Author's Note: Here you go! I stayed up late doing this just for you. More specifically, it is for my repeat reviewers: purebloodelf, myhorserockyrocks, CherryCupcakeBacon, amama123, and my newest reviewer, Lizaluvsdoggies. I would also like to thank counting caelan for making me laugh so hard with your guess.

Warning: This will probably be the last chapter for a couple of weeks. After this, I really do have to do my summer homework and then I am going to be working on my other stories that I haven't updated for a while. Feel free to read those while you wait. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Chapter 12 – O'Malley

Life Goes On… And Brings With It Birthdays

Sunday, January 3, 2010

When it came time to return to school, O'Malley found himself arriving on the platform almost too late to catch the train. Luckily, he could move fast and was on in a blink of the eye before it started to pull away from platform. He really shouldn't have been surprised that he was so late, what with the tantrum that Rissy threw that morning. He dragged his trunk down the aisle before finally coming to the compartment that held his friends. He slid the door open to find himself being tackled onto the top of his trunk by Lyra.

"WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG?!"

"Ow, Lyra. That's my ear you're yelling into. And my ribcage that you're sitting on top of. Get off and I'll tell you."

She reluctantly clambered off before pulling him up and helping him store his trunk in the compartment.

Leo was the next to speak. "I apologize on my sister's behalf, seeing as how it'll be a miracle if you ever hear an apology come out of her own mouth. We were however getting worried. You almost missed the train."

"Don't I know it. Rissy threw a tantrum this morning. Put us way behind schedule. I think that was her purpose actually. She has yet to come to grips with the fact that she's not going to see me for most of the year anymore."

Teddy spoke up. "Rissy?"

"Oh yeah. I don't think I've told you about her. She's my little sister. She's eight now and a pain in the arse but I love her anyway. We've always been close and she didn't take well to me going off to boarding school. I'm really hoping she's magic though. She would love it here. She spent the entire holidays reading every single one of my textbooks cover to cover and bombarding me with questions about school. She even tried to ask me about the theory behind Transfigurations that we aren't supposed to learn until the end of the year."

It was Lyra's turn to talk again. He was honestly surprised she'd stayed silent as long as she had. "That's brilliant. I wish I had a little sister. I could mold her into a miniature of me." After that comment, O'Malley could've sworn he heard Leo mutter under his breath, "Like the world needs more of you to deal with." Lyra however either didn't hear, or at least didn't care, because she continued on to ask, "Was your mum as bad as you thought she'd be?"

"Worse. I swear, she barely let me out of her sight all break. She really doesn't like have me gone for so much of the year. Luckily, after she heard about all the things I've learned how to do so far, she couldn't keep me from coming back. What about you lot? Anything interesting happen over the holidays?"

They all exchanged a look before Leo spoke up, explaining everything they'd found out about their parents.

All he could say was "Wow. So what are you going to do now?"

"Nothing. At least, not until we're home again for the summer. There's no chance of her answering any of our questions unless we ask in person."

Teddy, it seemed, didn't like the somber attitude because the next thing he said was, "Let's talk about something happier. Guess what?"

Lyra spoke up quickly. "Your mum was really an alien who came here from outer space and metamorphmagi aren't really from this planet but you were able to inherit the ability from your mother and now her alien relatives have found out about your existence and tried to kidnap you over the holidays to take you back home to their planet with them?"

We all burst out laughing at that. In between laughing, Teddy was able to get out, "How on earth do you come up with ideas like that?"

Leo was the one to answer. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Our father is from outer space and that's why Lyra is so weird." That caused another round of laughter after Lyra smacked Leo upside the head.

"Okay, okay," Teddy said as he finally managed to stop laughing. "For real this time. Professor McGonagall's rule about my hair was only for the first term of school. So I can change it back to my normal hair color now."

O'Malley was the first to ask, "Then why haven't you yet?"

"I was thinking I'd surprise everybody at breakfast tomorrow morning."

Lyra smiled mischievously at that. "I would pay to see their faces."

"Luckily, you don't have to. You just have to manage to get out of bed at a decent time."

That set off another round of laughter.

The next morning, the boys trudged downstairs in time for the very start of breakfast, still too tired to be eager about the responses to Teddy's new hair. However, upon reaching the common room, they were shocked awake by the sight of Lyra standing there, ready for the day and bouncing up and down in excitement.

"Oh, BearyPoo! I absolutely love your hair like that!"

Teddy cringed at the sound of the nickname that Lyra had yet to give up on. "Thanks Lyra. Now let's go see what everyone else thinks."

O'Malley watched as she skipped towards the portrait hole. She really was quite cute. Not that he'd ever be stupid enough to admit it out loud.

When they finally reached the Entrance Hall, Lyra stood back to let Teddy enter the Great Hall first. Lyra barely managed to contain herself from shouting out to draw attention to them. Not that it was necessary. The bright turquoise of Teddy's hair had drawn all eyes to them. Many of them were shocked speechless while a few mutters of "brilliant!" could be heard pass through the students. Pretending as though they had not noticed, they headed for their usual seats at the Gryffindor table. As they began to dish up food for themselves, the silence actually managed to become more profound. Looking up, it was clear why. Professor McGonagall was headed straight for them.

When she reached them, Teddy had the nerve to grin cheekily and say, "Hullo, Auntie Minnie. How were your holidays? We missed you at the Burrow this Christmas."

"Five points from Gryffindor. I am the Headmistress of this school and I am to be addressed with respect. Now, if you would please tell me what on earth you were thinking making your hair that color."

Teddy didn't seem to have the nerve to address her so disrespectfully again after the loss of points. He didn't however back down. "Your rule was that I was to pick a more sedate color for the first term of school. It is now the second term. As such, your rule no longer applies." O'Malley thought Professor McGonagall looked rather murderous but Teddy continued anyways. "If you'd like, I could pick something a bit more, shall I say, house appropriate?" He screwed up his face in concentration as he turned his hair a brilliant scarlet with shimmery gold tips.

"Detention, Mr. Lupin. 7 o'clock tonight with Mr. Filch. And unless you wish for more, you will choose one color and stick to it." This didn't seem to faze him and he simply nodded before changing his hair back to blue. The Professor continued. "I will also being writing your Grandmother and godparents about this." That made Teddy's face pale.

"Please, Auntie Minnie. Aunt Ginny will murder me. You know she will. I promise not to mess around, just, please, don't write them."

The desperate look on his face seemed to reach into a heart that O'Malley hadn't thought existed because, after trying to stay stern for a moment, she finally relented and said, "Alright, Mr. Lupin. I will not inform your family. However, I must remind you again of what I told you before you started at Hogwarts. Here, I am the Headmistress and while you may address me as you wish outside of school, here, you must address me befitting my position. I will not remind you again."

Relief washed over Teddy's features as he said, "Thank you, Professor McGonagall."

The rest of breakfast passed quite calmly until the appearance of Lyra's roommates. They all stared in shock, none of them seeming to be able to put two words together. Finally, it was Lyra's friend, Emma, who approached them.

"Teddy, what did you do to your hair?"

His cheek seemed to come back full force. "Didn't you know? I'm a metamorphmagus."

Her eyebrows shot up. "You're pulling my leg. Lyra, what'd he really do?"

"He's telling the truth Emma." Her excitement seeped back into her voice while still keeping it quiet enough to not attract attention. "You should've seen it! McGonagall came over to tell him off and he offered to change it to something more house appropriate! Made it red with gold tips! Got a detention for it, but her face was totally worth it."

Emma looked at Teddy with a newfound respect. After all, not everyone had the guts to talk back to the Headmistress. Especially not amongst the first years. She nodded thoughtfully before heading back to the other girls to tell them what she'd found out.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Two weeks later, O'Malley was rudely awakened to find Lyra sitting on his legs, staring at him.

"What? No yelling to wake me up?"

"I thought I'd be nice for once. Appreciate it while it lasts. Breakfast is done already so I was actually wondering if you would like to come to the kitchens with me."

"Sure. Just let me get dressed." After getting Lyra off him and pulling his clothes out of his trunk, he stared at her, waiting for her to turn around so he could change.

She just stared back until she finally realized, "Oh! You don't want me to look. Well, too bad. I want to see what it is that makes all the other girls in our year swoon over you."

"Sorry, but I value my life. And I would no longer possess it if Leo caught me changing in front of you." With that, he went into the bathroom to change, making sure to lock the door behind him.

Later, on their way down to the kitchens, they talked of random nonsense until a sudden realization hit O'Malley. "We haven't had a run-in with Avery since before the holidays."

No later had he said that then Avery popped up in front of them, sneering as he said, "Oh? Is the filthy mudblood off for a date with his dirty slag of a girlfriend?"

For once, O'Malley almost attacked him as well but managed to come to his senses soon enough to restrain Lyra as Avery walked away, laughing.

Finally, Lyra stopped struggling and O'Malley felt that it was safe to let her go. "I don't like the things he says about you anymore than you do, but I refuse to let you get anymore detentions for attacking him. That's as good as saying he's won."

"He can call me a slag all he likes! That's not why I was so angry! You can't just call a muggleborn that! We've explained this to you. If a professor had heard he would have points taken away and detention for it. It's my duty to take him down a notch."

"I. Don't. Care. You are not to fight him for me. End of story." Hoping to make her forget how angry she was, he added, "Let's get down to the kitchens. I'm starving."

"FOOD!"

Upon reaching the kitchens, Lyra immediately found her mouth too full of food to talk and as such left O'Malley to his own thoughts.

As he thought, his mind kept circling back to Avery calling Lyra his girlfriend and what she'd said that morning when he wanted to change. Distracted by the food, he was able to stare at her without getting caught. Looking at her, he could see the beauty in her, despite being only eleven. After all, he saw the beauty in all the other girls he, well, he didn't really date them per se. But she had more than the beauty that his girls had. She had a confidence about her that most others didn't. Sadly, he knew it would never be an option for them to be together, seeing as how she'd probably kill him for trying to make her one of his girls. That is, if Leo didn't get to him first for messing with his sister.

When Lyra was finally done eating, the first words out of her mouth were, "I didn't actually ask you here just because. I was wondering if you would help me with something."

O'Malley immediately became wary and asked, "What do you need help with?"

"Don't look at me like that! It's nothing bad. It's just, Leo's birthday is coming up on the first and I wanted to do something special for him."

"You do know it's your own birthday too, which makes anything you do self serving."

"Alright. I admit it. I want to embarrass him like mad in front of the whole school. Our birthdays have always just been us and Mum and we never even celebrated them when we were little. I want to do something big for our first birthday with our friends."

O'Malley deliberated for a moment before finally agreeing to help her with her plans. Sadly though, those plans ended up involving several hours in the library, a part of the castle neither of them particularly liked, as they looked up spells that would do what they wanted.

Monday, February 1, 2010

O'Malley was woken up on the first day of February by the sound of Lyra screaming at the top of her lungs while standing on Leo's bed, "WAKE UP LEO! DO YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS? IT'S OUR BIRTHDAY! SO GET UP!"

O'Malley watched as Leo masterfully swept Lyra off his bed with his feet, making her land on the floor without any injuries, before rolling over and going back to sleep.

He couldn't help but laugh. "Had a little practice dealing with this sort of situation, have you?"

"Sadly, more than I would like," came the muffled reply from beneath the pile of blankets. He was not however off the hook. Teddy and O'Malley both watched in shock as Lyra bodily pulled Leo out of bed and tossed him on the ground.

"Get dressed! You have ten minutes before I expect all three of you ready in the common room to head to breakfast! What are you looking at? Get your butts moving!" And with that, Lyra flounced out of the room, looking quite girly for a moment.

As requested, all three of the boys trudged downstairs ten minutes later to find Lyra bouncing off the walls waiting for them. She grabbed Leo and started dragging him towards the portrait hole the minute he got off the staircase. O'Malley and Teddy followed quickly, not wanting to be left behind and miss out on the embarrassment that Lyra was sure to heap upon Leo that day.

And embarrassment there was. O'Malley had known what was coming as he had helped set it up, but even he was a bit surprised by the boom that went off before an enormous banner reading "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEO!" was unfurled above the Gryffindor table and balloons seemingly appearing from nowhere to float up towards the banner before popping and showering confetti over everything.

Once the balloons were done popping, Lyra and O'Malley drug Leo onto the top of the Gryffindor table and then magically amplified their own voices before singing Happy Birthday at the top of their lungs.

While singing, O'Malley could see that Leo looked quite murderous at the moment while Teddy was nearly falling over, he was laughing so hard and the professors simply looked on in shock.

Upon their completion of the song, Lyra and O'Malley bowed before clambering off the table to face the irate Professor McGonagall.

"Hello Professor! Did you like the show?" Lyra asked.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for disrupting breakfast so spectacularly." Lyra's face fell. "And I think you and Mr. O'Malley here are both deserving of twenty points each to Gryffindor for extraordinary spellwork. Now, if only you would put this much effort into your schoolwork, Miss Jones."

Lyra's jaw had dropped in shock. It was unbelievable that the stiff Professor McGonagall had given them points for what they had done. There had even been a bit of an upturn on the edge of her lips by the end that could have almost been mistaken for a hint of a smile. He looked to see Teddy laughing at the looks on their faces.

"If you'd asked, I could have told you that Auntie Minnie wouldn't get you in trouble for what you did. She does have an appreciation for good spellwork after all."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Nearly three weeks later, O'Malley was met with a similar fate at breakfast for his own twelfth birthday. However, Lyra felt that, since he already knew what to expect and wouldn't be embarrassed by it, there was need to get a cake from the house elves specially for smashing in his face at breakfast.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Nearly a month after O'Malley's birthday, the banner and balloons were produced once more for Teddy's own birthday. From what O'Malley saw, it seemed as though things like this were a regular occurrence for birthdays in his family. Though, from what O'Malley had learned about Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, it actually made quite a lot of sense.

Easter Holidays 2010

The Easter Holidays found the four students remaining at Hogwarts so as to start studying for their final exams. At least, that's what they told their parents. In actuality, they were using the freedom to explore the school at their pleasure.

One afternoon during the holidays found them slumped down in a secret passageway after running away from Peeves, who had been wreaking havoc near the Astronomy tower.

Suddenly, Teddy's head popped up from his knees, where he had been resting it. "I know what we need to check out."

Lyra was quick to catch his tone of excitement and asked, "What?"

"Have any of you ever heard of the Room of Requirement? Also known as the Come and Go Room?"

Leo, Lyra, and O'Malley all glanced at each other before shaking their heads no.

"It's something my family has told me stories about. They're not sure if it still works because it was damaged during the Battle of Hogwarts, but I thought we should go check it out anyway. If it still works, the Room is capable of producing anything you want, becoming anything you want."

Lyra was especially excited now. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go! Where is it?"

"It's located on the seventh floor in the left corridor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls how to do ballet."

And so they headed off until they reached the tapestry that Teddy had described.

O'Malley watched as Teddy paced back and forth down the corridor three times before a door began to materialize out of the stone wall. They each followed Teddy through the door to find the room full of WWW joke products.

"Wicked! Uncle George might be a bit mad though if he finds out people can get his stuff for free if they know about this place."

Lyra was already running around checking out all the things she hadn't seen before.

Leo was just staring in awe.

O'Malley had the thought to ask, "Why joke products?"

"Oh. Because this room is right up George's alley. Would've made obtaining supplies for his joke products much easier if he'd known about it before his seventh year."

"Well. Let's see what else the room can do."

The four friends spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in the Room of Requirement changing it every few minutes, just because they could.

June 2010

Soon enough, exams were over, the school year was done, and the four friends found themselves on the Hogwarts Express once again, riding home for the summer.

As they sat in their compartment and talked, they all swapped stories about what they would be doing that summer.

Teddy would be bouncing between his grandmother's house, Potter Manor, and the Burrow, trying to accommodate all his many relatives while he was home.

O'Malley was simply going to relax and enjoy not having any schoolwork to worry about. He was also going to be catching up with Rissy because, despite how obnoxious she could be, he loved her with all his heart and really did miss her when he was away at school.

First and foremost, Leo and Lyra were planning to try and find out more about their father.

Finally, before the train pulled into King's Cross Station, they all had decided that they would write each other as much as possible that summer with O'Malley borrowing Dumbledore or Fawkes if necessary, and they were going to do everything they could to get together that summer.

Author's Note: Yes, I know, Teddy's got a bit of cheek in him after all. Not a complete softie. I blame George. He's a horrible influence on children.

I hope you liked the insight into O'Malley's thoughts regarding girls and Lyra in particular. You may all thank purebloodelf for my including that.

I think the birthday celebrations were quite up Lyra's alley, don't you?

Ah, the Room of Requirement. I know that people often feel that the Fiendfyre should have permanently broken it, but I love the Room too much to do that to it.

So, this chapter was mostly fluff to end the school year, but I hope you still enjoyed it. Please review and let me know what you think. All you have to say is if you like it or not, nothing deep and soul searching.