DISCLAIMER: Anything you recognize isn't mine besides I am a poor college student who owns nothing so suing me would be pointless.

TBLPoS

And It Hits the Fan

TBLPoS

"You cast a spell on me!" Lily yelled in outrage as she came hurtling out of the secret passageway.

Sirius approached Lily cautiously while rubbing his head, "Now Lily let me explain-"

Lily shifted her eyes to Sirius briefly spitting out, "I have nothing to say to you, Black, I'm not surprised that you would try something like this." Lily then looked back at her original target, "But you, how could you?" Lily's eyes started welling with tears setting the green ablaze in a cold fire. "I trusted you. I told you things and this whole time you were tampering with me." She choked back a sob and continued in a quiet voice, "I thought you were my friend."

"I am your friend," Nikki started.

Lily quickly interrupted her, "No you're not. You wouldn't do that to a friend; you shouldn't do that to anyone."

"You're right. I wasn't your friend then, but I am now and I want to be."

"We," Sirius tried to interject before both Lily and Nikki shut him down. He stared on silently as the two girls went back and forth flinging emotions messily at each other. Lily was crying and stray strands of hair were sticking to the wet lines on her face. Nikki was also crying, that shocked Sirius. He had never seen her cry before. Her green eyes were wide and pleading with Lily and her lips were moving furiously trying to explain her action as Lily resolutely refused to hear what Nikki had to say. He was surprised at the power this scene held over him. For the first time he felt some guilt about messing with Lily. He may not have liked her at all, but he didn't want to hurt her.

"I don't want to hear it anymore!" Lily screamed breaking Sirius out of his thoughts. "You're both manipulative horrible liars. You may want to be my friend, but I don't want to be yours. How dare you mess with my mind. How dare you!"

"That wasn't the intent-" Nikki kept trying to say.

"Then what was the intent? To make me get close to some guy that I hate? To get a laugh out at poor nerdy Lily? Why would you play with my feelings like this?"

"Lily … I didn't … think," Lily scoffed at Nikki's admission. "I know that that sounds stupid but it's true. I didn't think about you. I thought about James and Sirius. I didn't think it would do any harm. No listen, please … I know I was wrong, but I didn't mean to hurt you. I just wanted you to give James a chance. If I could take it back, Merlin help me, I would."

"Well you can't," Lily spat eyes cold and narrow.

"I know," Nikki said dejectedly. "Not that it means anything, but the spell only lasted for twenty-four hours and it didn't change you thoughts or anything like that it just released your inhibitions. I can give you the spell book if you want so you can see it. I want to make this right."

"I'll take the book, but I don't want to be your friend anymore," with that said Lily walked silently away.

Sirius exhaled a breath that he didn't realize he had been holding. He knew why people used the metaphor of a tornado to describe emotions because he felt like he had been battered by hundred mile per hour winds. He looked from Nikki's stricken face to Lily's diminishing form wordlessly before breaking into a sprint after Lily. When he was close enough for her to hear him he said loudly, "James didn't know. You can hate us as long as you want, but James didn't know anything about it so don't hold it against him."

Lily continued walking away as if she had never heard him.

TBLPoS

After finishing classes and retrieving the library book from Sirius' room Nikki headed up to the girl's dorm room, which she hoped was empty. She opened the door to a silent room. Walking over to Lily's nightstand, Nikki placed the book on the table and stared at the tightly closed curtains around the bed. The curtain moved slightly revealing Lily's presence. Nikki stood indecisively for a few seconds before whispering, "Lily," in a voice that shook a little bit, "are you in there? I wanted you to know that we cast the spell at three in the morning on the day that Sirius went on patrol with you so …. anything that you did or felt after three am the next day was just you. You weren't under anything then." Nikki listened to the silence for another couple of seconds before adding, "James noticed you were different. I don't know if anyone else did, but James noticed. I just thought you should know." With that said, Nikki left the room.

Behind the closed curtain, Alice stared wide-eyed at Lily whose eyes were red and puffy from crying. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing," Lily said miserably, "it doesn't change what happened."

"Doesn't it?" Alice questioned. "I think it changes everything."

"How does it change anything?"

"Well, there are a few things. First, it doesn't change the fact that you, normal not jinxed you, decided to go on a date with James." Lily opened her mouth to protest, but Alice continued not allowing her to speak, "You agreed to go on a date with James and changed your mind about him during cocoa the night Sirius threatened you and the spell wasn't cast until three the next morning. Secondly you didn't kiss James until the following morning after your date together so you weren't under the spell then either. Thirdly, I think it speaks highly of James that he noticed you were acting differently and figured it all out when even I didn't notice. Sorry about that by the way," Alice added sheepishly at the end of her observations.

The tears in Lily's eyes dried up during Alice's explanation and the very eloquent response she came up with was, "oh…"

"I'll grab the book and we'll see what the spell says," with that Alice slipped her upper half out of the curtains and reemerged seconds later with Dr. Will D. Abandon's book.

TBLPoS

A/N: I finally posted the next chapter. I should have Chapter 11 up within the next two weeks.