Chapter 14: Amusing Schooldays
"They're sooo cuteee!!"
"Get away from me!!"
"Oh my god. I love rabbits!!"
"What's happening??"
"Get that purple rabbit away from me!!"
"What the hell??"
"Aaahhhh.."
"Am I seeing things or did I really see colored rabbits of various sizes hopping around??" Lily rubbed her eyes and looked at the sight of the Great Hall again.
"Lils, I assure you that you're not seeing things because I happened to notice a green polka dotted rabbit sitting at our usual seat." Arabella walked up and carried the rather huge and heavy rabbit off the bench. The rabbit hopped away over to the Ravenclaw table.
"It must be the guys. Who else can be that good at transfiguration?? These rabbits look realistic actually." Lily commented as she carried a small pink rabbit, off the table so she can start eating her breakfast.
"Look, they can hop." Arabella added jokingly.
"Rather high too." Stefanie pointed at the red rabbit, which had just reached the Hufflepuff's tabletop with one leap from the ground.
"They can eat as well." Lily marveled at the transfigured black rabbit with white polka dots, which was nibbling a pancake at the Ravenclaw's table.
Albus Dumbledore was looking at the chaotic scene in front of him. Colored rabbits of various sizes were hopping around the Great Hall, some nibbling at the food on the tables while others were playing around with the students. I must admit this is a good way to start the school year. Blue colored rabbit, rainbow colored, and polka dotted designs. It's the first time I had never seen a scene like this in all my years as a Headmaster here. A Dalmatian-look-alike rabbit had just hopped onto the staff's table in front of Professor Porky and he pushed it off hastily. Dumbledore chuckled at the comical scene in the Great Hall.
"What do you think of our work??" James whispered to the girls as he settled beside Lily.
"We woke up at five to prepare all these rabbits, you know??" Sirus said and he faked a yawn.
"Looks like our transfiguration isn't too bad. We created the designs on the rabbits as well." Remus laughed as he helped himself with the toast while preventing one grass green rabbit from eating it off his plate.
"I transfigured one hundred and sixty six toothpicks, you know. Look at the polka dotted and striped rabbits. They are all mine." Sirus boosted as he helped himself on his second helping. A gray rabbit had hopped onto his lap. He shoved it off from his lap so that he can start eating.
"The plain colored are mine. I don't really want them to look too abnormal, you see." Remus commented as he patted the green rabbit next to him, feeding it with some toast.
"I don't think I ever recalled seeing a bright pink rabbit or a neon green rabbit in my entire life." Stefanie said, as she started laughing at the cute scene.
"I think this yellow rabbit is pretty cute. But what's with the unicorn picture on the side." Lily bent down and picked up a rabbit behind her and placed it on her lap.
"That's my masterpiece." James added, stopping his eating to explain. "I like plain and normal looking colors but Remus wanted plain colored ones too. So I figured that tattoos might look interesting on them. Anyway I transfigured one hundred and fifty one of these art pieces here. There're no two rabbits that are identical, mind you." James took a look at his right. In front of some Gryffindor first-years was a green rabbit with a rainbow 'tattoo' on it. Then at his left, where the sixth-year Gryffindor girls were sitting, was a light blue rabbit with a sun 'tattoo'.
"That's really creative, you guys. I didn't expect you all to come up with something as brilliant as this." Lily said sincerely, in an amusing but yet impressive tone.
"Well, this definitely adds a lot to your record-breaking detentions. I'm sure of that. In fact, McGonagall is heading our way now." Arabella laughed while she tried to cuddle a lavender rabbit with violet polka dots on her lap and eat her scramble eggs at the same time.
"Here's your timetable, Miss Evans, Miss Figg and Miss Black." Professor McGonagall handed out the timetables. "Potter, Black and Lupin, come with me to my office now!!" She barked. Her tone changed from the girls to the guys. But they all noticed that she was trying hard to stifle a giggle. The scene at the Great Hall that morning was too funny not to be laughing. Even Malfoy and his gang seemed to be having fun with a black rabbit with white stripes.
"Headmaster, these harmful rabbits attacked my students." Professor Porky, the head of Slytherin house, was pointing at Lucius' and Severus' nibbled fingers. The fingers did not appear to be injured at all, except some bite marks and a little scratches.
"Professor Porky, everyone knows rabbits are harmless." Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes, but turned and glared at James, Sirus and Remus, whose faces were now plastered with a look of totally faked out innocence.
"Professor McGonagall, I must emphasize that you should teach your students to behave themselves." Professor Porky insisted. Professor Porky, whose name contradicts with his physique, was tall and skinny. He was practically bony. His longish raven black hair had an unkempt and out-of-bed look. His face looked sunken and lacks the healthy radiant. Professor Porky was well known for his biasness on his own house and against everything with the Gryffindor house especially. There seems to be a grudge between Professor McGonagall and Professor Porky, but no one knows what is it. And that was only hearsay.
"Headmaster, I make sure they get their deserved detentions." Professor McGonagall said calmly. Although she was strict with her own house, she sided with them in times of need, especially when it was against the Slytherins.
"I think they ought to be suspended, headmaster." Professor Porky exclaimed. His hands were swinging rather wildly, trying to emphasize his point.
"Well, I'm sure Minerva knows how to deal with her students. Johnny, why don't you bring your students to Poppy so she can take a look at their serious injuries." Dumbledore said to both the professors before they head out of his office. His eyes twinkled in amusement. This was the second comical scene of the day. What's more coming up?
"This is really a bit too far!! How could I, the son of the head auror cum muggle businessman, Jason Black, be doing something like this?" Sirus complained as he started scrubbing the floor of the hospital wing toilet. The trio was serving their detention on the rabbit prank they played a week earlier.
"Remember our first detention?? It was in the hospital wing as well. And it was a year ago, on our second day of school!!" Remus commented in an amusing tone. He had gotten rather used to these sorts of detentions. Being brought up in a home where he never needed to do any form of housework, he had actually learnt all these from detentions. Now I truly understand what the house-elves have been doing all these while at home.
"Anyway I don't mind if we had to scrub the bedpans again. We could have some fun out of that." James laughed at the thought while continue scrubbing the vandalized walls. Some people seemed to like to do some writings and drawings while doing their business in the toilet.
"Pommpy freaked out when her patients had problems with the glue-infested bedpans." Sirus said, stopping his floor scrubbing, and started imitating Madam Pomfrey in her freaked-out look, "Oh merlin!! What happened?? Oh dear!! Oh dear!!"
"Don't we always make our detentions so interesting that we always look forward to have more of them??" Remus said as he scrubbed the stained toilet bowl rim.
"Since we had already did that on the bedpans, I don't think the same trick can be used on the toilet bowls. I'm sure Pommpy is smart enough not to fall for the same trick the second time." James said thoughtfully as he scrubbed the walls in another cubicle.
"I'm sure we can come up with some plank to be done here. This time Pommpy had obviously gotten smarter but taking away our wands for detention." Remus said, trying to scrub of some yellowish stain on another toilet rim.
"What do you suggest, Sirus?? You always have the brightest idea." James grinned cheekily.
"I'm out of ideas, the last eighty three pranks were my ideas." Sirus groaned.
"Yeah right, we only did one hundred and twenty five pranks last year, and out of which, at least fifty were my ideas!!" James retorted and threw the scrubbing brush over at Sirus. How can I get that pail of water over Sirus without me going over?? James thought as he pointed at the pail with his finger. Jeez, I thought the pail just vibrated. James pointed at the pail again and muttered "Wingardium Leviosa".
The pail full of dirty water flew above Sirus' head and emptied its content all over Sirus.
"What the hell??" Sirus muttered as he went to the shower room to rinse himself off the dirty water.
"How did you do that??" Remus asked, amazed at the usage of magic without wand.
"Yeah, tell me what did you do??" Sirus demanded, dripping wet with dirty water and clean tap water.
"I don't know. I just pointed at the object and muttered a spell. Then the pail did what I was thinking." James said, still stunned at his own actions.
"That just reminded me." Sirus said with a mischievous glint. He stared and concentrated at a pail of dirty toilet water and instantly the pail flew above James and poured its content over James' head.
"What the-??" James muttered and ran towards the same shower room to rinse himself.
"Don't tell me you can do wandless magic too?" Remus asked curiously.
"Wandless magic??" James asked, deep in thought about some bedtime story he heard from his mother when he was younger. Wandless magic. This sounded so familiar. But what was that story about??
"Remember that children story on the supreme seven??" Sirus asked, looking at both of them. The chocolate brown eyes met with blue-green and met with the light brown with similar expression.
"I don't know. Afterall, that's a children's tale isn't it??" James said suggestively.
"Well, if according to the story, one of them can do wandless magic, another one had eye power." Remus said, thinking about the story he had heard from his mother many years ago.
"I remember when I was younger, I used to play with Stefanie about flying objects in our nursery. She could make objects fly by thinking about it."
"Do you think we could be-??" James asked, amazed at his newfound power.
"Well, at least you two are something. I don't think I'm anything." Remus said sadly.
"Don't worry, regardless what happen you'll always be our friend. We need to go and find Dumbledore now." James dashed out of the toilet to find Madam Pomfrey about their urgent rush to find the headmaster. Sirus and Remus followed him and left the half-cleaned toilet.
"Ouch!!" Stefanie groaned as she tried to pick herself up. The Slytherins had just left the moment she tripped over an invisible string that they had ambushed outside the potions classroom. The invisible string now had disappeared without a trace after Lucius and his gang left laughing at the injured her. Stefanie had turned back because she had left her favorite notebook in the classroom. I must have sprained my left ankle badly. This is just so great. Lils and Bell are nowhere to be found. I need a stick. Yes, my broomstick.
Suddenly the view in front of Arabella blacked out. She saw Lucius and his gang ambushing Stefanie with an invisible thread outside the Potions classroom. She had tripped and twisted her ankle. Stefanie was now trying to pick herself up. Just as sudden, the view in front of her was back to normal.
"Are you alright??" Lily asked, concerned at her friend's unusual jerking motion.
"Stefanie sprained her ankle outside the Potions classroom. She's still there. We had to go and help her." Arabella said urgently and both of them rushed back to the dungeons. Lily barely had time to register the fact and reminded herself to ask Arabella about her powers of premonition.
"Stefanie!!" Lily shouted as Stefanie began to raise her wand.
"Lils!! Bell!! Malfoy and his gang must have ambushed me. Those idiots. My leg hurts!!" Stefanie was on the verge to tears. It looked like a very bad sprain.
Lily touched Stefanie's ankle and instantly the pain was gone.
"W-What did you do??" Stefanie asked in amazement.
"I'll explain to you once we get back to the dorm." Lily whispered and looked around for anyone who might have been around to witness what had just happened. Someone did in fact realized what Lily had done.
They ran as fast as possible back to their dorm. They were panting by the time they reached the portrait of the fat lady in pink dress.
"Rain drops." Arabella muttered. The portrait swung open and the three of them climb inside quickly. The common room was full of students. They turned and dashed up their dorm. Stefanie checked the whole room and the bathroom to see if Samantha and Joey were around.
"All clear." Arabella flashed thumb-up sign at Lily and Stefanie.
Lily began to tell her story about how she discovered that she could heal anything by touching when she was four. She mentioned about the multiple times she healed herself when her sister hurt her. She also mentioned the incident at the park when she was seven.
"You were the girl who healed me when I fell off my bike??" Stefanie asked in awed.
"You mean that girl was you??"
"Yes, I barely thank you that time. I was too stunned, you see. It was all Sirus' fault. He meddled with the brakes."
"I know, I saw two guys hiding behind the tree when you fell. It didn't strike me that was James and Sirus."
"You're a healer!!" Arabella shrieked.
"Yeah. I supposed."
"Do you know the story about the supreme seven??" Stefanie asked. Her blue-green eyes met the emerald green eyes and the purple eyes.
"You don't think Lily is one of them do you??" Arabella asked Stefanie quizzically.
"I don't know. But why not??" Stefanie said.
"Then who are the other six??" Lily asked, amazed. She had read the story from the books in the library. But these were fictions, right??
"I've the ability to use my mind to control things. I think I might be telekinetic." To prove her point, she closed her eyes and think about her pillow. The pillow whizzed across the room and landed on her lap.
"Wow. Both of you are amazing!!" Arabella breathed.
"Do you have any unusual powers??" Stefanie asked. Arabella gave some thoughts for a while.
"I don't think so." Arabella said sadly.
"How did you explain the fact that you saw Stefanie being ambushed at the dungeons just now??" Lily asked.
"I-I don't know. It was normal to me. I had these sorts of premonitions now and then. Most of the time was in dreams though." Arabella was trying to recall.
"One of the seven is a seer with the gift of premonition. Maybe you might be her. That's why we clicked so well." Stefanie suggested.
"Then who're the other four??" Arabella asked.
"I think Sirus had the ability of eye power. He displayed it before when we were younger." Stefanie thought about the times they made object fly in their playroom.
"Whatever it is. I think we should go and find Dumbledore and ask him." Lily said. They stood up and rushed off to Dumbledore's office.