs it," Remus said, pulling her down with him to Drenk's height. Jamie looked confused and wary, her eyes darting between Remus and Drenk. "And could you please explain what it is you're going to do, so she stops looking at me so suspiciously." Remus continued, giving Jamie his little smile.
Jamie sneered and said, "I told you to call me Jamie."
"Okay, Jamie will you stop looking at me like-"
"Mistress Bilden what I do is make real what it is you desire, in terms of food or drink." Drenk said despite their arguing.
"Really?" Jamie said, turning back to Drenk. Behind her some of the other house elves were piling a side table with sweets and pumpkin juice.
"Yes, so if you could please sit very still and imagine what it is you want, I can make it real." Drenk replied. Jamie kneeled before the diminutive elf and closed her eyes. The elf placed his fingertips gently on her temples. Against her skin they felt cool and warm all at once. Jamie obediently thought of her Diet Coke, fizzing and cool with ice floating in it, fresh from the 7-11 (oh thank heaven!). She imagined the feel of the watery liquid going down her throat, tickling her stomach with its fizzy bubbles. She could almost taste it, the carmely, cold, and artificial tastes that made up her favorite drink.
Jamie yelped in surprise as a cold cup popped into her hands. The condensation of the 7-11 cup made her hands wet, but Jamie pulled the straw to her lips and, like a kiss, wrapped her lips around it. She sipped, she sipped again and she smiled blissfully. Remus chuckled at her antics.
"Thank you Drenk." She said simply, sucking on the straw again.
"Cool," Lizz said, walking over from the table where the kitchen elves had set up way too much food.
"Ahh, heaven in a cup." Jamie said too happily. Lizz snorted.
"I had missed the kind from the fountain." Jamie said.
"Mistress Bilden, if you wish I can make more." Drenk said.
"Really?"
"Yes, when would you want one?"
"Um, right when I wake up. Should I…" The elf merely nodded and went back to the long cutting tables with the other army of house elves. Jamie looked at Remus questioningly but he simply gave her the most ambiguous face he could muster.
----))))
'Dinner':
"Hey Jordan, come here and do something for me." Annie called, just outside the Dining Hall. The second year trotted over nervously, mainly because one of the popular American girls had just talked to him. "Now if you could please read this for me while I hold my wand right here."
"ATTENTION HOGWARTS STUDENTS. DUE TO UNNAMABLE AND HILARIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, JAMES POTTER WILL BE UNABLE TO PRANK ANYONE FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS. CERTAIN PEOPLE SUGGEST YOU USE YOUR TIME WISELY." The hall was silent after the loud announcement from nowhere. Annie walked into the hall slowly, looking as surprised as the teachers at the head table. She walked all the way down to the bench and sat down right next to Jamie before exactly thirty seven different curses and hexes hit James.
He was rushed to the infirmary. He was followed by friends who had been also cursed (by people with bad aim). He was followed by friends that were laughing so hard their stomachs ached. Amid laughter, they had to deflect ten more curses on their way. When they finally reached the infirmary they had to take stomachache pills, and at least half the staff was present to help unwind the magic on Potter (who really didn't look human at the moment) and to delight in the payback taken upon the worst class clown in all of history, except maybe Sirius Black.
Annie's face was a touch flushed the whole time, maybe in fear of being caught, maybe just because it gave her an unexpected thrill. But she thought smugly to herself, as Professor Flitwick cursed for the third time, that taking acting classes did have a real world application.
Monday morning was bright and sunny, a rare last glimpse of summer before the British Isles succumbed to the long winter months. Jamie woke up late, with a sleepy smile, and was overjoyed to find a cold cup of Diet Coke waiting for her on her bedside table. Remus had woken up early and told Annie to let her sleep, saying he could take care of their prefect duties.
At breakfast, she and Remus both propped their books against milk jugs and read through their bacon and eggs.
"Good Morning Lupin, Bilden." Remus and Jamie smiled at their astronomy teacher, Prof. Knightly. The tall, salt and pepper haired amn turned to Remus specifically. "Mr. Lupin, would you do me a favor and come to my class a few minutes early, there's something I'd like to ask you."
"Oh, well if it's alright, I can come now. I've finished my breakfast."
"Wonderful!"
"I'll see you chaps later then, and I'll see you in class Bilden." Remus said and moved to get up.
"I said to call me Jamie." She said, turning hard to reprimand him. Remus's leg banged painfully against the bench and he almost lost his balance, but he caught himself by putting a hand on Jamie's back. He extracted himself from the table and with a wave, left. Jamie didn't wave back or watch him leave. Her heart was beating triple fast from the charged feeling of his hand on her back. The spot where he had simply touched her felt so warm from his touch that Jamie wanted to scratch it off. A blush was creeping up her neck. Feeling uncomfortable, she closed her book, said "later", and left the Dining Hall.
It really was unfair, she thought indignantly as she walked up the stairs to the Astronomy tower. Here she was, trying to be the faithful girlfriend, and she got this dizzy feeling just from one touch. Unknowingly, Mr. Remus Lupin had gone and sent a little shock through her that she didn't like at all, not one bit. Maybe it was because she wasn't being kissed, she definitely missed the kissing. Then again, she was easily distracted by good looking guys, or just men in general. Remus wasn't model handsome, but god he had that look that just made her heart skip a beat. Her heart, usually stone, or the appearance of it, was not so unstable.
She decided to put it out of mind, thinking about it would only be turning a mountain out a molehill. Besides, it was Remus, the quiet one, the nice one, the smart one, the funny one, not…
"I just wanted to make sure you knew, for whatever reason." Jamie heard Professor Knightly say from behind the door. She froze at the top of the landing, trying to calm her heavy breathing from the steep climb. There was a clink of china and a floorboard ceaked as someone crossed the room towards the door. She held her breath.
"Thanks, I do appreciate it. You'll be starting the lesson today?" Remus's voice replied from behind the heavy oak door.
"Yes. I..." Jamie didn't let herself hear anymore. She went back down about half a dozen steps and made a bunch of noise. She clopped loudly with her boots, and cursed the stairs for being so numerous.
"Bloody stairs! I mean really, gasp you'd think they'd make this a bit easier. Lord above!" She gasped again rather loudly.
"Miss Bilden you should watch your language." Professor Knightly said with a wink from his door. Jamie looked up at the professor and gave him a winning smile.
"Who me? Why, I don't have any idea what you are talking about!" Jamie said innocently. She walked past him into the room. Remus was sitting on the other end of Professor Knightly's desk, sipping a cup of tea quietly. He didn't look up as she came in.
"And how are the British stars Miss Bilden?" Professor Knightly asked, as he did every time she came into class since the first time they had done a midnight study.
"The most beautiful this Yankee girl has ever set her eyes on Professor." Jamie replied in turn. She looked at the chalkboard at the front of the class where Professor Knightly had drawn some diagrams of the moon in orbit and its phases. "Are we starting on the moon today?"
"Yes, before I teach you more about other planet's moons, I thought you should know more about ours."
"This is terrific, I love the moon!" Professor Knightly chuckled warmly at her enthusiasm.
"Really"
"Yah," Jamie paused a second, "I don't know why, but I always have. Whenever I'm stressed out or tired or emotional, I would look up at the moon and it would fill me with this calmness and strength. It was like it was filling me with moonlight, bright and soft and sharp all at once." She looked up at the ceiling as if she could see it hiding in the rafters, and her voice grew so quiet that they strained to hear her, "Sometimes I even talk to it, like it's a friend I haven't seen in forever. I just… just feel this familiarity with it." Jamie blinked, as if coming out of a daydream. "I'm sorry, I'm not making any sense." She coughed nervously in the awkward quiet.
"No, no," Professor Knightly assured her, stroking his goatee, "It made its own sense. Would you excuse me a moment?" He turned away and walked through the door that led into his quarters. Jamie smiled warmly at his retreating back, and turned to look at Remus.
His grey eyes were full of all the pain in the world. So much pain, there should be an open cut over his heart to show the world the depth of it. The pain and sorrow she saw brought her breathing to a trembling halt. Depths of pain and hurt she couldn't even and didn't want to fathom were there in his eyes, as if there was a hidden black hole she hadn't noticed. Remus smiled, and it hid the pain, but his eyes still brimmed with sadness. In her heart, part of Jamie wanted to run like hell, while another wanted to vanquish the source of his pain for him, and another wanted to simply hug him and tell him she was there.
Jamie walked over to Remus and hugged him tightly. He chuckled morosely in her ear. "What's this for?" he asked softly.
"For letting me sleep in today, Annie told me after you left, I forgot that we had prefect duties Monday morning." She lied.
"You're welcome." He whispered. He hugged her back for a second before she let go. They broke apart. It was silent, so quiet as they simply looked at each other, taking in everything, searching each other's faces, or just taking in one another. A bird chirped loudly and they began idly discussing who would take Patricia Wood's place as captain of the Quidditch team since she had transferred to Beauzbaton's.
Quite a few floors down James Potter was almost late to Care of Magical Creatures. He climbed down one of the turning staircases, turned and began down another one. "Mischief Managed." He whispered to the now blank parchment in his hands. He began carefully placing the parchment in his bag while stepping out onto a landing. He lifted his other foot, only to find that he had just stepped off the moving staircase onto thin air.
Paintings whistled past as he fell down the hall, missing all the other turning staircases that might have broken his fall, and for James Potter time slowed. He couldn't help but think it wasn't right that it was going to end like this, he still had so much to do. He would have used his four years of magical training to save himself, but his wand was back up on the staircase where he had dropped it in surprise. The stone floor was coming up to meet him quickly, this entire thing happening in matter of seconds.
Just before he kissed pavement, his body was lifted back up, like he'd reached the end of a bungee cord. The movement wasn't a smooth arc up though, he was spiraling dangerously, barely missing a stone outcrop by inches. Annie Martin slowly came into view, holding her wand out to him. As she drew him closer to her ledge, James could see her hands were shaking and there was sweat on her brow. She dropped him still a few feet up and he landed painfully on his knees.
Annie's wand dropped from her weak hand and she slumped to her knees. She was breathing hard and close to passing out. It had taken so much magic to lift him, and from so far away too! Bile rose in the back of her throat, and the edges of her visions where slowly blurring like a bad kaleidoscope. She was definitely going to pass out. She felt herself being drawn to another body. Strong arms wrapped around her, steadying her.
"Thank you." James's shaky voice said in her ear. Annie's vision slowly cleared and she pushed away from him. He held her hands though. She didn't protest. Her energy was returning as it should after a spell was concluded. She looked up shamefully at James, and not one to cause other people other trouble, she tried to stand. James had to help her.
"I'm sorry" She said miserably.
"Are you daft!" James boomed. "You saved my hide, and you're saying sorry!" he shook his head in disbelief.
"It was nothing, just a little energy consuming." Annie slowly picked up her wand and her bag, making to head for class. She didn't see the look James gave her, but then he grabbed her hand again.
"Are you really going to leave? Just like that, after saving my bloody life, like we're strangers or something?"
"I'll be late to Runes Potter." James grabbed her chin so she'd look him in the face. She'd been examining the floor and hiding an embarrassed blush, but now she was under his scrutiny it bloomed over her neck and chest as well. "Annie, thank you." She could see the scare the fall had given him, so strange in someone who was always confident in all he did. Annie nodded and looked away again. His large rough hands held her smaller paler ones for a moment longer, and his mouth opening and closing as if looking for words that refused to form. Finally he reached some decision within himself and released her.
"Hurry up, you'll be late to your class," he said with a condemning smile.
Annie began to walk away, but turned around before turning the corner and teasingly called out, "Am I still a hypocrite?" She saw his goofy smile, a match to the messy hair and askew glasses, and then continued onto Runes. She had to stop for breath more than once.
James stood still for a minute watching her leave. He shook his head and smiled again as he picked up his own bag. Really she was hopeless!
Annie and Lizz came in from their extra credit potions lab, to find Jamie crying silently on her bed. They tried to comfort her by hugging her and asking her what was wrong. At least she wasn't wailing but tears still ran down her red face.
"I… I don't deserve…" Jamie sniffled. Annie handed her a box of tissues.
"What? Don't deserve what?" Lizz demanded. She had become truly worried at the sight of tears.
"I don't deserve him, why doesn't he find himself a better girlfriend!" Jamie smiled at them through her tears and pointed to a basket they hadn't noticed in the corner, where a velvety black kitten was sleeping. "Look what that goober of a boyfriend sent me! Not to mention a seven page letter! God, he wrote me poems! Good poems! He never writes good poems!" Jamie laughed weakly.
"You do deserve him. He doesn't deserve you that's the problem." Annie said as she removed the Kleenex.
"You know, if you think he should find a better girlfriend, I'll always take him off your hands" Lizz said. Jamie punched her on the arm. Lizz just smiled and hugged her.
"Thanks." She said with a shaky smile. They smiled back in relief.
"God you scared us, we've never seen you cry." Lizz said. Annie got up off the bed and brought the black kitten over.
Jamie shrugged and wiped at her puffy red eyes. "As you can see, I'm not a pretty crier. Oh hello little tom." Jamie said, picking up the black kitten. "You're so pretty, but whatever shall we name you?"
A note; in the wizarding world, black cats aren't unlucky like the Muggle world. That's right, you guessed it. They're a prized breed because not only are they considered lucky, but are born with an innate intelligence and are supervious to most spells. The particular black cat that Ryan sent Jamie is a special Teleran breed that costs about a thousand dollars a head. Now, don't freak because Ryan gets about five thousand dollars a month as allowance (his parents don't want to spoil him). Jamie knows about the breed, but she doesn't want to mention it to her single friends.
"Oh, I know the perfect name. We'll call you Fitzwilliam Darcy, after our favorite prideful character." Jamie buried her sore eyes in the soft fur, and the cat purred happily.
"Now he's got like four hundred nicknames too." Annie said. "Brilliant name choice though, if unoriginal." Jamie smiled and shrugged, returning to Darcy.
"A girl and her cat" Lizz remarked, reaching out to stroke Darcy's ears. Darcy purred against all their hands, working his ultimate good looks to his advantage.
"So…. Poems?" Lizz said later on.
"Yah, and- ah Crivens! I almost forgot to tell you! He's coming here!"
"WHAT?" they said together.
"I know! Ryan is coming to and bringing our costumes for the Halloween Masquerade and staying until Christmas break, he's even gotten classes all figured out!"
"Seriously?" Annie said.
"Cross my heart and hope to die!" Jamie cried joyfully. "I can't wait till he gets here! I'll wring his neck for sending me so much stuff!" Darcy meowed loudly. "Oops, let's get you something to eat Darce, you must be hungry." Annie and Lizz teased their mercurial friend as accompanied her to the kitchens.
Lizz took in the look in Jamie's eyes as she shared one of Ryan's less embarrassing poems with them. She had never wanted a boyfriend so terribly bad as she did now. She wanted someone who could make her eyes shine like her friend's.
She remembered the surprise she had felt when James had dropped an arm on her shoulder, the feel of possession. Lizz smiled to herself, now what would Sirius think of her denying him for his best friend?