THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS GUYS THEY MAKE MY DAY.

AND I REALISED I HAVE TO WRITE INFINITLY AVERAGE BEFORE I WRITE CHAINED BECAUSE RILEY IS IN CHAINED AND I DON'T WANT TO SPOIL WHAT HAPPENDS TO HER.

SORRY ABOUT THE ABSENCE OF SIRIUS IN THE LAST CHAPTER.

FUCK LOOK AT ALL THOSE LYRICS, BUT THEY'RE JUST SOOOOOO RELEVANT! IF YOU USUALLY SKIP IT PLEASE READ AND THINK OF THEM WHILE READING!

"And I've lost who I am, and I can't understand.

Why my heart is so broken, rejecting your love,

Without, love gone wrong, lifeless words carry on.

But I know, all I know is that the end's beginning.

Who I am from the start, take me home to my heart.

Let me go and I will run, I will not be silent.

All this time spent in vain, wasted years, wasted gain.

All is lost hope remains, and this war's not over.

There's a light, there's the sun, taking all shattered ones.

To the place we belong, and this love will conquer all."

–Trading Yesterday 'Shattered'

Chapter Forty-Two:

"I cannot believe you kept this from me, you bastard," I scolded James while staring wide-eyed at the magnificent stash of contraband potions hidden under the floorboards in the boys' dorm.

He rolled his eyes, "What use does Polyjuice have for a metamorphmagus?"

"Still, there are other potions here – what do you do with it all?" I asked him curiously.

"Well Padfoot and I stock it in case of need, and sometimes we sell if we're short of cash," James explained and I nodded in understanding. Lily just looked plain confused; I guess she wasn't exactly used to our way of money making yet.

"I am to be a part of this from now on, 'kay?" I gave him a stern look, kinda pissed off that I wasn't included in the first place.

Lily bit her lip, "How did you get all of this? You'd thrown out of school if a Prefect found this!"

James and I gave a silent look to each other before bursting into bouts of hysteric laughter, "So kick us out, Prefect," James winked.

Her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment, "I'm the worst Prefect in the world," she moaned in frustration, caught between two voices that rang in her head; the one who told her to report us and the one that was eager to reach her hand down and see what we had, "You're corrupting me!"

"Ha! She thinks this is bad," James snickered nudging me with his elbow, an all too familiar mischievous grin spread across his face.

I smirk and looked back to my adopted brother, "Have we even showed her the Marauders Map yet? Or the Gubraithian Fire Orb."

Lily's eyes went wide, "Where on Earth did you get that?!"

"Even I don't know – It's hers," James shrugged and pocked me.

I held my hand up, "Family heirloom. Long story. Let's get back to the Polyjuice Potion,"

Together we shoved all we could find into my rucksack and headed downstairs, "Won't Sirius notice it's gone?" Lily bit her lip with worry.

"Notice what's gone?" asked an irritatingly familiar voice, "What are you three doing?" Sirius stared at us with a puzzled look hinting on suspicious. He stood at the foot of the staircase and In couldn't help but feel a few remaining butterflies flutter in my stomach.

I squashed them immediately. There was no time for feeling at the current moment.

James was the one who spoke up, "I just took your Potions Essay to have a look at since I'm stuck with mine,"

Sirius lightened a bit, "Oh, that's okay, but why was Lily and… Riley… in our room? You weren't having some sort of weird orgy right?" he joked and Prongs laughed.

"Uh, no," Lily laughed awkwardly, "Plus it wouldn't have been an orgy anyway, since they only occur when there's over three people… participating."

The rest of us started at her in gobsmacked silence and I saw her cheeks redden slightly.

"I'm not even going to ask how you knew that," Sirius commented, and began to walk past us again.

As he pasted me, he looked down to the ground and basically anywhere that wasn't me. The butterflies returned and this time they were harder to squash.

Shaking my head, the three of us continued onwards. There are far more important things to be focused on right now.

Making sure the corridor was empty before we walked towards the Room of Requirement. This time instead of the usual double doors a familiar mirror appeared. With a smile we flipped the latch and stepped inside.

Taking out the multitude of random bottles and jars filled with a swamp-coloured sludge-like substance. I noticed each container had a different date written on it, "What's it mean?" I asked James.

"Well, you know how wine gets better with age? So does Polyjuice Potion. The older it is, the longer the effect will last on the drinker. Everything that's date is older than a month ago, put to the side because we don't really want to be Riley for more than twelve hours." James instructed and we began sorting.

"We'll practise with the real fresh stuff that only lasts for half an hour or so and keep the middle aged Polyjuice for tonight," he continued.

Then he turned to me with a grin, holding out a pair of scissors, "We're going to need a lot of hair,"

I decided my 'actual' hair would probably be the best bet. With little concentration I lengthened my bangs and swept the scissors across with a quick snip, catching the falling copper hair in my palm.

Lily went to the cupboard to find two shot glasses were we usually stored three mugs, stifling a laugh James pored some of the disgusting mixture into the glasses and I sprinkled my hair in, the potion turned an amber colour.

Lily regarded the concoction with distain, "Delightful,"

"Just be glad you don't know the ingredients used to make Polyjuice Potion," James grimaced, holding his glass up to Lily. The two clinked in a toast and then shot it down, pulling faces of absolute disgust.

A short laugh escaped me which was met by a scowl from both of them; it's times like this when I'm extremely thankful for being born with the ability to shapeshift.

I watched as their skin bubbled, both shrinking and thinning down to my impeccably scrawny size. Their clothes hung off my wiry limbs. It was odd seeing somebody apart from myself morphing, was this how everybody else felt? Like it was wrong and unnatural?

Quite possibly, but then again I was born to shapeshift while James and Lily used a crude potion.

"Holy shit I'm a girl!" James grinned at me with my own lopsided smile. It was unnerving to say the least.

And then without much of a hesitation, I reached out and slapped James across the face. His (my?) hair turned a bright flaming red.

"What the fuck, Vix?" he clutched his cheek, eyes wide with shock.

I smiled curtly, "First rule; don't let you emotions control your body. You gotta keep strong; don't let yourself turn green in envy or red with anger,"

"You're way to violent for you own good," Lily sighed, the kind where you've given up on trying to resist the fact that you've made friends with psychopaths.

I ignored her. There was a lot to cover with little time.

"Now, I want you to have a clear picture of somebody in your mind; somebody who nobody would expect but it wouldn't be weird finding them in Knocturn Alley," I instructed, "Once you have that picture in your mind, I want you to find a small part of them, it could be eye colour of jaw shape and see yourself with it. As if you've always had this feature,"

I watched the two, both with eyes squinted shut. They remained still for a very long time before I began to find a flicker, a wave, of black run through Lily's hair.

With a smile, I sat back, waiting.

"I'm famished," Lily groaned, "I think I understand why you eat so much now, Riley,"

I laughed, "Morphing takes its toll on your energy levels at the beginning, but after a while you get better at it until it takes virtually nothing. I'm really just a pig when I eat,"

The two of us sat waiting for the last remnants of me to creep out of James. He felt down his chest, "Phew, I'm me again – completely male me,"

"Okay, well dinner starts in a few minutes, so we'd better get going," Lily reminded us as we left the Room of Requirement, deciding it'd be safest if we left the Polyjuice Potion there.

"If we eat fast you two might be able to get some extra practise also," I added. They both looked repealed by the prospect of having to consume even more Polyjuice Potion before the actual mission tonight but nodded in agreement anyways.

As we made our way to the Great Hall, I could feel the tension rising in us. This was our first mission outside of Hogwarts. It was real this time. If we weren't careful everything we've worked for could fall to pieces.

The three of us sat at the end of the Gryffindor Table, closest to the door and far away from our usual spot right in the middle of the crowd. Impatiently tapping my foot under the table, the food finally appeared, we loaded a gracious amount onto our plates and began to eat; quickly and silently.

I could see Remus sitting next to Sirius in our usual spot with a confused look on his face. His eyes darted around as Fred tried making conversation with him until he spotted me at the end of the table. I pulled my finger to my lips in the universal 'shut the fuck up' sign and he frowned, but none the less, turned back towards his conversation with Sirius and Fred.

"We'll meet you back at… headquarters," James winked as both him and Lily stood up.

"Practise what I taught you," I forced a smile and they left.

Continuing to toy with my mushrooms, contemplating whether to eat them or not (damn mushrooms), I didn't realise somebody sneak up behind me, turning my head slightly to see who it was, I mentally groaned.

Fucking hell I do not have time for this. Let alone the patience.

Arianna smiled at me; not her usual beaming grin, but the timid smile of somebody who didn't feel much of anything, "Hey Riley, I know we've been a bit slack with your tutor sessions since we got back from Christmas, and I was wondering if maybe after dinner we could catch up on your study,"

I stood up, forgetting mu mushroom dilemma entirely and tried to push past her, "I can't, sorry. Just really busy you know,"

"Seriously Riley, exams are looming," Arianna exclaimed, her face deadly serious.

"They're like two months away," I huffed, folding my arms across my chest, "Now I really have to go,"

I walked out of the Great Hall feeling uncomfortable and sick in the stomach. Arianna cannot just assume everything's good between us; everything aside, she still dumped my best friend.

I heard a second set of footsteps begin following me and I spun to face her with with a growl, "Merlin, will you just leave me alone?"

"Look, if this is what happened between Sirius and I…" she began but I interrupted.

"Let me stop you right there, okay, because Sirius and I have barely spoken in months. Albeit mainly because of me, but still some because of him and a little bit because of you. I have absolutely nothing to say to you and important things to do, so just go away," I hissed as she stared blankly at me. I turned to leave for the second time.

"You don't know why we broke up, do you?" she all but whispered.

I laughed bitterly, "Nope and I don't care either. That's all. See you around, Shacklebolt,"

"Do you not care for him at all? I never thought you'd really that much of a heartless bitch! Just fucking listen to me!" she screamed and I froze, the echo ringing down the empty corridor.

I balled up my fists and stormed up to her until we were inches away, "Why? Why should I? I stood by and watched while you slowly, piece by piece, stole him from me – and you know why? Because you are ten times than anything I can be! And he loved you, and you loved him and I thought that'd maybe make it easier but it doesn't so do not tell me I'm a heartless because believe me when I say I felt it breaking!"

She stared at me wide-eyed, "Y-You love him?"

Rolling me eyes I snorted, "Wow you're ignorant, aren't you?"

Arianna seethed, "I am not ignorant! I am no silly little girl! Do not try to educate me on heartbreak, O'Conner; I know it as well as you. Every day I heard him tell me how much he loves me – everyday he lied to my face, whether he knew it or not he did! He doesn't love me, sometimes I wonder if he every fully did… could youn do that, Riley? Could you stand that?" her eyes shines with the tears she held back.

"What are you talking about? That's insane; he looks at you like you're the most wonderful thing on the planet!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up.

Arianna looked towards her shoes, "Well then, you've obviously never seen how he looks at you,"

Then she turned, walking away from me with tears in her eyes.

And I stood there, silent, because for the first time in my life… I simply had nothing to say.

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