Plot: The infamous Marauders weren't alone in their love for pranking. In fact, they often had their butts kicked by a bunch of girls. Now, this is it. Seventh year. Four girls, four boys. Two opposing pranking teams. One hell of a battle to be won.
Disclaimer: Sad as it may be, I am not J.K. Rowling in disguise, and therefore I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters or themes involved. (I do, however, own Jamie, Hannah and Regan and most elements of this specific plot—so I'd appreciate it if no poaching occurred. Thanks.)
WARNING (please read): This is the unedited version, meaning I wrote it a few years ago when my skill level sucked and I had no idea how to properly structure a story. So if you'll please ignore the terrible grammar, dodgy sentence structure, OOC-ness, plot holes, canonical inconsistencies and general immaturity of this whole chapter while I plough my way through all this editing work, that would be greatly appreciated. :) I'm in the process of fixing up all the chapters right now, but you'll have to be patient, because (as you can probably tell just by reading a couple of sentences below) fixing this stuff up takes a lot of time and effort.
Chapter 13 – Changes
To say that the aftermath of the night's events had a devastating effect on the Rogues would be a huge understatement. By the time the sun peered over the hills to the east of the castle, the girls' minimal sleep had allowed things to digest, and the end result was borderline disastrous.
Lily, who hadn't slept more than a few hours, woke to severe stomach sickness. After throwing up several times in the bathroom, she blamed her queasiness on the repugnance that lingered on from the night before. She continued to feel ill at ease when, involuntarily, her thoughts drifted to the Marauders, and the idea of facing James for a whole hour of discussing Heads' duties sent her stomach into a raging turmoil. She almost gagged when she remembered her sickening and unintentional confession, although she was further disgusted that James had expected consequences less severe than this after the senseless trick he and his nasty friends had pulled. She hated to think that after convincing herself he had changed, even considering that she might have feelings for him, one spiteful prank had proven her an idiot. Who was she kidding? James Potter simply wasn't capable of being mature.
Jamie bluntly refused to roll out of bed in the morning. She groaned and buried her face in a pillow, claiming that she would blow off all of her classes if only she could go back to her dreams. Lily empathized for the girl, understanding almost exactly what her friend must be going through. After all, she too had let slip her feelings and was also going to have to face the embarrassing consequences.
The moment that Regan woke up – although she was not quite brought to her senses at this point – she sat bolt upright and started sputtering incoherently, concluding her flustered rambling with:"It was a dream, right?"
From where Lily lay on the bathroom floor, leaning her head against the bathtub and clutching her stomach, she had regretfully muttered a negative response before closing her eyes again.
The most abnormal reaction, though, was Hannah's. Although she had taken the most brutal emotional blow the previous night, it seemed to have little effect on her in the morning. Although was uncharacteristically quiet, she didn't appear distraught at all, unlike the others. She went about her business as if nothing had happened, and aside from her lacking in talkativeness, the excess amount of time she spent in front of the mirror seemed to be the only difference.
Lily was not convinced by Hannah's apparent nonchalance, even though it was difficult to spot any holes in her carefully constructed masquerade. After how she had taken Sirius's words last night, Lily knew she must be aching inside. But she wasn't showing it at all.
Although they had been well awake for over an hour, it was scarcely six o'clock by the time Lily bothered to check the clock on the bathroom counter, meaning that they had more than three hours remaining before lessons commenced. When Lily's stomach was finally emptied – although unfortunately still quite unsettled – she slumped back down onto her bed with a loud sigh.
"Lils, you look like hell," Regan said, concerned.
"I wonder why," Lily replied with a weak attempt at sarcasm. She knew Regan had good reasoning behind her claim – Lily had seen her reflection on her way out of the bathroom, and she looked dreadful. Her face was as white as a sheet, with a horrible hue of greyish green. A thin sheen of sweat coated her ghostly cheeks, while her hair hung in a tatted bundle over her shoulders and dark circles of purple hung beneath her droopy eyes.
"If you're taking the day off, Lily, I'm quite happy to stay with you," Jamie offered hopefully.
Lily looked up, suddenly all too aware of the day ahead. "I can't skip, there's so much going on," she said glumly. "There's that practical assessment for Charms – I can't miss that – and I have to hand in those essays to Slughorn–"
The answering don't-be-such-a-Lily glares that met her words were enough to make her stop mid-sentence. She sighed and planted her face in the sheets, exasperated.
"Lil, you need the rest," Jamie said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I guess it couldn't hurt," Lily sighed in defeat.
There was silence for a few moments, before it was broken, surprisingly, by Hannah.
"I'm not going to classes either," she shrugged. They all stared blankly at her, and she rolled her eyes at them before explaining. "I've got better things to do than endure the Marauders all day."
Nobody questioned her. It was almost as though she were somehow more fragile after what had happened with Sirius – like anything would hit her hard now that her barrier of confidence had been broken down.
"Don't look at me like that, guys," she said, sounding suspicious a little offended.
"Like what?" Regan asked, abruptly snapping her expression back to a somewhat casual one.
"Like I'm some kind of breakable ornament." Hannah furrowed her eyebrows apprehensively.
There was no response to this beyond more vacant expressions, and so Hannah groaned in mild annoyance, standing up. "I'm going back to the Gryffindor dorms," she said resolutely, and strolled off towards the door. She turned back to them when she was a few feet away from the exit. "Are any of you gaping freaks coming?"
"Hannah, we should talk..." Lily trailed off, not sure what to say next.
"What's to talk about?" the girl shrugged dismissively and closed the door behind her as she left.
Lily sighed dejectedly, rolling over as she felt another surge of nausea. It looked as though Hannah had put up another protective shield after the destruction of the first. Only this time, it wasn't natural. She wanted desperately to get through to her friend so that they could sort things out, but judging by the way things were going so far, it wasn't going to be an easy task.
"Get up, Jamie," Regan coaxed as she attempted to drag her stubborn friend off of the four poster bed. "We're going to be late for breakfast if we don't get down to the kitchens soon."
"I'm not going to breakfast," Jamie groaned, folding her arms around the bedpost as if protectively.
"Yes, you are!" Regan tugged at the girl's arms in frustration, trying without much success to pry her arms away from the bed.
"I'm staying here." Jamie's voice was firmly decisive.
"Unless you're drowning in your own sweat like Lily here – sorry Lily – then you're coming with me!"
"Actually, I'm not feeling so well either..."
"Oh, please!"
There came a groan from the bed to their left. The pair turned in time to see Lily raise a hand to her forehead, shifting in discomfort where she lay on her mattress. The bed had been stripped of covers, and the red-headed girl lay sprawled across it, dressed lightly in a singlet and shorts.
"Sorry, Lily," Regan apologized, giving Jamie a stern glare.
Reluctantly, Jamie removed her arms from around the bedpost and slipped off her bed. "Fine," she said in grudging resignation. "I'll go. But in Defense Against the Dark Arts, you're sitting next to me no matter what Professor Marsh says."
Only a few days after the allocation of their original seats in Professor Marsh's classroom, the toad-like teacher had switched the location of several people, including Jamie, who had been assigned to the spot next to Remus. Though originally, the pair had not been as strongly opposed to their placement as a few very furious others – take Hannah and Sirius for example – it now seemed the most horrid pairing the teacher could possibly have come up with.
"Deal," said Regan with a smile, looking very pleased by this arrangement herself. Her spot next to Peter was hardly more bearable.
After dressing in their school clothes, Regan and Jamie packed their bags with their books and writing supplies. They were first heading down to the kitchens to pick up some things for Lily, who was resting in the dormitory for the day. After that, they would be preparing themselves to face the awkwardness brought on by the night's activities.
"I'm really starting to worry about Hannah," Jamie sighed as they gathered their things together.
"Yeah," said Regan, biting her lip. "I wonder where she is."
When the three of them had returned to Gryffindor Tower, their blonde friend had already left. She hadn't made an appearance since, and so the girls were beginning to get a little concerned, mostly because of her curious words earlier about having better things to do.
"She's probably in the Owlery sending howlers to Black," Regan shrugged after a moment of total silence.
Slinging their bags over their shoulders, the two girls started towards the door.
"Lils?" Jamie asked softly as they were about to depart.
"Hmm," was the answering groan.
"We'll be back in a few minutes. Hope you're feeling better."
"Fat chance," Lily scoffed, her words barely audible as she spoke into a pillow.
"See you," Regan said, and with that, she and Jamie left for the kitchens.
Aa-Br, Bu-Ci...
Hannah keenly scanned the shelves, all crammed with books that were covered in a layer of dust that appeared to be about an inch thick. The titles were tricky to decipher under the grime, and so she went by the alphabetical indicators on the side of each shelf. These, too, were dusty, but not masked to the extent that the books were.
As usual, scouring the restricted section brought to Hannah a great thrill and an enthusiastic feeling of excitement, instead of the guilt and the worry of being caught it would stir up in most students. Of course, judging by the unused state of the books, not many students had been up to this rule-breaking task – or perhaps they had walked the aisles but were caught by Filch before they could lay a hand on any of the volumes.
It had been relatively easy to get into the library, despite the popular belief among students that Madam Pince had it guarded at all hours by a vicious pack of oversized apes. She had only to use a tiny magical instrument – a silver knife given to her by her somewhat nutty grandmother – to break through the lock on the door, and from there, things couldn't have been simpler. There was no one in the library as of yet, and she planned to be out of there before students started arriving. So really, there was no risk of getting caught.
Finally, Hannah came to a wooden board with a label that read 'Ev-Fr' and slipped quickly in between the shelves. She ran a finger up and down as she searched for a particular title. Finally, toward the other side of the shelf, she found it – a thick, emerald green binding in between several others of blander colours.
Hannah could hardly keep her excitement contained as she reached an eager hand toward the book's spine. The writing was golden – it was illuminated slightly by the light that poured in from the windows, filtered by the many rows of bookshelves and reduced to a faint glow.
She lifted the book carefully from its place up high. After she slid it off the shelf, she had to catch it in both hands – it was very heavy. Smiling with satisfaction, she looked down at the cover of the book. 'Warbus Flechbert's All-Telling Guide to Animagi and their Development' was written in a large font across the front, and a tiny illustration of a human figure standing next to that of an animal filled the remaining space.
In Hannah's opinion, there wasn't much point of placing such a book in the section that was off limits to students; the particular subject was something they learned about in their ordinary classes at school. But the information that Hannah knew was contained inside this book was of the sort that the teachers might think could cause mayhem if swallowed by the wrong students. She almost laughed at this thought – the book was probably put in the restricted section to keep it out of the hands of students like herself and her mischief-making friends.
She wanted terribly to lift the front cover of the book and begin reading straight away, but she knew that it had to wait until she returned to the dormitory. She had to get out of here as soon as possible, or else the book would be confiscated and she would be thrown in detention for her actions.
Striding briskly back to the door, Hannah peered around to be sure that there was nobody to see her. For safety measures, she slid the book into the bag that hung over her shoulder before she exited the library and swung the door shut behind her. Mission accomplished, she thought to herself in contentment as she rounded the corner and continued swiftly on her way back to Gryffindor Tower.
"Miss Love! Miss Tain! What in the name of Merlin do you think you are doing?"
Professor Marsh's sharp voice cut into them like a thousand knives as the teacher marched suddenly into the room, and the two girls' heads snapped up immediately. They glanced worriedly at each other, and then Regan turned to face the Professor. "Um, sitting down?" she said with a wide, hopeful smile.
"I should hope you're not losing your memory at your ripe age, Miss Tain," Marsh said in a response that disappointed the girls. Despite what sounded like humour in her words, her tone was as dry as the drone of a sullen raven. "If I must remind you, your place is over there, next to Mister Pettigrew." She pointed to the spot that Remus currently occupied, and widened her eyes as she noticed this second misdemeanour.
Regan rolled her eyes – tactfully turning towards Jamie as she did so – and grabbed her bag from where it sat next to her feet. Remus walked past her as they exchanged spots, and they both kept their eyes averted.
Jamie froze. She edged her chair as far from the other as possible and turned her head, letting her flowing, golden ponytail fall down across the side of her face. She heard the chair scrape against the ground as Remus seated himself, and she tried to ease her breathing.
She wanted to scream out loud at Professor Marsh. How continue to be adamant about the seating plan when the discomfort between the Marauders and the Rogues was so painfully obvious? Jamie knew she wouldn't survive the lesson like this. She would eventually die from lack of oxygen if she didn't start breathing again, but she couldn't help it. She was too anxious to breathe normally, and the only breaths she was currently capable of taking were too quick and too short to be considered natural, so she resigned herself to not drawing in any air at all. This, as she had predicted, was not a clever plan. A few moments later, she let all the air out in one go and gasped for breath. She could feel Remus's bemused eyes on her as her cheeks warmed with embarrassment.
Jamie managed to work quite successfully through the lesson with her head turned away from him, although she was excruciatingly aware of his gaze lingering on her occasionally. They didn't exchange a singly word, and for that, Jamie was thankful.
But her luck didn't last beyond the half-hour milestone. Much to her bewilderment, Remus addressed her at this point.
"Uh, Jamie?"
She stiffened at his nervous words. The polite thing, she knew, would be to turn around and accept whatever he had to say. It might just be a question about the work they were doing – maybe he only wanted to know about the exact location of the previously undercover Auror station in Polynesia.
She silently scolded herself for being so stupid. Of course he knew that already – this was Remus Lupin, for crying out loud. Instead of turning to look at him, she continued to face in the opposite direction.
"Jamie?" he repeated, his words a little stronger this time. "We need to talk."
Jamie still didn't respond. She knew she was being ridiculous and vulgar, but she didn't know what else to do. She was far too shy to speak with him face to face, so this seemed the only option that was even vaguely reasonable.
"Are you just going to ignore me?" There was a trace of hurt in his voice this time. Jamie's eyebrows creased, but she said nothing. "Come on, Jamie, don't be like this."
After a few more failed attempts, Remus resigned and went back to quietly finishing his work. Jamie sighed, rather annoyed at her foolishness.
She was going to have to speak to him sometime. The awkwardness wasn't going to go away unless she faced up to it. But she wasn't sure what to say to him. It seemed he already knew everything there was to know – she had feelings for him, the end. What more was there to say?
Again, she was irritated by her own stupidity. There was still everything to say – Remus still hadn't expressed his reaction to her confession.
And this was the reason for her worries. She didn't know if she wanted to hear what he had to tell her. It would be uncomfortable, sitting there and trying to absorb whether or not he returned these feelings. But mostly, it was not a question of unease. It was more about his answer itself – what if he didn't like her back?
She would have to find out eventually – but she wasn't quite ready for it. Not yet, anyway.
The way I put it together was a bit sloppy, and I know my writing wasn't particularly wonderful in this chapter, but you can't expect anything better from Chapter Thirteen. And it was a chapter nonetheless, so don't complain. The next chapter should be up fairly soon, so keep an eye out for it. But while you're waiting, why not drop a review? :)