"Let's do something!" James declared at breakfast.
Elyse looked at him and shook her head. She got out her notebook and wrote quickly, 'Voice therapy after breakfast.'
"What?" Ursula asked, still oblivious to James's and Elyse's exchange.
The girls had been out of the hospital wing for almost a month now. Their improvement has been slow. Ursula could only see blurry shapes and Elyse still couldn't make a sound. The two girls didn't appear to be angry or frustrated anymore. While they had been upset the first week or so, they seemed to have come to accept what had happened to them. The boys were most surprised by Elyse's quick acceptance; they could tell she was angry at them and furious at the situation. But she just smiled in an infuriatingly knowing way and tapped her skull with her finger.
"Once Elyse gets back from her voice therapy I was thinking that we go down by the lake to get a little sunlight. Ursula looks paler than Nearly-Headless Nick!"
Peter about peed himself while laughing at James's comparison. While James looked a little freaked out, he relished in the attention it got him.
"So," he began again with more arrogance, "what do you say?" he asked with a roguish smile on his face.
Elyse responded by glaring at him. But all of a sudden her eyes glazed over, not looking unlike Ursula's, and she didn't respond for a good minute before returned back to glaring at James.
"What was that about?" Sirius asked from next to James. That wasn't what it sounded like. It can out more like, "Mwut, wah at awout?"
Elyse had been around Sirius enough during dinner to understand what he was saying so turned to look at him. Her face clearly said 'if I told you I would have to kill you.'
"I think we should go to the lake," Ben interjected.
James thumped his fists against the table and then pointed at his red headed friend, "That's what I'm talking about! Who else is up for spending the day outside?"
After everyone agreed that they would meet by the lake under 'their' tree in two hours (Elyse's therapy was that long), Ursula got up to go talk to Lily and Alice who were sitting a little ways down the table. James looked at Remus in concern. The full moon was later that night and the boy looked extremely ill.
"Why don't you go to the hospital wing?" James suggested.
Remus tried to focus his eyes on James but he was too ill and tired, "I'll be fine."
"Rubbish!" Ben said. "Come on, I'll walk you up there."
Ben swung his and Remus's book bags onto his shoulder and helped guide/half carry Remus to the hospital wing. James, Peter, and Sirius all shared a look, wondering what mischief they could get into in two hours.
"Let's get out of here." Sirius said after he finished stuffing his face with food. The other boys nodded and started walking around the school, taking notice of all the pictures and anything they deemed interesting. They found a crack in the wall that was a little too perfect and they also saw an oddly colored floor stone.
James realized at that moment that he never explained to Sirius his animagus idea. With everything going on with the girls and also with Remus always with them, he completely forgot that Sirius wasn't with them when he had the epiphany in the library.
"Oi! Sirius! I can't believe I forgot to tell you!" James hit himself on the forehead.
Sirius looked over at him, "What?"
"I think I figured out how we can help Remus during the full moon," James said with a roguish grin.
"How?" Sirius demanded.
James went into an in-depth explanation about his concept and how it would help Remus. The look on Sirius's face grew more and more ecstatic as the explanation pointed more and more towards rule breaking and general anarchy.
"So you're suggesting we break not only Hogwarts' rules, but also break one of the most unbreakable laws of the Ministry? Even when the Minister's kid would be involved in this?" Sirius asked him.
"Ben seemed to like the idea," James defended, folding his arms and turning up his nose slightly. He was confused about Sirius's questions. Out of all his friends, the Blacks (Sirius especially) were the ones that usually immediately agreed with his wild, rule breaking plans. Now Sirius was questioning him. But now Sirius's eyes were brighter than they had been ever since Ursula and Elyse's accident. It didn't make sense until Sirius started talking again.
"I think its bloody brilliant. What's the first step?"
Peter spoke up with a trembling voice, "But what if we get caught?"
James and Sirius simultaneously rolled their eyes.
"We won't." James assured him.
"But James," Peter began with his blue eyes as wide and as beady as a rat, "i-if we get caught, that's t-t-ten years in A-A-Azkaban."
Sirius scoffed at that, "Ten years in Azkaban? Ha! It would be worth it for a friend, don't you agree James?"
James nodded, his glasses slipping down his long nose slightly. "It would." He said seriously to Peter before turning back to Sirius and starting to walk down the hallway again, "The first step is to master the Patronus Charm. More often than not, your animagus form is the same as your first patronus."
Sirius nodded, knowingly while Peter looked terribly confused between the two boys.
"What do you mean first Patronus?" He asked in a high squeaky voice. Would he have to master the spell more than once and be expected to give different results?
James sighed, "It means that you Patronus can change. If you experience true love or a great loss, it will change to match the person or the situation."
"What?"
"Your patronus is a reflection of your soul so when you lose or gain someone close to your heart, it changes to match. You have to think of your happiest memory and let it consume you to make a patronus. Some grown wizards can't even do it."
"It sounds hard," Peter whimpered, remembering his failing grade in Transfiguration and Charms.
James clapped him on the shoulder, "It's alright you've got absolutely brilliant friends so we'll help you figure it out. Alright?"
Sirius snorted, "You can help him, mate."
James rolled his eyes remembering how badly it went the last time Sirius tried to tutor Peter in a school related subject. Sirius ended up using accidentally magic and blasted Peter right off the chair he was so frustrated.
"Come on you lazy slugs! We have a lake to get to!"
Half an hour later, the second year Gryffindors were lounging by the lake, basking in the warm sun. They had since removed their robes and the boys their suit jackets. All of them had loosened their ties and rolled their sleeves to their elbows.
Ursula was leaning back on her elbows, her head hanging back as she soaked up the much needed sunlight. Her pale skin had a glowing quality to it, as did Elyse's. But Elyse had decided to save her skin from the sunburn she knew would happen if she went into the sun for more than five minutes and she sat on a reasonably low branch. The rest of the boys were sitting around the tree trunk. Before joining them Sirius, Peter, and James had stopped at the kitchens to get some food. They were munching on some treacle tarts and Remus was reverently holding onto his chocolate pudding while discussing their summer plans.
"I think I'm going to be going with my dad to the Ministry a lot," Ben confessed. "Annabelle is there too so I want to see this 'bloody, wanker Crouch' she always complains about. Seriously, there isn't one letter without her complaining about him."
"Sounds more interesting than my summer," Peter said sadly. "Mom and Dad are taking me to stay with my grandma. She's so old she makes Dumbledore look like a baby."
James laughed and Peter looked positively thrilled with himself.
"My summer is going to be brilliant!" James said his hazel eyes dancing. "Mum and Dad want everyone to visit over the summer."
"Everyone except us. Our parent would never let us out to visit 'those bloody traitor Potters! Vile, disgusting excuses for purebloods!'" Ursula said mocking her mother.
"I mentioned that to them. They said that we didn't have to worry about that." James said nonchalantly.
"I bet your dad would burst down the door or something," Sirius mused outloud.
"Maybe he can transfigure your mom like he did your uncle." Remus suggested.
Ursula rolled on her back as she laughed hysterically on the ground, mentally visualizing her mother covered in feathers and neon colors. Too bad she might not be able to see it…
"James, look over two trees." Sirius said suddenly.
Everyone turned to look, except Ursula who just sighed and closed her eyes.
Sitting close to the lake in the shade of a tree Snape was sitting by himself, writing frantically in a book. His greasy, long hair fell into their eyes and the sunlight gave it a glittery sheen.
All at once, they turned to look at James. A smirk slowly started to form on his face, the right side going up farther than the left.
"I don't know about you, but I think it looks like dear ol' Snivellus needs to wash his hair."
He jumped to his feet and motioned to Sirius, "Come on, Sirius."
Sirius got to his feet and hung close to James's side. The others looked at each other a moment before they too stood up and followed the two boys. Ben was holding Ursula's hand as he guided her while Elyse held onto her arm on the other side.
James snuck a look behind him and smiled when he saw his friends right behind him. Ho moved to one side of the tree Snape was sitting in front of while Sirius moved to the other side.
"One," James mouthed the Sirius, "two, THREE!"
Snape jumped at the shout which James was counting on. Quickly James and Sirius cast some weak blasting hexes. Snape was catapulted forward and landed in the lake with a painful sounding splash. Snape's shout brought the attention of some of the surrounding student's. When Snape's head appeared out of the water looking like a drowned rat, everyone burst into raucous laughter.
"He has the water, but no soap." James mused out loud. "Would you like to do the honors, Sirius."
Smirking just as much as his friend, Sirius raised his wand and said a spell that caused bubbles to surround Snape in the water, bubbling so high, they soon covered him.
"Think he's finally clean?" James asked the crowd that had gathered. The kids laughed and shook their heads. James just shrugged and lazily caused more and more bubbles to appear. Elyse and Peter were practically dying with laughter while Ben was chuckling at the display. He would normally be against this, but Ben hadn't forgotten the plate incident last year that left a mark on Ursula's forehead that was still just barely visible.
"Potter! Black! What is the meaning of this? Is there someone under those bubbles?" McGonagall swept over to them with a shocked look on her face. With a swish of her wand, the bubbles disappeared and a sputtering Snape was uncovered. He was coughing out water and his eyes were bloodshot from the burning of the soap.
"We thought that Snivellus needed to wash his hair." Sirius told McGonagall as if he was telling her the weather.
"It was looking a bit greasy today." James added cheerfully.
Ursula laughed at their comments but quickly turned it into a cough. She didn't need to be able to see McGonagall's glare to feel it.
"You two come with me. Fenwick!" she called over the Hufflepuff prefect that was engrossed in a book a little farther down the lake. His light brown hair fell into his eyes as he looked up. "Please assist Mr. Snape to the Hospital wing." She turned to address the rest of the crowd, "I'm quite sure that you all have final exams to study for. I suggest you do just that."
The crowd immediately dispersed.
The final exams they had to study for were not the difficult, the second years later found. Ursula had the hardest go at them because she couldn't see her test. She had to orally take all the tests with each of the teachers. The boys helped her study, quizzing her when they walked from class to class and back in the boy's dorm after classes.
They all passed with flying colors (except Peter, he almost failed) and now they were sitting in their compartment on their way home.
"Thank Merlin that is over!" James exclaimed as he dramatically fell onto the seat. He ended up on Elyse's lap and he kicked his feet up onto Ben's lap. Elyse, now able to make simple humming sounds to express herself pushed James off her and onto the floor.
"Oi!" James shouted as he struggled to his feet and put his glasses back on.
The rest of them laughed at him as they settled into the compartment. Their compartment was the loudest by far. They had a lot to celebrate. Elyse was getting her voice back and Ursula was starting to get her eyesight back. The lively group caused much mayhem, putting dungbombs in the prefect's compartments, making a couple of Slytherins dance like buffoons, and scaring a couple of first years with a floating bloody hand (James sticking his hand out from under the invisibility cloak with his hand covered in fake blood).
As they got off the train, Ursula felt a hand on her shoulder. She could vaguely see that the person was taller and had bright hair.
"You'll look after yourself this summer, right?" Ben asked her softly.
Ursula didn't respond right away. She closed her eyes and listened to her surroundings. She had found that with the loss of her eyesight, her hearing had become quite good. The station was full of families tearfully uniting after months apart. Kids were shouting goodbyes to each other. She heard Lily and Elyse talking as they planned to go over to the muggle side of the platform together. Peter's mother was fussing over him. Off a little bit to the side, she could hear Remus talking to his parents and it also sounded a bit like Mrs. White was there. Sirius was off with James animatedly telling Mr. and Mrs. Potter a story from their year at school.
"You know I will." She finally said.
He gave her shoulder a gentle shove as he pushed her forward. The weight of her bag disappeared from her shoulder and he lead her towards their friends and their families.
"I mean it; I don't want to see you like you were this year. Promise me you'll keep your head low and wait for the Potters to go get you."
She sighed, both amused and touched by the worry in his voice.
"I promise I won't come back looking like I did."
Ben huffed at the loophole she found in his wording. He didn't want her to run the risk of getting caught, but once again she wormed her way out of that.
"Just swear that you'll come back in one, non bruised piece."
She was about to respond when Sirius shouted at her to hurry up. James seconded his friend by adding she needed to hurry 'her blind butt up'. She distinctly heard his mother reprimand him for such a rude comment but any parental punishment was lost under Mr. Potter's roaring laughter.
Ursula wrapped her right arm around Ben's waist and gave him a half hug as goodbye.
"I won't just swear," she said. "I solemnly swear."
Ben chuckled, "I'll take that."
Ursula smiled and gave him one last squeeze around the waist before pulling away from him. She waved goodbye to him as he joined his mother. He waved back once before he disappeared along with his mother. Peter and Elyse were now gone, already past the barriers. Remus was off somewhere with his mother and father.
It was only just her and her brother, along with all the Potters. They didn't have to wait long before only the Black's mother showed up with Regulus on her heals.
"Come," she barked at them like they were animals.
"We're not bloody dogs," Sirius growled at her.
Walburga's eyes flashed, "What was that?" She hissed at him, gripping his arm tightly.
Ursula could feel Sirius's other hand tighten protectively around her own arm. Sirius was about to repeat himself but before he could, Mrs. Potter cut in.
"Don't you dare lay a hand on them."
The twin's mouth's dropped at the acid in Mrs. Potter's voice. She had always been so kind and sweet sounding. Now the twins were sure that Voldemort would obey that voice.
"I can do what I want to my children. Maybe you should have been a little stricter with your son so he wouldn't grow up to be such a little miscreant like these two brats." Walburga sneered while glaring at James and the twins.
Mrs. Potter's wand was suddenly pointed directly level with Walburga's face. "Don't you DARE speak about my children like that."
"Children?" Walburga asked, shocked.
Mr. Potter stepped forward and gently lowered his wife's arm. His voice was not as kind as his actions. His normal dancing blue eyes were as hard as sapphires as he regarded the other woman.
"Yes children. Now you listen Walburga, if either of these two comes to our house with even a scratch on their knee, I will make sure your life becomes a living hell. Two of my closest friends are the Minister and the other is your very own brother, so don't even think for a damn second that you would be able to get away with it."
The twins looked at Mr. Potter with wonder and awe while their mom look affronted.
"Is that a threat?" She hissed at him.
"No, it's a promise. Get back to your family and maybe treat them like it."
Mr. and Mrs. Potter both gave the twins loving hugs before they dragged a gob smacked James after them. Just before they disapparated, the twins distinctly heard James snap out of it and exclaim, "That was BRILLIANT!"
Sirius and Ursula shared a look. This was going to be an interesting summer, that was for sure.
This is the last installment of the first book of the A Black and White Story series. I hope you all have enjoyed the ride so far and you continue to read the next book, which should be up sometime next week. I just finished school this week so I am going to have a lot more time to write. The next book is going to cover third and fourth year. I don't want to ruin the surprise but there is going to be some visions, duels, fights, and a wee bit of romance thrown in for good measure I think. It will be titled A Black and White Story: Book Two so keep an eye out.
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