Disclaimer: Nothing in this chapter or any of the others are copied from the great works of J.K. Rowling or any other author for that matter.
MonkeyLover: Thanks for reviewing, and I hope you like this chapter as well as the previous ones!
NIKKITA SETHI: Thanks for the praise and cute joke. Ha, ha. I'm laughing my socks off. (Sarcastic, if you didn't notice) Oh well, I hope you like this chapter:)
Tristian'jess'loganluver: I'll try to update sooner! Oh my gosh, I love Gilmore Girls too! It's totally awesome! I felt really sad when Rory and Jess were no longer together; I never saw the episode where they broke up though. How did it happen? They were such a cute couple! Anyway, enough of my rambling (ha, ha!) I hope you like this chapter!
AnjaliMalfoy: Thanks for the praise! Yeah! I'm so sorry I didn't get you a candle! I'll do it soon, promise! Thanks for putting me on your author alert list, I feel proud! Now I'm high on sugar! Peace!
Nishfishee: I'm trying to keep the story interesting but still in its natural aura. I don't think it's working, huh? Anyway, about Remus, he's not in it at all. He was just surprised about the effects of the potions and what it did to Melissa, that's all. Enjoy the story!
Ralph: Yeah, I like ideas that other reviewers give me! It helps me brainstorm. I don't use the ideas directly; I just find a way to sort of help my story by rubbing the thought into it for a while. Don't worry about it, and what do you mean by "Do I want some cookies?" I don't get it. Enjoy the chapter!
Seethehalo715: Yeah, I know who you are! Thanks for reviewing! I know, the whole James/ Sirius action was weird but, hey, I thought it would be interesting! Don't sue me! Enjoy!
Princessdza: Don't worry, I'll check the website. Thanks for reviewing to my story and answering to my reviews on your story! Enjoy!
Author's Note: Thanks to all of you great reviewers! I'm glad you reviewed and I hope you like this chapter as much as you liked the previous chapters (if not more! Haha). Sorry for the long time on updating, I thought more people would be reviewing. I'm sorry for this "lecture on life" but I guess I shouldn't have counted my chickens before they hatched. Oh well, I guess you can't win them all. From now on, I'm going to try to update every week if not twice… I'll try my best. And also, I know I haven't been writing as much James/Lily but don't worry, I'll be adding much more from now on! But 'til then, have a nice time reading this chapter! Enjoy!
Starting to Lose It:
The Great Hall stood silent, its inhabitants staring at the large oak entrance door and them at the Marauders. Sirius sat slumped with his eyes wide, staring at the girls nearest to him. Peter's eyes twitched as he saw Janette give him the dirtiest look he had ever seen. Remus had his head in his hands, his elbows on the table. No one saw him move and couldn't hear him breathing, which made many people believe he died right there. And then there was James. James sat upright; petrified that Lily would hex him when he wasn't looking. The Marauders had never been frightened by anyone until now. It was a surprise to see the boys on the edge of their seats, because of four girls.
Finally, after the Great Hall erupted with noise, Janette slowly got up, her eyes never leaving Peter's face. She slowly walked around the table's edge over to the side where the boys were sitting. Creeping behind Peter, she abruptly stopped, here hands curled into fists by her side.
"Peter, would you please come with me? I need help with my Potion's essay."
Peter gulped; he knew his end had come. Slowly, he looked towards Sirius, who finally tore his gaze from the purple, swollen headed girls around him. With a slight smile, Sirius nodded and turned his attention towards his now-smashed corn. Peter gulped.
"Peter?" Her breath felt cold against the back of his neck. He turned around and found Janette kneeling down, boring her eyes into his back. Looking back towards the other Marauders, he saw Remus with his head on the table. I guess he really liked her… oh well; there are more girls out there. Like, he gulped, Janette.
"PETER!"
The Great Hall silenced again. James suddenly took notice of his surroundings. This is getting ridiculous, he thought, why do they keep paying attention to us? Don't they have anything better to do? Right then and there James knew what to do. He whipped around and glared at Peter.
"Go."
"WHAT? SHE'LL KILL ME, JAMES, AND YOU KNOW SHE WILL! DON'T YOU WANT ME TO LIVE THROUGH GRADUATION?"
"For Pete's sake (A.N.: No pun intended) get out there. How else will you graduate from here if you don't learn to duel? Peter, you're making a scene. JUST LEAVE!"
The group whisked around to find Remus finally up from his mourning stage. Now he was tiredly looking at Peter. James knew that the full moon was coming up, it was in two days in fact. He also knew that the stress from this prank-gone-wrong would make his transformation even more painful. Feeling sorry for his friend, James sorely looked at Peter.
"Peter, just go."
Slowly and fearfully, Peter got up and walked out of the large oak doors without a look back. And that was the last time they saw Peter that day.
Three days later…
Apparently the professors couldn't find the antidote for the entire potion mishap, but a very young Madam Pomfrey found separate potions that helped to get rid of the purple hair, boils, and bubbleheads. Even though getting rid of those factors greatly helped in the girls' appearances, they still had their tails. Since no one in the history of Hogwarts had ever made another student have a tail, none of the professors had the experience to rid the girls of their tails. And yes, that mean that they had to keep them until the professors could find an antidote.
Finally feeling sick of having to groom her tail every morning, Lily decided to head to the library to investigate. Fingering through different titles, she finally chose her top twenty and sat down to find all the information she could find.
"Tails, tails… different uses for unicorn tails, how to use fresh rat tails in modern potions… oh, this is no use! I can't find a single thing on 'getting rid of tails'!" With that, Lily thumped her head on her study table earning a loud 'shush' from the librarian. Red faced from embarrassment, Lily set back to work. She had to find the cure, there just had to be one somewhere.
Meanwhile…My other trainer, James thought, where's my other trainer? I know I brought them from home; I was wearing them on the train ride here… Man, what kind of git am I? WHERE IS MY TRAINER? James tore through his dresser drawers and under his bed. In only ten minutes, he transformed the Marauder's dorm from a filthy dump into a tornado's masterpiece. Sprawling under his bed, crying for his trainer, James suddenly realized he had an overdue library book. Yes, yes. Even the Great James Potter visits the library, even if it means putting on a fake beard and oversized clothing. Great, now I have a missing trainer and an overdue book!
Forgetting about his shoe problem, James ran down the boys' dorm's steps barefoot. He never even realized that he didn't have any shoes on until he accidentally bumped into a little second year girl who in turn stomped on his foot and ran away. Groaning in agony, James limped the rest of the way there.
Shoving the library doors open and stumbling in, James finally supported himself by grabbing onto the librarian's desk. He never took notice of what her name was, so he just dubbed her "the librarian". Ignoring the angry glare, James tossed the book under her nose.
"I'msorrybutIforgottoreturnthisbookontimeandnowit'soverdoandI'mreallysorrycanyoupleaseundothefinenowthanks."James gasped as an attempt to get in some air.
The librarian passed him a stern glare. "What was that," she asked.
Finally catching his breath, James repeated his comment except much slower.
"No, I'm sorry. A fine can't just be taken off a student's account. Now that will be twenty galleons please, Mr. Potter."
"But- b- but-."
"Mr. Potter, will you be paying now or should I add this to your annual list of dues and give you the bill at the end of the year?" The librarian gave James a sarcastic glance and took out a large, heavy binder with leafs of parchment flying out from the center. Finally finding an empty side to a scrap of parchment, she wrote down the title of the book and the cost, stuffed it back into the binder, and slid the binder under her desk's counter. "Will that be all, Mr. Potter?"
"Uh…" James gazed around the room nervously until his eyes fell upon a certain redhead. He smiled. "Yeah, yeah. That'll be it." Without a glance back, James strutted down towards Lily whose nose was caught deep inside a book titled, "So You Have An Extra Tail". I wonder what she's doing, he thought.
Lily wrinkled her nose. She couldn't find the answer anywhere. For a whole three hours, she had been sitting there, pouring over books that she thought would have all the answers. She had even read some books that even she would never be caught dead reading, such as "Tales of Tails Seen Around the World". Yet even after reading all these books, she still hadn't come close.
All of a sudden, Lily heard a pair of footsteps coming towards her. That's odd, she thought, puzzled. Today was a Monday, and not many people liked coming into the library the day after the weekend. It just ruined their mood. The only people inside the library were a few clusters of fifth years and seventh years, the studious ones, who were already studying for their OWLs and NEWTs. The footsteps' echoing seemed to have stopped right in front of her. I wonder who it is, she thought, not bothering to look up, if it's bloody Potter he can just show himself out, I'm not going to waste my breath on him. Raising her head to investigate, she saw that it sure enough was James Potter.
James's chocolate brown eyes peered back at her confusedly. "What are you doing here by yourself, Evans?"
Nosey little bugger, she thought while giving him a nasty look. "Well, thanks to your kind and helpful little prank, I've been spending every last spare moment I had to research on how to get rid of these tails now, if you don't mind, could you please just tell me the counterspell to get rid of them?" Lily was growing impatient and the last thing she needed now was the bratty flirt that now stood before her.
"Ok… sure. I'll tell you the counterspell."
"Really," Lily asked, genuinely confused. She had never seen Potter give in like that.
"Sure, there's only one condition."
Idiot, she thought. She should have known that Potter would never give in like that. "What do you want, Potter?"
"I'll tell you the spell if you…" James stopped, thinking. If he asked Lily for a kiss, like he usually did, she would definitely say no to the next time he asked her to go out with him. He had to think of another thing, but what?
"…If you tell me if Melissa really likes Remus. I think it's only fair for him to know if she likes him or not."
Lily sat back in surprise. She had never thought Potter, of all people, would do something for someone else just to help a friend. I guess he's not much of a bugger after all.
"Um… ok. Well, by the way Melli is always acting, it pretty much looks like she likes him. But after that prank, however, I'm not quite so sure anymore. I think the prank changed her mind about him, it was pretty hurtful, you know. And all of us do have a daily reminder of it you know," she said replied, pointing to her tail to remind him of the task at hand. "Now, if you don't mind, can you please tell me the spell?"
Her question fell upon deaf ears, unfortunately. James stood in deep thought, his thoughts all leading towards Remus. Poor Mooney, he didn't do anything. In fact, he was trying to stop us from doing anything in the first place. Great, we did this prank for a reason, and it backfired! Why does everything now a days just end up blowing up in my face?
"Potter?"
Mooney shouldn't be living through this, he doesn't deserve all this pain. Someone needs to talk to Melissa, this isn't right!
"POTTER?"
This caught James's attention as well as the librarians. With a few quick words, all of Lily's things (not including the library books) sprang to life and flew out of the library towards the Gryffindor Common Room.
"Ah! My favorite quill," Lily cried scrambling up from her chair, running after her things. James chuckled, gave the librarian a quick but elegant bow (which resulted in a giggling librarian being shushed by the students), and ran after Lily towards the common room.
15 Minutes Later…
"…And there you have it," James concluded closing his notebook as Lily finally got rid of her tail. Smiling widely, he sat beside her making her move towards the opposite end of the couch. "So, about Remus and Melissa…"
"Yes?" Lily got up and moved to the sofa opposite the one she was previously sitting on.
"I was thinking that maybe we should, I don't know, talk to each of them separately and then go to the other and tell them what the previous one said."
"No, Potter, I don't think that'll work. We can't act like the messenger in their relationship. We have to let them talk this out. How about we talk to them separately and then make them meet the other and choose a date in which they can talk out their problems."
James smiled, saying, " You're a genius, Evans. I'll take Mooney and you'll take Melissa. See you in a while."
Let's hope it's a long while, Lily thought, getting up from her chair. She had to talk to Melissa before it was too late.
10 Minutes Later…"LILY! WHERE'S YOU TAIL? HOW DID YOU GET RID OF IT! GET RID OF MINE, PLEASE! I'LL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND," I wailed as I saw Lily walk through our dorm's door. I lunged at her, giving her an enormous bear hug. Looking up, I saw that she had a solemn look upon her face. "What is it, Lils?"
"Melli, do you still like Remus?"
Her question stung me like a muggle bullet. How did she know? "What," I sputtered.
"Do you still like Remus?"
"Who said I liked him."
" Melissa, I can just tell. Like the way you look at him when he walks by or the way he says your name. I see you just faint right then and there. It's not healthy for you to be mad at him, Melli. I think you should just forget this happened and just go and talk to him. He'll apologize, no doubt."
"And you're going to apologize James for what he's done," I asked sarcastically, knowing what the answer was. But Lily surprised me.
"Actually, I would. If I felt the same way for him as you do Remus, I think I would." Lily leaned towards me and gave me a hug. "I think you should go and talk to him, it'll all turn out ok."
"Ok, Lils. You win. I'll talk to him later. But for now, can you help me with this History of Magic paper? I can't believe Binns gave us this paper! Oh my gosh, could you believe it when he walked into the classroom through the wall yesterday? I just can't believe he died and he's still teaching like nothing happened. I mean…" And we both gossiped until it time to head to the Great Hall for dinner.
Meanwhile…"Mooney, you need to talk to her."
"Prongs, it's not going to work. She doesn't even like me," Remus looked into James's eyes. James could see the hurt and pain shining like diamonds.
"That's not true, and I can prove it." Remus cast a curious glance at James, not knowing what to say. "The night where Lily found us in front of the kitchens. Remember that night?" Remus nodded his head. "Good, well, Sirius heard her ask herself why Melissa likes you. Now don't…"
The rest of James's words didn't matter to Remus. He felt like he was floating on air. She likes me, he thought, she really likes me.
"Yes!" Remus cried, punching a fist into the air. "Woo!" He started to dance around the dorm until he saw James's frightened face. "Uh, sorry 'bout that, mate." Feeling embarrassed about letting his feelings out like that, Remus plopped back down on his bed.
"So what should I do, Prongs?"
"Well, I was talking to Lily just a while ago, and we thought that maybe you two should talk together privately for a while, you know? To sort things out and all."
" What if she doesn't forgive me, Prongs, what if she's angry? What if she doesn't believe that I didn't do anything?" Remus buried his head in his hands and started to hyperventilate.
"Mooney, MOONEY! Snap out of it! Just try it, she'll hear you out. That's how she is, well, that's how you say she is anyway. Try it, if it doesn't work, we'll talk to her." James swung his arm over Remus's shoulder.
"Thanks James." Remus looked towards his alarm clock and jumped. "It's dinner time, we should be getting to the Great Hall right now!" And the two boys raced down the stairs to get a good look at the day's feast.
10 Minutes Later…
"Look, there she is, Mooney. Why don't you get this over with?"
"Yeah, Mooney, it's just a girl. Nothing to hurt yourself about." Sirius grabbed a dinner roll and stuffed it in his mouth, oblivious towards the look of anger seeping through from James.
"Here I go, wish me luck mates."
"Go Mooney," cried Peter, suddenly choking on a piece of carrot that he was chewing on.
Shaking his head, Remus walked closer to the girls. It seemed that Lily had been the dear that she was and had gotten rid of all Gryffindor girls' tails. Tapping Melissa's shoulder, he quietly asked, "Can I talk to you for a minute?"
I was shocked and overcome by anger. He was really talking to me like nothing happened? Then I finally got over it, realizing I was just burning stress.
"Of course."
We walked towards the entrance doors, finally standing in the corner where the door's hinges attached themselves to the walls. Leaning against the stone, I waited for Remus to begin. It seemed like we were standing there for an eternity before Remus spoke again.
"Can we talk this over? It feels awkward knowing that I can't talk you since you're mad at me."
"Ok, how about tomorrow?"
"Can't. I have patrolling duty. How about Wednesday?"
"That would be great!" I suddenly found that a smile was creeping onto my face as well as on Remus's.
"Great! I'll see you then!" Then we both went our separate ways, keeping our feelings in until seeing each other again in two days.
Author's Note: Oh no! What's going to happen in two days? I know that this is kind of shocking, but I feel like I have an actual story line I'm trying to follow! Amazing, huh? Anyway, thanks for reading the chapter! I made this chapter extra long so you would please forgive me for the longtime wait. Please forgive me! Oh, I have a poll for you. I don't think any of you will know the answer since none of you know me (well, some you do) but try your best!
What is the instrument I really want to play? Is it:
A)Guitar
B)Drums
C)Piano
D)Tambourine
Good luck at guessing correctly! And please review! Review! Just press the little box on the left that says "Go" and review! Thank you!
October 29, 2005: Yes, again! I edited this chapter as well as the 8th because they were both a little confusing! Have fun reading and please review! Thank you!