I am so sorry about the delay in this chapter! I honestly am. School just caught up with me and it didn't help that I had writer's block trying to write this. Obviously I overcame that, but that's why it took so long to get out. Sorry again to anyone who has been waiting patiently for this new chapter.
Just in case: Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. The only thing I own are the characters you don't recognize from the story.
"Lily," Alice drawled slowly, "I'm bored!" she whined.
The said red hair girl huffed and blew some of her face. She shrugged and continued to braid Ursula's thick hair into a French brain while bobbing to the music of a magically charmed radio that played all the popular wizard music.
"That's not my problem sweetheart. We have to wait for Marls before we exchange gifts."
Alice pouted, "But she'll take forever! I cannot stand it!" She flung herself dramatically on the bed and pulled her blankets over her head, fake sobbing.
"Yeh kin go through me clothes if yeh want while yeh wait," Elyse suggested.
Alice sprang up from the bed with a gleeful laugh and started going through all the muggle clothes that Elyse brought with her. By the time Marlene got out of the shower, Alice was no longer wearing her Gryffindor robes. She was wearing Elyse's bright, yellow, oversized shirt, Lily's neon green tights, Ursula's Slytherin green boots, Marlene's woven belt, and she was wearing her own heavy necklaces. Marlene looked at her in shock for a moment before she turned towards Lily and Ursula on the bed,
"What the hell happened to her?"
"She went through our clothes."
"Ah." That was all that needed to be said. Marlene walked over to her bed and grabbed her wand from the nightstand and quickly dried her hair. She then walked to the end of her bed and knelt down in front of her trunk. She dug around until she pulled out a rectangular package.
"Are we going to exchange gifts now?"
Elyse was about to answer when Ursula piped up, "Hell no! It's not even past curfew yet! Let's go maraudering around a bit before we exchange gifts."
While the rest of the girls seemed completely enamored by the idea, Lily bit her lip nervously.
"I don't know…I don't want to get in trouble."
Ursula snorted, "Lils, you don't have to worry. Even if we did get caught – which we won't – the teachers here love you; they would let you off in a heartbeat."
Lily still looked hesitant. Marlene, sensing her friend's doubt, taunted her, "That is unless you're scared."
"Let's go."
Twenty minutes later, their gifts shrunken and in their pockets, the girls were wandering near the elevated corridor. There was nothing much going on that night. It was cold but Lily, the charms prodigy, put warming charms on all their robes.
"We should play a game." Alice suggested while twirling down the hall.
"What do you suggest?" Lily asked, snuggling her chin into her Gryffindor scarf.
Alice's blue eyes sparkled as she explained her idea to the rest of them, "Instead of never-have- I- ever, it's never-will- I ever. If someone plans on doing what someone doesn't plan on doing, they have to…" Alice trailed off looking around the empty corridor trying to think of something that would make it interesting.
"How bout," Marlene suggested, "every time we would do something, we put one finger down. The first person to lose all their fingers has to go up to… steal a pair of Frank Longbottom's underwear."
Alice turned bright red while Lily looked absolutely horrified. Ursula and Elyse smirked at the challenge and mentally stored that idea away for another time.
To everyone's complete and utter surprise, Lily spoke, "Fine. I'll start. Never will I ever fail a class."
Marlene laughed and put one of her fingers down. Ursula shoved her on the shoulder, "What're you going to fail?"
"History of Magic. I've never been able to stay awake through a whole class."
The group laughed at the truth of that statement. No one except Lily was able to stay awake, let alone actually pay attention in that class. It was not just laziness on their part; it was a law of Hogwarts; if one takes History of Magic, they will fall asleep. It follows Hogwarts Logic.
"I've goot un," Elyse said with a smirk on her face, "Neva will I eva not get detention."
All but Ursula put a finger down. Ursula rolled her eyes, "Live a little, yeesh. Anyway, my turn. Never will I ever…" she held out the 'ever' for seemingly ever before she said, "become a prefect."
Only Lily put down her finger.
The game continued like that for a while. The girls were getting more and more outlandish, such as "Never will I ever dance with the Giant Squid" or "Never will I ever dance with Minnie." Some of them were targeted at certain people "Never will I ever prank the Slytherins". That one was quickly followed by, "Never will I ever date/kiss/shag a Slytherin."
The last one had Lily redder than the Gryffindor crest on her robes. In response she shouted back, "NEVER WILL I EVER MARRY JAMES POTTER!"
"Famous last words, don't you think Ali?" Marlene asked, nudging shoulders with the girl.
Alice smirked and nodded solemnly, "They could have beautiful little babies. Oh well, I guess that leaves James for Ursula."
"What!" Ursula exclaimed in shock. The rest of them burst out laughing and when Ursula realized they had just been messing with her, she joined them.
They were roaring with laughter at her reaction, holding onto each other and the walls to support each other when they heard it. It was a faint sound, something they wouldn't have picked up on but since the hallway was mostly empty it echoed. They all froze midstep and waited to listen to the mysterious sound again. It came a few seconds later.
There was someone softly crying around the corner, someone who didn't want to be found.
"It's okay Mar. Just ignore them," a soft voice comforted over the muffled sobs.
Ursula and Elyse shared a look between them before they looked around the corner. There were two small girls, one sitting on the ground with her head buried in her arms with her knees pulled up to her chest while her shoulders shook with sobs and the other girl was crouched next to her, rubbing the sobbing girl's shoulder. The two girls were familiar to the second year Gryffindor girls and not without reason. The two girls had Gryffindor crests on their robes and Ursula vaguely remembered them being sorted earlier that year.
"What's wrong sweetheart?" Lily asked, crouching down on the other side of the sobbing girl.
The girl jumped back in fright and the friend yelped in shock.
"Sorry," Lily immediately apologized. "I don't know if you know me but my name is-"
She was cut off by the girl standing up, "Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, Alice Creevey, Elyse O'Brian, and Ursula Black," she said, looking at each girl as she said their name. The mysterious first year smiled at their shocked faces, "Don't look so surprised. My aunt talks about you all the time."
There was something familiar about her eyes, Ursula realized. Lily laughed and Ursula saw recognition in her green eyes. Alice and Marlene also seemed to recognize the two girls. Thankfully, Elyse seemed just as confused as she was.
The girl picked up on the confusion and introduced herself and her friends, "That's Mary McDonald and I'm Moira McGonagall."
It clicked in Ursula's mind when she said her last name. She remembered hearing that Minnie's niece was starting this year. They family resemblance; they had similar eyes. Ursula nodded in recognition,
"I remember now. What happened to Mary?" Ursula asked, wondering what was wrong with the still sobbing girl.
A dark look came over Moira's face and her fists clenched tightly together. "We were minding out own business, you know? Just catching up after the holidays and stuff. All of a sudden these third year Slytherins come up and start calling Mary these horrible things because she is muggleborn. What they said was really cruel and I tried to hex them but they disappeared before I could get them."
Anger flashed in all the girls' eyes. No one talked to their house members like that. Ursula took a deep breath, though, and surprised everyone when she knelt down next to Mary.
"Mary," Ursula began softly, "you need to ignore those stupid buffoons. They don't deserve to be in your presence okay?"
Mary just shook her head and cried a little louder. Ursula reached over and grabbed Mary's shoulder tightly, "No, you listen to me McDonald. From what I've heard you're a brilliant witch and you shouldn't let those little toe rags tell you anything else. You're worth ten Snapes, twenty Goyles, and a billion and a half Carrows. You're a Gryffindor!" She asserted strongly, "You're stronger and better than them!"
Mary looked up and smiled shakily. "You really think?" she asked shyly.
Alice spoke up from behind Ursula, "She doesn't just think that, we all do."
Mary smiled broadly at that and wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her robes. She laughed a few short, distinct chuckles, "I probably look a right mess right now."
Laughter traveled around the group while Moira helped her friend stand up. "We could say you don't but I must never tell lies." Moira joked. "Aunt Minerva would have my head."
The mental image of the strict Transfiguration professor carrying Moira's head on a plate made a comical mental image. Conflict avoided, all the girls worked their way to Gryffindor Tower joking and laughing with each other. The second year girls dropped off Moira and Mary in their dorm before Ursula led them up to the balcony Annabelle brought her to at the end of the last school year.
"Wow. This is beautiful," Lily said in awe as she looked over the Hogwarts grounds under the moon's mystical powers. Everything seemed to carry extra magic to it. The stars above them twinkled down at them. It was almost a better view than the Great Hall ceiling. Lily, Alice, and Marlene had never seen anything so beautiful.
"I wish we could just sleep up here," Alice said wistfully.
Ursula smirked and grabbed the bag from her shoulder, "We can."
She put the bag down on the ground and started to pull out five sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows. Their jaws just about dropped to the ground. The more Ursula pulled out, the farther down their jaws went. When she was done she looked up at their reaction and started to laugh and explain at the same time,
"Ben got me and Sirius undetectable expansion charmed bags for our birthday. Do you know you can fit a living person in one? Sirius said it was as uncomfortable as hell though. Now come on! Let's exchange gifts before we fall asleep."
She pulled another object out her bag. The rest of them followed suit and pulled their gifts out of their pockets and enlarged them. The next few minutes was a mass exchange. When they finished, they agreed that Marlene would go first. Elyse was the one that got her the gift.
Marlene's face brightened when she saw the eight muggle fashion magazines she was now in possession of.
"Wicked! Thanks Elyse, this is amazing – what the heck is this?" She held up a cube with sides that were three by three and had different color faces.
Lily laughed when she recognized the little cube. "That's a Rubik's Cube!"
"A what's whose?" Alice asked while she moved closer to look at the weird little toy. Elyse and Lily quickly explained the concept behind the cube and by the end; Marlene was excited to get started. She claimed that now she had something interesting to do during History of Magic. Lily gave her a cross look but that look was gone quickly when Lily realized that Marlene bought her a new edition of Hogwarts: A History because her old, second hand copy had fallen apart over the summer.
Ursula was next. She looked at the semi-tall, slightly slim package that Lily had given her. She tore apart the wrapping paper and pulled the object out of the plain cardboard box. Her smile wavered a moment as she looked at the…thing in front of her. It was weirdly shaped and it had a bunch of weird stuff at the top of a frosty white that looked weird.
"Thanks Lils. I love it," she said non convincingly.
Lily smiled knowingly, "You have no idea what it is do you?"
"No clue." She admitted immediately.
"It's a lava lamp. It doesn't really do anything but when I saw the black one I thought instantly of you. Professor Flitwick had to help me charm it to work without electricity." Lily said as she got out her wand. She tapped the top of the lamp and all of a sudden it gave off a soft glow and the black goo started to move around creating undefined shapes, splitting, combining, and going every direction imaginable.
"Merlin's beard, that's wicked," Ursula breathed out in awe of her hypnotizing new gift. "Thank you so much Lily, I love it."
Lily blushed red a little.
Elyse opened her gift next from Alice. It was a beautifully embroidered crimson and gold photo album. On the cover it had in gold leaf calligraphy, "Hogwarts 1971-1978" at the top, above a small opening to put a cover picture, and at the bottom it declared their house, "Gryffindor". Elyse leaned over from her sleeping bag and gave Alice a hug.
Alice was the last one to open her late Christmas gift. She was muttering happily to herself while she tore away the paper. The smile on her face froze and then she burst into a raucous laughter. She grabbed her sides and she was laughing so hard that she wasn't able to answer Marlene when she asked what it was.
Finally, she gain control over herself and she shook her finger at Ursula, "You sneaky little pixie. You're a right brat you know?"
Ursula just shrugged, laughter bubbling behind her lips, "Look at what you're wearing and ask if I'm uncalled for."
Alive laughed outloud again, "I never said you were uncalled for! It's the exact opposite! I just didn't know this book existed!"
"What book," Lily asked slowly looking at the two of them oddly when they burst into laughter again, "can be that funny?"
Alice held up the book for the other three girls to see. There was a moment of silence before they all burst into boisterous laughter. Their laughter echoed past all the room and down into the common room. It carried out over the ground so that Dumbledore probably heard them in his office. Heck, it was possible that the Slytherins heard them in the dungeon. The title of the book in question?
Levels of Insanity: Where do you rank?
If you haven't picked up on it yet, there are going to be a lot of dramatic irony in this story. I am trying my hardest to keep everything cannon at the end of this story so everything that happens in the real series will happen in here too. Also, some things will have a way of coming full circle. Just warning you, some things that have already happened are only going to really make sense when they get to seventh year and even past that so you will probably find yourself making a lot of connections as the story progresses.
Awesome news! This story has over three thousand hits! I did a small, mental victory dance when I saw that. Plus the story of readers just keeps on climbing higher and higher so I would just like to thank everyone that has ever reviewed and everyone who has read this far. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
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