Disclaimer: All I need is a mirror to prove that I am not JK, and one MRI to prove that Harry was not created in my brain.
Chapter 11: Breaking In New Identities.
Jessica stifled a yawn and rolled over, trying to grasp at the straws of sleep that were slipping from her reach. Trying to squeeze deeper under the covers to keep the warmth from escaping, she sighed, giving up and swung her legs out of the bed. It was now she realized why she couldn't get to sleep, it was too quiet. She was so used to the sound of the shower, the hairdryer, the complaints and the searching of lost items that for the first time it was quiet, she couldn't get to sleep.
She got up and stretched and saw Lily and Felicity sitting on Lily's bed and she bounded over to join them. When she sat down, she instantly felt uncomfortable. Both Lily and Felicity were looking at her expectantly and that made her feel nervous.
"What?" she asked, puzzled, looking between the two. Lily shook her head and laughed.
"Wow, you're worse than me!" Jessica looked between Lily and Felicity again, this time pausing longer on Felicity. She tilted her head to the side and squinted her eyes.
"You know, I know I'm supposed to be seeing something, yet I'm just not quite getting it," she said, tilting her head back up, and looking at Lily expectantly, waiting for her to explain.
"Does Felicity still look like Claudia?" Lily asked her and Jessica squinted her eyes again.
"Hey, yeah! She doesn't ay!" she said happily and Lily rolled her eyes "Anyways, what are you lot talking about this early in the morning?"
"I wasn't under the impression that 11:56 wasn't counted as morning" Felicity said, nodding her
head in the direction of the clock on Lily's bedside table.
"Wow, I guess I slept a little later than I thought. Ah, well, I never liked breakfast that much anyway, lets go get some lunch," Jessica said with enthusiasm, jumping off the bed and headed towards the door.
"Like that?" Felicity inquired, looking Jessica up and down. Jessica looked down at her white tee and brown track pants.
"Yeah, problem?"
"You do realize that there will be guys down in the Great Hall, even if most of the school has gone home?" Felicity said, raising her eyebrow in confusion.
"Oh, let her be Fe. If she wants to wear that, she should be able to," Lily told her, getting up and joining Jessica at the door "So you coming?"
"Fine," grumbled Felicity, swinging her feet of the bed, standing up and joining them as they walked out the door.
-:-
James was sitting next to Sirius and Remus on the couch down in the common room, playing with a set of gobstones that were accidently left behind by a second year. James had just scored one of Remus's stones (which was quite an odd occurrence) and was standing up doing the happy finger dance when he saw Lily, Felicity and Jess finally making their first appearance of the day. James waved to them before they exited and sat down.
"Who were they?" Sirius asked James without looking up from the board with a pained expression
on his face which only occurred on those rare opportune moments when he was trying to think.
"Lily, Jess and Fe," James replied as he began plotting his next move.
"Lily, Jess and Fe?" Remus asked with suspicion as he looked up over The Daily Prophet he was reading in between turns.
"Oh, my mistake. It's Miss Evans, Miss Wallace and Miss Hamon, isn't it?" James retorted and with one flick of the wrist, knocked three of Sirius's stones out and half on one of Remus's. Remus continued to keep his eyebrow raised but Sirius conveniently decided to make a distraction.
"Oh that's SO mature James. Just target all my stones so you can win, this is so not fair," he complained, sliding to the floor with his arms folded across his chest with a pout.
"Aw, cheer up Sirius. One day you might be able to knock one of mine out on purpose too," James said sweetly and Sirius ignored him.
"Anyway, on a total and completely different subject that has nothing to do with what we are doing or talking about and just from an innocent bystander's point of view who has an abnormally large curiosity, who was that with Lily?" Sirius asked, his head turning back and forth like a small child deciding on which parent was more likely to give them candy.
"Felicity and Jessica?" James asked him slowly, thinking back as he was sure that they had covered this "Besides, weren't you so engrossed in how badly you're losing that you didn't see them?"
"Oh James, I have eyes everywhere. Now, who's going to tell me?" he asked them as James and Remus made eye contact when Sirius said 'everywhere'.
"Sirius, you may have many eyes but I think you need a couple more ears," Remus said curtly,
returning to the prophet and Sirius instantly switched his attention to James.
"Okay, let me say this slowly Padfoot. The two girls that Lily was with were Jessica Hamon and Felicity Wallace," James said, saying each individual word slowly for Sirius's benefit.
"You sure?" Sirius asked him and James replied, slightly confused "Yeah? Why?"
"Well, I know that the one in trackies was Jessica but the other one didn't look a thing like Felicity," Sirius said, absentmindedly as the pained expression returned to his face.
"Felicity didn't look any different to me, you Remus?" James asked and his comment was only answered with a grunt from behind the paper.
"Oh sorry, I forgot, you don't even notice Felicity at all, do you?" James replied with a hint of anger in his voice as a sudden protective feeling overwhelmed him. Remus looked up from the Prophet again.
"Mate, just drop it," Remus said, folding the paper over and began reading the Quidditch section. Sirius gave up the game of gobstones as a bad job and stood up.
"I'm going to go and find out who that was with Lily. Either of you coming?" Sirius asked, again looking back and forth between the two.
"Sure, I'll come with you to find Lily, Jessica and Felicity," James replied, standing up and heading towards the portrait hole. Sirius remained where he stood, staring at Remus, waiting for his reply. Remus sighed, folded his paper in half and placed it down on the coffee table.
"Why not? Can't be any worse than continuingly reading about how bad the Chudley Cannon's are performing again this season," Remus said thoughtfully, standing up and following Sirius as he walked over to James and out the portrait hole. Sirius and James had a continuous running commentary as
they walked towards the entrance hall between Sirius continually complaining that James and Remus were continually picking on him at gobstones and correcting the 6th year Hufflepuff prefect who was teaching a suite of armor Christmas carols and insisting that they were the ones who got it all wrong not them, that James barely noticed that Remus was there at all.
Once entering the Entrance Hall, Sirius spent no time waiting and sped into the Great Hall and made a beeline for the Gryffindor table, and instantly began heaping spoonfuls of Shepherd's Pie onto a plate.
"I thought you wanted to find that 'mystery woman'?" James asked as he and Remus sat down on either side of him.
"I do and I found her," Sirius said, hitting Remus's hand as he tried to steal some of his pie and pointed at the other end of the Gryffindor table. Sure enough, when James turned his head in the direction Sirius had pointed to, he found Felicity sitting between Lily and Jessica, an occurrence that was only even seen on a day to day basis by James.
"Well? Aren't you going to talk to them? Or did you drag us all the way down here for nothing?" Remus asked, again going in for the Shepherd's Pie and again getting swatted away by Sirius who was becoming very protective.
"Yes, I shall. On a full stomach of course," he told James and started building a fort around his plate with cups, cutlery and salt and pepper shakers.
"Of course," James said, before helping himself to some of the pie. Remus summoned his paper from the common room and continued to read the Quidditch section. Ten minutes later Sirius still had a small mountain of food on his plate and so James and Remus agreed it was high time to take down the wall. With armies attacking from both the west and eastern boarder's, Sirius's plate had no chance.
"All gone Sirius buddy boy, now get your butt over there," Remus grinned after putting the last
spoonful in his mouth and grinning through the potato. Sirius, grumbling, stood up, brushed himself down and walked along the table and tapped the pretty brunette with the figure hugging jumper on the shoulder. All three girls, the brunette, the red head and chocolate brown turned around to look at him. What was with girls when someone called their friends name they all turned around? You'd think they would have recognized their own name by now.
"Hello my lovely," Sirius purred and all three girls raised their eyebrows. God damn it what was with the blood unison?
"What do you want Black?" Lily asked him suspiciously as he didn't take his eyes of Felicity.
"I don't recall addressing myself to you Miss Evans. I was actually addressing this gorgeous brunette in front of me. I don't believe we've met before, my name is Sirius Black," he announced, giving a low, sweeping bow.
"I know," Felicity said simply as Sirius stood up again. Sirius began grinning from ear to ear.
"Ah, I see my reputation precedes me, how wonderful yet I feel somewhat guilty, for I do not know yours," he purred as he took Felicity's hand as she began feeling a mixture of flattery and alarm.
"Yes you –" Jessica began to snap at him but was hushed with a kick from Lily from under the table. Jessica shot her a confused look and Lily mouthed over Felicity's head 'Let him find out himself' without fear of being seen as Sirius had not once taken his eyes of Felicity.
"Mr. Black, I think you are under the wrong impression about me," Felicity began and slowly slipped her hand from his.
"Fear not, for the only impression I have of you is the one that is forming right now," Sirius continued smiling as Felicity stopped pulling her hand back.
"All the same Mr. Black, you seem to be under the impression that we have not met," Felicity said "And I must tell you that that is a false impression,"
"Forgive me for my ignorance, but all the same I cannot believe that I would have seen a wonderful maiden like you before and continued walking past," Jessica rolled her eyes and was sitting on the edge of her seat waiting for the knights of the round table to come bursting into the hall.
"Perhaps your name will help jog my memory? Or perhaps your house?" Sirius begged, whilst Lily and Jessica sat by watching without being noticed and waiting for the big BOOM.
"Well, I'm in Gryffindor…" Felicity said and Sirius broke away "And what a fine house Gryffindor is I must say. Have I mentioned that I also am in Gryffindor? Could this possibly be where the meeting you mentioned occurred?"
"Well, that's where the fair few of them have occurred," Felicity said and Sirius punched his arm up into the air in triumph.
"I knew I had seen you somewhere. Now, your name fair lady?" Sirius almost whispered and if he had been sitting on a seat he would have been sitting on the edge in anticipation.
"Felicity" she said simply and the girls watched with glee as his gigantic smile began to decline.
"Felicity?" he repeated slowly and she nodded.
"Well, I only know of one Felicity but surely…" he was unable to continue as the three girls stood up.
"That's right, Mr. Black. I'm Felicity Wallace and why you would not recognize me in the first place is an absolute insult!" Snickering, the three girls left the hall and that is when the surrounding
occupants of the Gryffindor table felt it was safe enough to burst into laughter. Members of other houses turned around in their seats to see what the commotion was all about, but upon seeing Sirius standing up next to the table, they turned back around, disappointed that they had missed the latest Marauder's escapade.
James and Remus were the ones who's roars of laughter with the loudest. Sirius trudged back to the table, sat down in his earlier vacated seat and began rebuilding his mountain.
"You guys suck," Sirius muttered and they grinned.
"But Sirius, that's why you love us!" James grinned and with the help from Remus they lifted him up out of his seat and away from his beloved pie.
-:-
"How thick can you get?" Jessica said with disbelieve as they arrived back in the common room.
"Apparently quite," Lily replied as she slumped back in her favourite pink arm chair near the fire.
"I didn't realize I looked so different" Felicity stated as she and Jessica sat down on the couch next to the arm chair.
"Well for a change your not plastid with identical make-up with Claudia and the only way anyone could tell you apart was the fact you have wavy, light brown hair and Claudia had straight blonde hair," Jessica stated and Felicity shot her a dirty look.
"We did NOT wear identical make-up! Our colour compatibility is totally different," she snapped and picked up a Charms textbook and began reading it.
"Yeah, I still need to get used to seeing her do stuff like that," Jessica told Lily, tilting her head in the direction of the girl complaining about colour compatibility voluntarily reading a text book. Lily rolled her eyes at her two friends.
'Wow' she thought 'I just called them my friends,' Lily smiled.
"Guys, it's the holidays! Are we just going to sit up here reading a text book and playing with a packet of exploding snap?" Lily asked her friends after they had sat in silence for five minutes. Lily hated silence. Jessica looked up, grinning sheepishly as she stopped building her tower of cards.
"I wanted to go Christmas shopping but I didn't realize that you couldn't go shopping over the Christmas holidays because all the teachers go home and no one can supervise," Felicity complained, relinquishing her text book to the coffee table.
"I think I know a way around that," Lily said, smiling her smile that told the others that she had a plan.
-:-
"I'm hungry," grumbled Sirius as they trudged up the marble staircase. James rolled his eyes as Remus chose to reply.
"You ate a total for fifty-six seconds ago,"
"Yeah, but I wasn't finished! Besides, you guys ate half of it," he complained as he lagged behind the others, climbing at a slower pace.
"Sirius, you do no that obesity is a growing problem here in the UK?" James said sweetly and Sirius
glared.
"Ruddy bastard,"
"Would you love me if I wasn't?" James joked and began running until he realized Sirius wasn't chasing after him.
"What's wrong Padfoot, not up for a chase?"
"No my dear Prongs, but I have no sugar in my system to allow me to run," he told them as he sunk down and sat on the top stair "Well, are you guys gonna carry me or what?"
"Okay, one thing I'm absolutely positive about is I refuse to carry you up six flights of stairs," Remus told him and began walking over to where James had stopped running.
"Aww, come on guys! I'm desperate, I need sugar and I ate the last of it last night, the packet of sugar quills under Remus's mattress, and now I need some,"
"Lets say, we could go to Honeydukes, would you have a problem with walking?" James called from the far end of the corridor as Sirius jumped of the step so fast it was like he had received an electric shock. That was, until, his ankle remained embedded in the stairs.
"Well, I wouldn't have a problem with walking except that my foot as been eaten by the step," Sirius complained and Remus and James jogged back to help him win the fight for his foot. They each took an arm and pulled and eventually the step was forced to regurgitate Sirius's poor foot. James turned around and signaled for them to follow.
"Follow me, I know a way,"
-:-
"It's just around here," she told Felicity and Jessica over her shoulder as they rounded the corner and the statue of the one eyed witch came into view.
"Where?" Felicity asked as she looked around the corridor which was empty of anything except for the statue.
"The statue," Lily said, indicating with her head as they walked along the corridor to reach it. Lily took out her wand as she approached the statue, and when she looked around to make sure no one else but them were there, she heard voices approaching from the other end of the corridor.
"Quick," she told Jessica and Felicity, taking out her want, tapping the witches hump and muttered 'Dissendium'. The hump opened and she ushered Felicity forward to go through first.
"Good thing I've been dieting," Felicity muttered after taking one look at the hole. She stepped up and slid down the small tunnel.
"See, this is why I shouldn't of had extra pudding last night," Jessica groaned and slid down after Felicity. Judging the distance of the voices, Lily made her decision. She sealed the hump and concealed her self behind the statue, so no one except someone who walked behind the statue would be able to see her.
"Since when do you come up with these smart ideas Prongs? Usually I'm the one who comes up with all the smart plans," Lily heard the voice of one of the approaches say.
"Ha, you and the word 'smart' are never used together in the same sentence," James laughed as they came around the statue and saw Lily sitting there. They all stopped in mid step.
"What are you doing here?" Sirius asked her suspiciously, looking at the red head sitting on the cold, stone floor.
"Waiting for you people to pass by," Lily said, standing up and brushing herself down. "What are you doing here?"
"Was there a reason why someone such as yourself would be hiding behind a statue to avoid us?" Sirius inquired, and Lily raised an eyebrow.
"Uh no, just avoiding seeing your face. Why does there have to be a reason?" Lily asked him sweetly. Sirius shook his head and stopped as the four of them heard the sound of tapping. Lily cringed. Remus raised his eyebrow.
"Christmas shopping," she grimaced
"Honeydukes," James told her, ignoring the looks Sirius and Remus were giving him and tapped the hump.
"Dissendium," he commanded and said "After you," to Lily when the hole revealed itself. James offered his hand to Lily as an aid to get up and although she was more than capable of getting into the hole herself, she took his hand just the same.
"You coming?" James asked Sirius and Remus after Lily had slid down and after giving James inquiring looks, they followed him down.
Lily had reached the bottom of the slid and landed on her bottom with a thump. Felicity and Jessica offered her their hands and they pulled her off.
"Was that your idea of a joke?" Felicity demanded as Lily brushed herself down "Leaving us down in this dark, damp tunnel?"
"No, I bumped into these people," She replied as James, Sirius and Remus tumbled down.
"You brought them down here? Why?" Felicity demanded, reminding Lily she didn't know about their 'history'.
"No, surprisingly, they knew about it too," Lily said, before turning her back to her and muttering 'Lumos'.
"Oh yes, surprisingly," Sirius grumbled as he picked himself off the floor.
"Do you mind if we accompany you ladies?" James asked, smiling at Lily. Sirius and Jessica were staring at each other, Jessica trying not to burst out laughing at his stupidity earlier that morning and Sirius was turning a light shade of pink, Remus was avoiding eye contact with Felicity at all cost, though on those rare occasions when he risked a glimpse of her he saw her eyes looking damp.
"Sure, why not," Lily said to James, and they lead the others into the tunnel. A few minutes later, Lily felt something on her other hand which was hanging by her side and looked down to see James's hand snaking around it.
"Patience and Claudia aren't here, we don't have to pretend," Lily muttered so only he could here.
"I know," said James, without letting go. Lily hesitated but didn't force her hand away. She looked over her shoulder and saw Felicity walking right behind them, Remus was at the very end of their parade so to speak and Sirius and Jessica were in between the two and Jessica was still paying him out for that mornings events.
"Look," she whispered to James, nodding her head over her shoulder. James turned around and understood what she was talking about.
"Now, this just won't do," he said under his breath but before either of them could do a thing about it, they had arrived under Honeyduke's cellar. After signaling for Jessica and Sirius to stop their bickering, James listened for sounds of footsteps above. When no noise occurred, Lily helped James push the stone slab across and one by one they hoisted themselves out.
Since they were there, they agreed it was best to let Sirius loose in Honeydukes than have the eternal battle of getting him through the shop without causing harm to human or sweet. An hour later, Felicity stood near the door with her small bag of crystallized pineapple, her one weakness she had learnt to control, Lily stood with a large paper bag full to the hilt with sweets, Jessica was standing there with three small carry bags stuffed full with sweets and Remus was standing next to Lily, the furthest he could get from Felicity with a block of Honeyduke's Dark Swirl.
James soon came into view dragging a mad Sirius and carrying five odd bags full to the brim with sweets of all different shapes and colour. Sirius was carrying a couple more bags that James and Lily wasn't sure if James was carrying his own supply or helping Sirius carry his.
"Drinks anyone?" James asked and four out of the six faces dropped.
"Sure, Three Broomsticks?" Lily asked as she and James led the others down the main street and into the bright pub.
"I'll buy, shall I?" Remus asked and speed away from the group like he couldn't escape fast enough and waited in line in the short cue that had formed in front of the bar.
"There's a spare table over there," Jessica said, pointing at a table over the far side of the bar, in a secluded sort of area. The five of them walked over and took their seats around the small table, waiting for Remus to return with the drinks. James started up a conversation with Jessica about their worst received Christmas presents and Lily, who couldn't wait for Remus to get back, ignored the
suspicious looks she was receiving from Sirius.
When James had made it to his seventh Christmas, Remus returned hovering a tray filled with six glasses of Butterbeer in front of him and placed it neatly on the middle of the table. They all helped themselves to a glass as silence consumed them all as they took their drink, before James continued his talk about Christmas presents with Jessica and Lily decided to spare Remus and begin a conversation about Charms.
When Lily was half way through her glass of Butterbeer, she decided it was time. Jumping up from her seat she announced.
"I need to go to the bathroom. Jessica, come with me?" she said, glaring at Jessica.
"But, I don't need-" she began but Lily strengthened her glare and Jessica stood up and followed her automatically.
"You know, I've always wondered why girls go to the bathrooms in twos," James thought out loud, directing his comment to Sirius hopping that his curious nature would come through.
"Me too, wanna find out?" Sirius said, and James grinning that it worked, jumped up and they followed after the girls, leaving Remus and Felicity sitting together, alone.
A/N: YAY! Another Chappie Up! YAY! Okay, Important Notice: The time it takes me to update my story I am now giving to the power of the masses. The more reviews I get, the faster I update. So if you want me to update quick, you guys have to all review! Thank You to Cherrykisses21, breeza13, Prongsy Loves Lily, Comicrileef, firewalker32, Someone aka Me, babydoll223 99, Lady Knight Keladry, Professor of Pig-latin, serenity12345, SpiceChaiPrincessOfDoom, Grey Mustang and zEthHPfrEak for being great enough to review!! Remember, the more reviews, the sooner the chapter! Hugs to all who reviewed!!
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