Disclaimer: I wish I did but I don't and now I'm crush because the HP themepark is not a themepark, it is a 'land' in a bigger park and grrrr. Anyway HBP trailer comes out on the 16th, hope its good, the Twilight teaser was weird and I'm rambling but anyways, here is the chapter that only took a mere month to be posted! I halved my time! :)
Chapter 10:The Tears, The Fears, The Truth and The Change
It was the weekend before Christmas and things were heating up in the fifth year girl's dormitory. Belongings lay strewn over the timber floors and an unusual smell was issuing from the fireplace in the middle of the room. Jessica was the only one not dashing around frantically and had decided to sit on an unoccupied bed and just sit and wait for the series of events to unfold.
"Patience!" Claudia was screaming from the umpteenth time that morning at the only bed with the curtains around it drawn and was greeted with the same response she had been greeted with all morning.
"I'm telling you Claudia, I SWEAR I didn't take it!" Patience's replied, her words becoming more muffled as in a desperate attempt to keep her hearing, she drew her hangings even closer. In two long strides, Claudia had made it over to Patience's bed and pulled the hangings back, however with a little too much enthusiasm as the rings broke and the curtains fell to the floor.
"I will only ask you one more time Patience, where did you put my bottle of Dior perfume?" she snarled through closed teeth and with a look most unattractive on her face.
"Claudia, I'm telling you I didn't take it! You know I love that perfume!" Patience screamed back and grabbed her pillow and covered her face with it.
"That is why you are the most likely person to have taken it! Lily prefers my Armani than my Dior, Felicity has her own bottle and Jessica just- well, its obvious that she wouldn't take it. Besides, you're always begging to use some, why wouldn't you take it?"
Claudia was becoming rather impatient and ignoring Patience's sobs of innocents, she took out her want and pointed it at the white pillow which consumed Patience's face. Instantly Patience's sobs changed from ones proclaiming innocence to terror as her pillow changed into a rather large spider which was gripping onto to Patience's face with all eight legs.
Claudia joined in with Jessica's laughter as Patience sought out her wand before removing the large spider and banishing it into a state of being. She looked slowly up to see Claudia with a look of fear in her eyes.
"I would never take anything that's yours," Patience said softly, unable to break contact. Claudia nodded.
"That's right, and next time if you so much as bump anything of mine, I'll make sure that next time I'll apply a permanent sticking charm to that spider," she snarled and with one last look of the dormitory strewn with Patience's belongs, she left.
-:-
She had been running so fast she nearly fell face first into the bowl of fruit. Once steadying herself, she reached out her index finger to tickle the pear and once the door handle appeared, she flung it over and burst into the room and ran straight over to the red head and the boy with messy hair that were sitting at the table furthest from the door.
"Well?" James demanded as she fell onto the seat next to Lily, both sets of eyes staring at her.
"Oh it was a right show down," Jessica said in between trying to get her breathing back to normal.
"Come on, spill the details!" Lily said, nudging her friend and James nodded eagerly.
"You left just as she began packing right?" Jess asked and Lily nodded "Well, it was soon after that. She started with her clothes first, every so often giving me strange looks when she caught me staring but most of the time she was pushing Patience away coz she kept trying to 'help'. Anyway, she soon got fed up with that and went to the bathroom to retrieve her belongings there, slamming the door in Patience's face when she tried to follow Claudia in there. So Patience went over the bed and sat with her arms folded, sulking for a while, until Claudia came bursting out the door demanding to know where her Dior perfume was –" Lily and James shared smirks "and instantly began interrogating Patience. Now of course the little wannabe didn't like that one bit and kept pleading her innocence…which I guess she was, anyway, she kept trying to pass the buck off onto you or Felicity. Anyhow it didn't work, thank goodness Felicity and Claudia like the same things, well in most cases…" she added hastily as everyone's thoughts slipped to Remus "and that you decided to start that whole Dior verses Armani dispute last week for good measure, that's what got you off the hook, not that I have any idea what the difference is anyway and so, in the end, Patience ended up with a giant spider on her face and Claudia storming from the room," Jessica finished and again trying to get her breathing back to normal.
"Not bad, but I thought Claudia would be smarter than that," James said, shaking his head disappointed, "How bad did the smell get?"
"Oh you could well and truly smell it in the room before she left," Jessica told them before chugging half the glass of water a house elf had brought her "Hey, wasn't Felicity supposed to be here with you?"
"She was," Lily said "She went to the bathroom half an hour ago," Jessica raised her eyes and James shrugged.
"Hey, you're the girls, you've got more of a clue of what's going on in her mind at the moment that what I do,"
"And again with the sexist comments hey James?" Jessica said sweetly and James winked "You know it,"
"Well James, if you make any more of those comments James, you'll turn into Sirius," Lily tutted and James feinted a face of mock horror.
"Oh no! Not Sirius! Can't I be like Remus? At least he has an interesting love life,"
"An interesting love life? Is that all I am to anyone? Just someone mixed up in one of the Marauder's love lives?" Felicity said for the door way and from the state of her face it had been clear she had been clear that she had been crying. Their faces all dropped as they turned to find her there and she turned around and walked back out the kitchen.
"Shit," was all that was muttered before Lily got up and made her way over to the door and followed the corridor until she heard the sound of Felicity shedding tears inside a broom closet. Lily slowly opened the door and joined Felicity among the buckets and mops.
"Fe, you know that's not what James meant," Lily told her soothingly as she hiccupped.
"I know hic that. But I just can't hic feel angry when hic people just talk about hic me like I'm hic weekly gossip," she said, wiping the tears from her cheeks.
"You know it wasn't like that, you shouldn't let this affect you as much as you let it. Its been a month and a half…"
"Hic I know! But I never hic realized how much hic I liked him until hic she took him," her breathing slowed down but she was overwhelmed by a new set of tears following this statement.
"But Fe, you know he doesn't really like Claudia…."
"Of course he hic likes that bitch hic it's the only hic reason that someone would actually hic go out
with her!" she stammered through her tears.
"Yes but she isn't giving him a choice. Hon, she's not giving him a chance to second guess his feelings, she's all over him twenty four seven! That's why I needed you to stay here over Christmas instead of going shopping with your parents in Milan. James said that Remus would be staying here over Christmas and only leaving to floo to Claudia's belated Christmas party which is two nights before everyone comes back to Hogwarts and so we're going to use this time without Claudia to our advantage, but if Remus barely sees you over the holidays because your avoiding him or sees you flee from the room hiding tears whenever he enters one your in, your not going to get him back,"
Felicity sat silently, trying to control her tears and thinking over what Lily just explained while Lily got out a white handkerchief and passed it to Felicity who took it thankfully.
"But who says he'll like me? He's probably forgotten me by now and even if he starts liking me again or remembering me, one look at Claudia at her party and he'll forget me again. You've never seen Claudia at a party, and you've never seen one that she's thrown," she said in distress, blowing her nose, the noise reverberating off the stone walls inside the small cupboard.
"Fe, he's already proved that he's liked you, you went out for six weeks for goodness sake! You broke the one month barrier and everyone knows that after a month you can't be forgotten! Besides, why do you think I accepted Claudia's invitation to the party? Apart from the fact it would look real suspicious if I didn't, I'm going to keep an eye on Remus and I'll chain him to me if he's desperate to get back with Claudia," Lily joked and Felicity let out a small laugh.
"Come on, you need to clean yourself up," Lily told her, standing up and holding out her hands to Felicity, waiting for her to take hers before pulling her to her feet. Lily pushed the door wide and Felicity instantly walked off towards the nearest bathroom. Lily headed back to the kitchens where Jessica and James still were, continuing their bickering.
"I still reckon you're going to end up like Sirius," Jessica was saying and James was shaking his head vigorously.
"Nah uh! I won't, I won't, I won't!"
"Fine, a dog then! You do have the shaggy black hair after all," Jessica joked and Lily thought she say James freeze, but a second later it was gone.
"I'd rather be a dog! You get all the bitches," he said, winking at Jessica who laughed.
"Seems like you'll have to fight Remus for her then,"
"Touché" James said before seeing Lily over Jessica's shoulder and giving her a questioning look.
"I found her, she's gone to the bathroom to clean herself up. She might need a hand though," she said, looking pointedly at Jessica, who raised her eyes questioningly but nevertheless volunteered and left Lily and James together.
"What's the problem?" James asked her as she took the seat that Jessica had questioningly vacated.
"Was Remus just going out with Felicity because of the dare you guys had?" Lily asked him. James shrugged, "I guess so, why?"
"Well, did you know if Remus had any actual feeling for Felicity?" Lily asked again to a puzzled James who replied "I dunno, we usually know who each of us likes but if he liked Felicity I doubt he would have told us seeing to us, well especially Sirius, it was just a laugh. Why all the questions?"
"Well with all the plans of driving Patience away and planning to get Remus and Felicity together, I had kinda forgotten that the reason that he had been going out with her had just been a dare. I guess being around Felicity and her tears long enough I'd forgotten that he never really liked her in the first place…"
"Hey, we don't know that for certain. Like I said, he could quite possibly have liked Felicity, he didn't seem to cringe every time he kissed her and he would never have told us if he did. Sirius would pay him out until the turn of the century and he knew that I would tell Sirius which would also result with being paid out until the end of the century," James said, giving Lily an encouraging smile.
"Gah, why you guys are always on each other's case about stuff is beyond me," Lily groaned, placing her head in her hands "But I can't believe that this hadn't crossed my mind before,"
"Don't sweat it Lily, it will work out, even if we have to tweak nature's course to get it there," James said, standing up and holding his hand out to Lily "Shall we join the others?"
Lily took his hand "We shall,"
-:-
James and Lily walked back up to Gryffindor Tower holding hands, as to live up to the rumors that they were dating and James farewelled Lily at the bottom of the girl's staircase with a kiss on her hand as he left her to finish off the prank they had began earlier that day. When Lily pushed open the door to the room, the smell nearly overpowered her. She looked around at the occupaints of the room, Jessica sitting on her bed reading with a peg on her nose, Claudia standing at the bottom of her bed, finishing her packing and with what looked like a fish bowl over her head and Patience sitting on the bed with nothing as it seemed like Claudia had forbid it.
Jessica looked up when Lily entered the room and nodded her head in the direction of the bathroom, signifying that's where Felicity was at that present moment Apparently after their talk Felicity still couldn't bare to be in the same room as Claudia.
"What in the name of Merlin is that smell?" Lily exclaimed as she stepped through the threshold of the door. Jessica, as planned, ignored her. Patience, as usual, ignored her. Only Claudia acknowledged
Lily's presence and question.
"I don't know, but it wasn't one of the things I did to get back at Patience for taking me Dior. I wouldn't have done anything that would make me suffer as well," Claudia paused to speak to Lily before continuing to fold her extremely lacy underwear neatly into her suitcase.
Lily pretended to sniff the air to find out where the source was although she knew all to well where it was coming for. She continued sniffing the surrounding air as Claudia continued packing, Patience rolled her eyes and Jessica watched her with fake amusement.
"It's coming from the fireplace," Lily said, to no one in particular though somehow all of them. Claudia paused when she finished with her underwear though then moved onto her bras, Patience rolled her eyes again and shut her curtains around her bed which she repaired earlier and Jessica looked up from the book she was 'reading' waiting for the explosion.
Lily opened the door which revealed the ashes of what use to be logs and stuck her hand inside the unlit oven. She new where it was, it was she who had placed it there earlier that day with Jessica as lookout but she fumbled around longer for affect before her hand closed around the clear, rectangular shaped bottle with what used to be yellow perfume but had turned purple when Lily had added a Strengthening Solution and let the liquid seep out of the bottle and through the ashes. She pulled the bottle out, careful to spill the rest of the solution out of the bottle to avoid suspicion, placed the lid back on and pulled it through the door.
Lily wiped off some of the soot that covered the glass so she could read quite clearly Diorella Christian Dior which was written in gold across the bumpy surface of the glass.
"Hey Claudia, wasn't the Dior perfume you own Diorella?" Lily asked in a casual tone and watched Claudia shrug "Yeah, what about it?" as Patience ripped the hangings back.
"Well I just found this at the back of the fire place," Lily said calmly, holding it up to Claudia as she turned around and Patience shrieked.
"See, I told you! Didn't I Claudia? I told you it was Evans! How else would she know where it was?" Patience was jumping up and down on her knees, her arm out in front of her at full length pointing to Lily.
"Because you idiot, you can smell that stench a mile away and Lily was the only one who bothered to find the source. Since I'm leaving tonight, I really couldn't less,"
"I still say it was Evans!"
"Of course you would if you did it!" Claudia snapped at her, before taking the bottle Lily held out to her and throwing it at Patience who caught it in surprise and fell backwards.
"Here, you obviously wanted it, here's the bottle as a souvenir. Too bad you didn't think to put the lid on properly," She sneered, flicking the locks down on her suit case and picking it up and walking towards the door, and began walking out but paused at the door frame.
"By the way, I'll be having my father send you a check for the perfume. Treat that as your official uninvited to my party," she said with an air of snobbiness before she left the room, slamming the door behind her. As soon as she was gone, the bathroom door opened and Felicity's small face peered out from behind it.
"Is it safe?" she asked the room timidly.
"If you mean is the wicked witch gone, yes," Jessica said, instantly turning back to her book. They had decided that it wouldn't be safe for them all to talk together in the dorm with Patience there since Lily had been made Claudia's new right hand woman, Felicity had been classified a social outcast by Claudia and Jessica was just a weirdo.
Sighing, Felicity entered the room and Patience leapt off the bed, shoving past Felicity and slammed the bathroom door behind her.
"Why's Claudia leaving tonight?" Jessica asked when they heard the loud gushing sound of running water coming from the bathroom.
"Scared of trains," Lily and Felicity said in unison as they sat down on their beds.
"So how's she getting home?" Jessica asked, her book laying forgotten on her bed.
"She said something about her dad's butler, or assistant or someone picking her up in Hogsmeade. Some teacher was asked to escort her down there though," Lily told Jessica as Felicity and Lily began getting changed into their pajamas. Lily turned off the lights as they slipped under the covers and into their warm beds.
"Well, our latest feat went rather well," Lily said into the darkness as the sound of the hairdryer stopped the sleep from consuming them.
"I'll say, I actually found it rather enjoyable," Jessica said, turning in her bed to face Lily's direction. Silence consumed them again, well, that is apart from the hairdryer which just seemed to be getting louder.
"Lily…" Felicity whispered softly and Lily turned in her bed to face her. "Yeah?"
"What if Remus doesn't like me?" she whispered so softly it was only just audible over the hairdryer.
"Of course he would Fe, why wouldn't he?" Lily said gently.
"I dunno, maybe his taste has changed…" she said, her voice slipping into silence.
"Well, just be yourself. Then you'll know whether he likes you for you or he liked you for what Claudia made you,"
"How?" Lily sighed, she wondered how to put this nicely.
"Well, try and be a little less, well, ditzy around him?" Lily squeezed her eyes tight, waiting for Felicity to scream at her, or throw something at her or ignore her but all she said was
"You know, I never used to be like this. When I first arrived here I couldn't wait to learn everything I could. I used to spend my time in the library doing homework and I spent my weekends reading under the trees in the courtyard. My birthday's in January and that year my older cousin, who's a muggle, sent me a copy of Vogue and one weekend I was reading it under a tree in the courtyard and Claudia noticed me reading it and we've been friends ever since. But now, looking back it doesn't really seem like a friendship… I loved who Claudia was, I loved her clothes, her connections, her confidence. She would always tell me what to do, not in the motherly sense, but in the sense of how to become more popular. By the end of the year, my grades had plummeted, my vocabulary had shrunk and been filled with new words that aren't found in a dictionary. I returned home for the summer, abandoning my old friends and spending every other day with Claudia either shopping or reading magazines. Soon I knew who was who in the wizarding world, what was hot, what was not, how to dress, shop, act, speak and I became Felicity. And it wasn't until I saw fling herself over Remus that what she did, how she acted and how I had been molded, wasn't that great after all…"
The hairdryer turned off and they fell silent, Jessica's fake snores automatically filled the room as Patience opened the door and slipped into the room and quietly slipped into bed. It was when Lily was in the state of being, between awake and asleep, that she heard the sound of a door closing. Thinking the wind must have shut the bathroom door, Lily was consumed by the darkness as the trees outside the window stood unmoving.
-:-
The next morning when Lily stirred, Jessica's snores, these ones being real, were still filling the room. Patience's bed was made, her belongs gone telling Lily she had left already to catch the train home. Although she was not fond of the idea of going home, she would rather than go home than be forced to be around her roommates and since Claudia was gone, there was no point in her staying and now Claudia was being horrid to her she didn't even have her party to look forward to. Claudia's bed remained the same that it had last night and Felicity's bed was empty and the shower was running.
Lily walked over to the seat by the window and sat down, staring out at the bare grounds. She hoped it would snow this year, but it was only the second week in December so there was still hope left. The bathroom door opened and Lily turned around to see Felicity, looking a little worse for wear.
"Are you alright Fe?" Lily asked, looking at Felicity's appearance. If truth be told, it looked like she had just let herself go. Her brown hair looked thin and straggly past her shoulders, she was wearing checkered pants that were not at all flattering to her body type and she was her top was covered in red spots that made the small, pin prick pimple se had on her chin look exaggerated.
"I don't know who I'm supposed to be. All I remember is being Claudia's doll, but I also want to be who Remus wants and I want to be me as well," Felicity said, sighing and sitting down on her bed. Lily got up from her window seat and walked over to Felicity and sat down next to her.
"Do you trust me?" Lily asked her. Felicity looked up at Lily with a raised eyebrow.
"Uh oh. What are you going to do to me?" she asked, puzzled and with a hint of panic in her voice.
"Do you trust me?" Lily asked her again and Felicity sighed and shrugged.
"Sure, why not," and Lily grinned. "Come on" she said and dragged Felicity back into the bathroom.
Half an hour, one showers, one blow dry, one curler, one eyeliner, one mascara, one pink lip gloss, one purple, gold and red stripped jumper, one pair of dark denim, one pair of pink converses and one
sound asleep snorer later, Felicity emerged from the bathroom looking like a pretty, fifteen year old, teenager. Lily marveled her handy work, pretty damn proud of herself. She had taken what she learnt about clothes and make up and transformed the girl who she had learnt it all from into something she could call herself.
The style of jumper hugged her hips and emphasized her curves, the jeans made her legs look longer, the light application of eyeliner just highlighted her light eyes and the mascara made her lashes longer and the pink lip gloss matched her converses. Lily had blown her hair to give it more body and went over her loose curls with the curler to exaggerate them.
"Well?" Lily asked her, peering over her shoulder as she stared at her reflection.
"It's me,"
A/N: Well, it's a month sooner and 1000 words longer, do you love me or what? I know it doesn't have as much comedy in this chapter but I needed to explain all this to everyone before we move on. But please children, do not fret! For it is the Christmas Holidays (oh I wish! Still, in fanfic anything can be real…) and fun is abound! There is: Did Remus actually like Felicity, Will Felicity win his Heart For the First of Perhaps the Second Time, What Happens When Sirius has Too Much Punch, PLUS the PART-AY and they ever asked question: Will It Be Crashed" Stay Tuned! IMPORTANT NOTICE:
What I would like to say in this Authors Note which I hope people read and I'm not just practicing my typing skills, but I want to tell everyone that reviewed Chapter 9 that I LOVE YOU!! That was the most reviews I've ever received for this story and I'm so happy and so KEEP IT UP!! The last time this happened, you guys all ABANDONED ME!! :'( And so I will give everyone who reviews this chapter a hug, kiss and a cookie! Please people, lets join together and try to beat the record of 21! Ha, 21….. okay random, moving on. In more thanks I will list all the people who are on my love list at the moment because THEY, unlike SOOOOOO many others, DIDIN'T bother to review. People, if you read a story, u need to tell the author how much u liked, or hated their writing so they have some idea as to how the story is going! Anyway, without ado I would like to thank: Grey Mustang, breeza13, Comicrileef, Cherrykisses21, Lilyflower101, Mariano's-twins, Katsy17, louise, Professor of Pig-latin, just.like.jess, Lady Knight Keladry, the muddy worm, Penelope Richmond, Someone aka Me, babydoll223 99, zEthHPfrEaK, the voice of singing clouds, SpiceChaiPrincessOfDoom,
prongsies.lady, GryffindorsOwnLily and firewalker32!! I love you all mwa! Xoxo
Common people, another record and this has my undivided attention!
Moonlight Honeysuckle xox