Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter's world, including – but not limited to – Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, and Wingardium Leviosa. If I did, I would simply publish another book and make some money, rather than posting this story online for free. But alas, I am but a poor waitress...

Chapter 4: Luscious Lips

Divination was Mandy's only class that she didn't share with Lily. The redhead had dismissed prophecies and the like as being "a whole lot of hogwash," and refused to participate in such superstitious nonsense. A bit ironic, considering that she'd gone through the first decade of her life thinking that all of magic was make-believe.

Mandy, for her part, had yet to fully believe in destiny and fortune-telling, but it was an easy class with a relatively light workload, and therefore the perfect subject to have to end the school day on a lazy, Friday afternoon. She was partnered with Kate, who – despite putting a lot of stock in Divination – was usually an enjoyable and entertaining study-buddy. Marcy, being rather neutral on the subject, had opted for Arithmancy with Lily.

All four of the Marauders were taking the class, most likely for the same reasons as Mandy. She was fairly certain they didn't do anything alone, or take anything seriously. While waiting for Kate to see whatever was lurking in the depths of their crystal ball, she couldn't help eavesdropping on the boys' predictions.

"Hmm," Remus mused, "I see you running...you're being chased...by a large cat!"

Peter sent him a withering look, and barely glanced at the crystal ball before replying, "You're going to catch fleas from Sirius."

"Hey, I don't have fleas!" At the next table, Sirius Black looked highly offended.

"Not yet..." James said in a mysterious voice, "but beware! Also, you're wishing for a belly scratch."

"You're supposed to be reading my future, not my mind."

"...I'm just that powerful: I can do both." Leaning back on the hind legs of his chair, James exuded an air of indifferent confidence.

Sirius arched an eyebrow at his best friend. "Oh really? Well I predict that you have a major weakness, who goes by the name of–"

"Shut it!" James had happened to glance in Mandy's direction and caught her eavesdropping. The front legs of his chair slammed back to the floor, and he was now fixing Sirius with a harsh look that clearly said, don't you dare finish that sentence.

"Aha!" Her partner's sudden exclamation brought her attention back to her own table, and away from the utterly ridiculous predictions of her classmates. Honestly, they were worse than her own highly fictional dream diaries the elderly professor assigned each year (there was just no way she was sharing her little fantasies in a class project). Even so, she had her sneaking suspicions as to whom Sirius may have been referring...

"I can see your future!" Kate was saying excitedly. "There is a shadowy figure approaching, and it looks like a male. I think that means you're going to meet someone!"

"Meet someone?" It was apparently now their turn to be eavesdropped upon, as one Mr. James Potter was looking at them inquisitively, waiting for further explanation. The other boys looked on as well, with varying degrees of curiosity and/or mischief written across their faces.

"Yes, don't be dense, James. She's going to meet someone!" She placed a heavy, implicating emphasis on the term, then squealed in a most girly fashion. "Oooh, Mandy! You're finally going to get a boyfriend!"

Mandy felt her whole face flush a deep red. Could her friend have made that proclamation any louder? "I've had boyfriends before..." she tried to save at least some of her dignity, feeling the eyes of more than a couple additional students on her.

"Oh, no you have not," Kate waved her hand dismissively through the air. "You have gone on dates with a couple blokes here and there. It's not the same thing." She finally lowered her voice to a normal, 'indoor' level. "I bet you never even kissed any of 'em."

Lily couldn't have possibly told her, could she? No, Mandy reasoned, Kate was just perceptive. Still, best to try to keep that particular cat in the bag. Trying to keep her voice cool and casual, she replied, "Come off it, Kate. I've kissed plenty."

Kate rolled her eyes in response. "Girl, you know I love you," she began matter-of-factly, "but The Spaniard just does not count."

Mandy missed the confused look Sirius threw to his comrades, as her face seemed to catch fire. More blood than she would have thought possible rushed to her cheeks, her jaw dropped, and her hazel eyes popped wide open as she stared at the girl across the table in shock and disbelief. She didn't know what had gotten into her blonde friend to make her speak so freely in public, but bringing him up in mixed company definitely crossed the metaphorical line.

She snapped.

Kate took in the brunette's horrified expression, and her hand began to fly to her mouth in realization of what she'd just said. By the time it reached its destination, her lips were already five times their regular size thanks to Mandy's first jinx, and they were still growing. She wouldn't discover her suddenly green and purple hair until she later saw a mirror.

"Oh my...! What is going on here?" Professor Palmer, fluttering over to the commotion. The Marauders were in stitches, drawing the attention of other classmates. Kate's ridiculous appearance and loud, incomprehensible protests insured that the entire class was now disrupted.

Adding to the Professor's dismay, the poor girl began flailing her arms, knocking the forgotten crystal ball to the floor where it shattered into a million tiny, sparkling shards.

"Enough!" Palmer yelled into the ruckus. "Everyone, quiet down. That will be 20 points from Gryffindor for hexing another student, and detention for you, Miss Kendrick. Mr. Lupin, will you please kindly show Miss Johnson to the infirmary."

Mandy's rage dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, and her face melted into despair. "But –"

The Professor held up her hand as she turned to walk back to her desk, not even bothering to look back. "Not another word, Miss Kendrick."

Looking towards the door, Mandy just caught a glimpse of Kate's face, lips distorted and an absolute river of tears running down the girl's cheeks. Her stomach sank, and she suddenly felt immensely horrible about what she'd just done to someone she called a friend.

A slow clapping drew her attention to the remaining Marauders, who were still eyeing her with amusement and what appeared to be admiration. "Bravo!" James said appreciatively. "That was quite the show!"

They would like that, she thought bitterly, looking away.

"Who the hell is The Spaniard?" Sirius' voice was quiet and most likely not meant for her ears, but she heard him just the same.

With a frustrated groan, she let her forehead fall onto the now empty table, and didn't move for the remainder of the period. So much for her first weekend back at Hogwarts.

.oOo.

On her way to detention that evening, Mandy couldn't stop the replay of the day's events. After the disastrous Divination class, she had rushed to the infirmary to try to apologize to Kate. The previously-blonde had turned her swollen lips away from her in a clear dismissal, and she'd left the hospital wing with her head hung low.

Her shame was only increased when Lily caught up with her. Marcy had, by that time, hurried off to see to her friend, but the beautiful Head Girl had a thing or two to say about Mandy's behavior.

"What on EARTH were you thinking? You can't just go around cursing people – especially when that person is supposed to be one of your best friends!"

Mandy, caught somewhat off-guard by her usually level-headed companion's aggressive outburst, started to go on the defense. "It wasn't a curse, it was a hex. And she brought up The Spaniard!"

Lily fixed her with a glare that sent shivers down her spine, and she cast her eyes down in shame. Great, now she'd mouthed off to what might possibly be her only remaining friend, since God knew Marcy would abandon her if Kate told her to.

But Lily's words were somewhat softer when she finally spoke again. "Mandy, what she did may not have been right, but you know she didn't mean anything by it. You owe her a hell of an apology, and I sincerely hope she's feeling gracious when you speak to her."

Mandy didn't bother to tell her that she'd already tried that. Too soon, she knew Lily would say, too soon.

"And on top of all that," Lily continued, "you lost us house points, and the first week is barely finished." She shook her head in disappointment. "I might have expected that from someone like James or Sirius, but not you. I hope you'll think over that and learn from this experience during your detention." Somehow, she managed to say this without seeming in the least bit condescending.

She couldn't look the Head Girl in the eyes anymore, as she felt tears pricking in her own. Lily didn't say anything else, just gave her a small squeeze on the shoulder and walked away.

Mandy had found her own way to the library, not wanting to deal with anyone that might be lurking in the common room, and tried to focus on some homework in a small attempt to regain Lily's favor. By the time dinner rolled around and she left for the Great Hall, however, she hadn't really accomplished anything.

Dinner, in and of itself, was a whole other torture. She didn't know which she hated more: the disapproving looks from the more righteous students, or the congratulatory smiles and remarks from the kids who enjoyed blatant disrespect for school policy.

For the first time since her return to Hogwarts at the beginning of the week, she hardly touched her food and left the Gryffindor table with her stomach still in knots.

Wallowing in her self misery as she was, she didn't notice the footsteps approaching her, and was thus caught unawares when a voice suddenly piped up beside her.

"Awfully late for a walk, isn't it?"

Momentarily startled, Mandy turned to find herself walking with none other than renowned trouble-maker Sirius Black.

Quickly regaining her fairly morose disposition, she simply replied, "Then what are you doing here?"

"Why, I'm on my way to detention of course. What, you're surprised?" He asked, noticing her slight confusion.

"No. Well yes. But only to the fact that you seem to be heading there alone." None of the other Marauders were anywhere to be seen, and it had always been her assumption that if one of them was to be punished, they all were.

He chuckled, looking quite pleased with himself despite their (in her opinion) rather gloomy destination. "I'm hardly alone, am I? What with you here and all."

Her features remained nonplussed.

"Ah, you mean my fellow mischief makers. Well, you see, the professors – particularly McGonagal – realized some time ago the folly in letting us serve detentions as a unit. Alas, we are all now required to take our doses of punishment in turn."

"Makes sense," she allowed. And it did. If they got into so much trouble together, why give them further opportunity when they were meant to be repenting?

They continued walking in silence for a ways, then a question that had been bothering her since the Divination classroom finally bubbled to the surface. "So what is it exactly that we're meant to be subjected to for this detention?"

"Oh, all the worst sorts of things, you know." Sirius stated in an all too cheerful voice. "Filch takes entirely too much pleasure out of the whole 'punishment' aspect of things. We'll most likely be hung from our wrists by shackles, beaten with old broomsticks, nibbled upon by vengeful pixies..."

He continued on in this gruesome line of thinking all the way to Filch's office, where they were merely assigned to polishing everything in the trophy room.

"You're lucky," he whispered as soon as they were out of earshot of the grouchy caretaker, "he's going easy on you since you're new here."

Mandy couldn't help a small smile in spite of herself.

They had been polishing trophies for all of about two minutes when Sirius broached the subject they had both been anticipating since he first caught up with her.

"So that was quite the display you put on in Divination today."

Mandy could feel the color in her cheeks rise ever so much, but she, made only a non-committal "Mmmh" in reply.

"I don't think I've ever seen Professor Palmer quite so flustered." He was not one to easily give up. "And I know I've never seen lips that big."

Her cheeks warmed even more and she turned to face him, a frown placed quite solidly across her face.

"The hair, on the other hand, was a tad unoriginal. I mean, who hasn't jinxed someone's hair an awful color? Very second year, that."

"She had a big mouth, and I only made it more obvious." Mandy snapped without thinking. "The hair was... a bit of an accident."

Sirius laughed, and gave her a quizzical look. "A big mouth? What, for mentioning your lack of boyfriends? Or abundance of mediocre dates, depending on how you look at it."

She scoffed at the insinuation. "I have had plenty of perfectly decent dates, thank you very much!"

"'Perfectly decent' is nowhere near great, or even good. And from what I've heard, they weren't even that."

"Excuse me?"

"Danny York."

She smirked at the memory. Danny had graduated last year, but before he left he'd asked her to Hogsmeade. He seemed nice enough, so she'd obliged. He had taken her to Madame Puddifoot's (ew, tacky), then tried to caress her cheek. She had gently pushed his hand away. When he proceeded to place that wandering hand on her thigh, she had socked him in the family jewels. No means no, and he learned his lesson that day.

"That wasn't my fault, he had it coming."

"Mark Dobson?"

"No confidence." The poor Hufflepuff had asked her to sit with him at dinner one night. He was so nervous that he spilled his entire goblet of pumpkin juice in her lap. He was a sweet boy, but he would never have been able to keep up with her and her friends. She wanted a boyfriend, not an accessory.

Sirius didn't say anything else, and Mandy looked up from the bronze statue he was polishing to find him staring expectantly at her.

"What?" she asked, the word coming out more defensively than she would have liked.

"Those are the only two blokes I can think of that you've gone out with, and they only prove my point. She didn't really say anything that wasn't already common knowledge..."

He paused, as if waiting for her to further explain. Instead, she turned her attentions back to the statue and scrubbed it harder than ever, hiding her eyes behind her thick fringe and praying to Merlin that he hadn't caught Kate's slip about the Spaniard.

"Except –"

Ah, no such luck. "Do you think this is clean enough?" She loudly interrupted, thrusting the statue in front of his face. Her face was set in a determined glare, silently demanding the end of the conversation. She could see the questions and curiosity brewing behind his eyes, but he didn't let any of it reach his lips.

"I'm sure it's fine," he replied, although his gaze never left hers to actually look at the object in front of him.

His stare was somewhat unnerving, as if he was trying to read her thoughts since she wasn't giving him any verbal answers. "Good," she said simply, blinking and turning to break the eye-contact.

She reached for the next trophy needing to be polished, and the rest of their detention passed in silence. Mandy couldn't quite decide whether or not it was awkward. Part of her felt that it was, since conversation would only be natural while working in such close perimeters, but at the same time the busy work kept her hands preoccupied while her mind wandered, and the quiet was almost peaceful.

After Filch finally released them, however, a silent walk through the castle became too much for her and she blurted out the thought that had been gnawing away at her increasingly throughout the detention. "Lily is disappointed in me."

After so long without use, her voice was soft. Sirius made no reply and she wondered if he had even heard, but then decided she didn't care. It's not like she had anyone else to talk to at the moment. Even if everyone hadn't been sleeping already, she was fairly certain that two of her friends hated her.

"She's lectured me about little things like homework and keeping my things tidier, but she's never really been disappointed in me before. The way she looked at me earlier... I've never felt so ashamed of myself." Mandy sighed in a defeated manner as she fell silent again.

"Do you know James once threw one of Remus' essays into the fireplace back in fifth year?" Sirius' voice seemed loud in the quiet hallway and nearly startled the girl beside him.

She looked up at him quizzically, not really understanding where the sudden story was coming from. "Why?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "He was frustrated with the heavy workload for the exams, and when Remus got on him about finishing the transfiguration essay, which he of course had already finished, James just snapped. He grabbed it out of his hands and burnt the whole thing, all ten-and-a-half feet of it."

"That's awful!" Mandy exclaimed, looking properly horrified. She remembered all too well the stress leading up to their OWL's, and couldn't even imagine her reaction had someone destroyed any of her hard work.

But to her surprise, the teen beside her laughed at the memory. "Yeah, Remus thought so too. They had a huge row about it. But James later groveled and Remus got over it quick enough. Your friends will too."

Mandy blinked in surprise. Was Sirius Black showing actual compassion for someone besides his mates and McGonagal? Shock left her silent, and it was just as well, for they'd reached the portrait of the fat lady.

"Jibberjabber," Sirius called out, and the portal swung open to admit them. "Chin up, Kendrick," he said as they split toward their separate dormitories, "You'll be alright."

A/N: Please leave a review if you like the story, and if I've made any horrendous mistakes feel free to point them out. :) Thanks for reading!

– Sara