Chapter 43: Masquerade

Days in Avalon

For the next few days all was quiet among the new alliance. James and Lily kept an eye out for any strange appearances among the students but found nothing. For the most part everyone thought it was a good idea to lay low for a few more days to not arouse suspicion among the professors. That is until about a week after the initial incident.

"Hey there, Sparky," said Sirius as he sat down next to the blond at breakfast one Monday morning.

She glanced up from her Dark Arts book and knew whatever was on his mind, was not going to be pretty.

"What do you want Black?" she asked dryly.

"Oh, nothing really," he said nonchalantly while pouring a glass of orange juice. "Just a few strands of blond hair, that's all."

Andy slightly snorted at his comment. "Take your pick. There are quite a few blonds at this school."

"Yes, but none of them have that perfect shade like yours," he said sweetly.

Andy stopped reading her book and turned quickly to look at him properly. It was then that she realized just how close he was to her and involuntarily scooted down a bit from him. "What are you getting at Blackie?"

"I've got an idea and I need your assistance," he said in a low voice.

Andy raised her eyebrows at his request before answering him in the same tone. "Why do you need more of my hair? Kelly has a enough for quite a few more transformations."

Sirius looked around for a split second to make sure no one was looking at them or eaves dropping. "True. But I don't."

"Excuse me?" she responded with confusion written all over her face.

Sirius sighed deeply. "Look, just hold still."

"Get your hands away from my head!" Andy barked as she swatted Sirius's hands away.

"Sparky, come on!" he said as he tried again.

"Knock it off Black or I'll turn you into a tea cup," she growled. It was then that Sirius realized her far hand had dived into her robes and was now jamming her wand into his stomach. Slowly he back away before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Now why do you need them?" she said darkly. "What is so important that you just can't tell Kelly?"

"It's something that I know she won't do and you would only do it if you get something out of it," he said.

"What? Butter up to Slughorn to sneak into his secret stash?" said Andy as she refilled her cup off coffee.

"Close," he said with a slightly disgusted look upon his face. "Right idea, just wrong target."

Andy looked at him as his gazed traveled across the room. She followed it over towards the Slytherin table where a student with grease hair was reading and taking notes.

"Snape?!" squeaked Andy. "Oh hell no!"

"Come on, Starmenter," said Sirius while rolling his eyes.

"Over my dead body," she growled. "There is no way I'd ever sink to those depths real or fake."

"That's why I'm going to do it," he sighed deeply.

Andy then gave him a cynical look. "You? Seduce Snivellus? Please. With your temper, I wouldn't be surprised if you put in hospital for a week."

"Hey I can control my temper when I need too."

"Blackie you pushed him down a flight of stone steps yesterday for walking too slow," she said before taking a sip of her drink.

"Well…"

"My point exactly. Besides why do you need to get close to him anyway?" asked Andy out of curiosity.

"Pomes," Sirius replied simply.

"Huh?"

"You heard me," he said before taking a bite out of a roll.

Andy stared at him for a moment before shaking her head in confusion. "Wait a minute. Let me get this straight. You want my hair for a polyjuice potion, to transform yourself into me for the purpose of seducing your arch enemy; risking not only our entire plan not to mention dragging my name through the mud, all for a couple of poems?"

"Pretty much, yeah," said Sirius as he grabbed for the plate of eggs that had just appeared. A second later he felt a sharp blow to the back of his head.

"OW!" he said while rubbing where Andy had slapped him.

"I'd kill but there are too many witness around," said Andy. With that, she got up from her seat and headed out of the Great Hall.

It took Sirius about a minute to catch up with her and jump in front of her path. "Here me out, Sparky," he said with his hands raised.

"I feel a headache coming on," she said as she side stepped him and began walking again.

"These poems could work in Prong's favor," said Sirius trying to convince her. Andy stopped in her tracks once again and leaned against the stone wall while gazing at Sirius.

"What is so special about some dumb pomes of Snivellus's?" she asked, not really seeing the point.

"They're about Lily," said Sirius as if it were obvious.

"What?"

"Oh, like you didn't know Snivellus has a crush on our Lily flower?" said Sirius while folding his arms.

"I'm aware of it," growled Andy. She remembered back when they were in third year seeing them together in dark hallways. It was one of the many issues that caused the two of them to stop talking for a few months back then.

"Well I bet you didn't know that even though they aren't on speaking terms any more, Severus has still been writing love poems about her and wishing she would forgive him," said Sirius with a smirk.

"So what? The little prick messed up! It's not like…"rambled Andy until a light bulb went on in her head.

Sirius saw that she had caught on to his plan and nodded his head in encouragement.

"Oh, wait you want…oh no. Nah uh. Dream on Blackie," laughed Andy.

"What?" asked a confused Sirius.

"I'm not letting you steal Snape's creep forlorn sonnets and pass them off as James's work," said Andy with authority.

Sirius stopped for a moment and thought of something quickly. "We could use them to make Prongs jealous?"

"No Black! Geez and you wanted me to help you? You must be nuts," she said rolling her eyes.

"Oh what? It's not like it's hard to pretend to be you," sneered Sirius.

"Black, with my luck you'd make me out to be a two-bit tramp, and ruin my relationship with Tristan along with it," growled Andy.

"Not a bad idea," said Sirius under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Sirius sighed. "I would never do such a thing to ruin your image."

"Right," said Andy with a raised eyebrow. "Whatever. Come on, we'd better hurry or we'll be late for Dark Arts."

"Oh goodie," said Sirius darkly. "More boring lectures."

Andy merely rolled her eyes before pushing him along and walking down the hallway toward a short cut to the Dark Arts room.

After taking about ten steps, Lily, Felicia, and Kelly came up from behind her. Andy could hear the distinctive jingle of the charm on Lily's bag that she had given her a few years prior.

"Hi Lil," said Andy as she stopped for her friends.

"Hello Andy," said Lily giving her a skeptical look while watching Sirius continue down the hallway toward class.

Andy followed Lily's eye sight before turning back toward her friends, who were now giving her the slight death stare. "What?"

"Is the war over?" spat Felicia.

"Excuse me?" inquired Andy completely lost.

"You and Black," growled Felicia. "The two of you practically shared an entire meal together and you didn't try to kill him."

"Contrary to what people may think, I can sit next to the playboy and not inflict harm on him. Of course I did slap him upside the head," said Andy.

"What Felicia is trying to say," Lily started, "is whatever you two where talking about…it looked pretty heated."

"We were talking business," said Andy honestly.

"Business?" asked Kelly with a raised eyebrow. She saw Andy look directly at her and nod, silently answering her true question.

"Quidditch business," said Andy smoothly.

"Oh…right," said Kelly. Felicia merely rolled her eyes while scoffing at her friends.

Andy didn't say anything but continued to walk down the hall with her friends. It wasn't until they reached the secret tunnel to the Dark Arts classroom that Andy noticed the look on Lily's face.

"What now?" Andy groaned.

"Nothing," Lily said simply. A second later Andy's arm slammed against the cold stone wall blocking her path.

"Spit it out Evans," Andy barked. It wasn't even eight in the morning yet, and already she had the beginning stages of a major headache starting. "You know I hate it when people start something and never finish it."

"Well…" said Lily calmly trying to find the right words. "if what was going on between you and Black was Quidditch business, I'd hate to see what would happen if the topic was not sports related."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Andy asked with raised eyebrows.

"She's talking about the fact that lately Black can't stop staring at you," said Kelly.

"Excuse me?" said a somewhat flabbergasted Andy.

"Oh come on Miranda! You know he's been checking you out more and more with each passing day," said an irate Felicia.

Andy shook her head to rid herself of the initial shock of Felicia's tone. "Right. Okay. I think the lot of you need to stop reading those stupid trashy romance novels."

"Andy," started Lily.

"Come on," laughed Andy at how ridiculous her friends were acting. "Sirius Black interested in me? Please."

With that Andy continued to chuckle lightly as she walked past her friends and continued on to class. But deep down a part of her hoped that she was only slightly wrong.

"I told you not to say anything," said Kelly as she watched Andy walk away.

"Hey it's best to warn her now then before something bad happens," said Felicia as she brushed a strand of hair out the way.

"She's with Tristan," said Lily trying to put the idea to rest. "There is no way she'd ever fall for Black."

"Maybe," said Felicia after a moment. "But that doesn't mean he's not going to try to do something. To him Andy is the one person he's never been able to charm which makes her the most unobtainable."

Lily shook her head at Felicia's words. "I think Andy is right in thinking that you are reading way too much into this whole mess."

As the students arrived at class, their new Dark Arts professor scheduled for them to have a practical lesson that day. The class was set up into a tournament in which the students would be dueling each other in order for the professor to get a better understanding as to how far along the class was.

By the end of the class the period there was a three way tie for first place belonging to Remus Lupin, Miranda Starmenter, and Severus Snape.

As she was gathering her things she felt someone come up behind her. Although normally she hated when people snuck up behind her, this time however a wave of comfort washed over her.

"Congrats there Sparky," said Sirius in a low tone right by her ear.

"Thanks Blackie," said Andy as she turned to look into his grey eyes. "You weren't half bad yourself."

Sirius slightly chuckled at her response before responding. "Too bad our match was a draw."

Andy knew that the purpose of this small talk was to buy some time while there were still some students hanging around. "I guess all those years of practicing on each other took all the fun out of it."

"Possibly," said Sirius as he watched the last person leave the classroom. "Okay…anyway. I've come up with a new idea."

Andy let out a loud groan while she rubbed the side of her head. She dropped her bag and jumped up onto her desk to hear what Sirius had to say now. Karen quickly jumped up next to her, while Kelly and Remus stood next to them.

"All right, we're listening," said Remus.

"Not here," said Sirius. He then motioned for them to follow his lead. The four of them looked at each other before following his path. Within a matter of minutes the five of them were now standing in the middle of Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.

"Okay. So what's the big secret," asked Kelly sarcastically.

Sirius let a small smirk come across his face before he answered. "We're going to seduce James."

"Excuse me?" said Karen with a laugh. She looked to Andy who shook her head while continuing to rub her one temple.

"That's the big plan? Get real Black," said Kelly.

"Well actually it will be Lily seducing him," said Sirius.

"And just how is Lily going to do that?" inquired Remus. It was then that Sirius pulled out a long strand of red hair from inside of his robes.

"Oh no! Forget it, Black," laughed Kelly. "I'm not hitting on Potter."

"Don't worry, you're not," said Sirius while looking directly at Andy. It took her a moment to realize the room had gone quiet and that he along with her other friends were now gazing at her.

"Me? Why me?" said Andy pointing at her chest.

"Because out of the lot of us, you can the play the part of Lily perfectly," said Sirius as if the answer were obvious. "Plus with your experience in appealing to the young men of Hogwarts."

"Oh please," said Andy while rolling her eyes trying very hard not to gag.

"And there's also the fact that you dated Prongs," said Sirius with a slight grimace.

"Yeah, about a million years ago! And if you remember, the reason why we broke up is because he's more like a brother to me than a boyfriend," yelled Andy.

"Oh come off it," said Sirius getting tired of Andy's stonewalling. "It's not like I'm telling you to sleep with him."

"Oh would you two please! I'll do it," roared Kelly. She stormed past Sirius toward the stall where they were storing the polyjuice potion they had brewed.

"Actually I was going to have you be Andy," said Sirius.

"No! Now come on," barked Kelly while she slammed the door open with a loud bang. But upon looking into the stall she found something amiss. "Ummm…."

"What is it, Kelly?" Andy asked.

"The potion," she answered while looking at a loss.

"What about it?" Remus asked, as Sirius came up behind Kelly.

"It's gone!" Sirius remarked.

"What?" Andy yelled.

"Impossible," Karen replied as the rest of them went to investigate. Sure enough the cauldron of potion that Remus had placed over the toilet was gone.

"There was a whole cauldron full when I checked on it last night," said Remus, trying to figure out what could have happened.

"Well…" said Sirius with a deep sigh. "Looks like we'll need to be on the look out for some imposters."

"You don't think anyone from Slytherin got a hold of it? Do you?" Karen asked in a low voice.

"I hope not. But if they did…"said Andy not wanting to even think of the consequences of that idea.