Chapter 8

Lily was hearing some bizarre things today. She normally paid little heed to the gossip around the table, especially when her nose was buried in a book, but the moment her ear caught the names, Endora and James, she instantly became distracted. She must have read the same sentence four times in the last five minutes as she tried to make out what was being said.

"I saw Endora in the hallway with James earlier," whispered one sixth-year to another.

"Really? Wasn't she with Wyatt yesterday at Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah," the other whispered back, "it looked like they were on a date."

"That sounds so wrong. Is she playing them both?"

"No clue."

Lily felt herself frown deeply at the conversation. There was no way Endora would do that. Endora was nice, watched out for Albus, and repeatedly told her that James was not her type. Surely, there was a misunderstanding here. Despite the words, she felt a slight twinge of doubt. For a moment, her eyes were trained on the table, overthinking; perhaps that was a trait from her father, she mused. She shook her head and looked up. Noticing Albus, she decided to ask him if he knew anything. So Lily stood from the table and went over to sit across from him, garnering looks from some of the Slytherins sitting there. She paid them no mind, "Hey, Albie."

He blinked, "Hey. Something up?"

"Well, I wanted to ask about Endora."

"Oh, not this again. She and James aren't a thing." Albus sounded so annoyed.

Lily shifted with discomfort. "It's just I heard something that had me concerned."

Albus frowned, "Lils, c'mon now."

"I know it's ridiculous, but it's bugging me!" She huffed, "Look, I heard some people at my table talking about how they saw her and James in the hallway earlier. They think she's playing him and some boy named… oh what was it…"

"Wyatt?" Albus supplied.

"Yes! Him. I don't think Endora would do something like that. At least I don't want to believe it, so that's why I came to you."

Albus crossed his arms, "Wyatt's in her grade."

Scorpius sat down and leaned on his hand, only catching part of the conversation. "What's going on now?"

"Lily heard some girls saying that Endora was chatting it up with our brother."

"And they have the nerve to say she's playing the field, I think they put it."

"No way, pretty sure Endora has standards," Scorpius paused, "no offense."

"None taken." The siblings said in unison.

"Anyway, why would you believe a bunch of gossiping busybodies?" Scorpius asked as he looked up at Lily, filling his plate with food without minding how big of a pile it was becoming.

"Well, I don't, but I just wanted confirmation. What's up with this Wyatt person?"

"Eh," both boys looked at each other, unsure how to put this. "Well, he doesn't seem to like it when Endora pays attention to us. I catch him scowling all the time. I think at one point he thought we were into her." Scorpius stabbed at a sausage, his eyes on the ceiling as he thought about it.

Lily frowned, "so possessive jerk?"

Albus shrugged, "I think he's more jealous than anything. He's been trying to get her attention since school started. She gave him the cold shoulder until a few days ago."

"What happened a few days ago?"

"Beats me. Whatever it was, it must have happened when we were already off to bed."

Scorpius looked over to the Gryffindor table while they were talking, his eyes on Penelope sitting next to Annabelle, the other first years he and Albus had been talking to. He looked back at Lily, "I heard an older girl talking last night after the Hogsmeade weekend. It was something about Silverthorn getting that thing Endora has."

"He got a phone?"

"Yeah, yesterday, probably while they were out. She sounded like she was losing her mind over it. Her friend tried calming her down and said that Silverthorn would probably get bored like he does with all the other girls." Scorpius scowled at that.

But Albus and Lily didn't like that. "I'll hex him," Lily said, opening her book Fun Hexes and Jinxes.

"Pfft. Pretty sure Endora would beat you to it." Scorpius pointed out as he continued eating breakfast.

"Even so, I'll add to it if he's a jerk." She frantically flipped through pages, searching for something appropriate.

"Aunt Hermione would be disappointed… if you got caught." There was a twinkle in Albus's eye.

Lily's eyes flicked up at him, and she smiled sweetly. "Who do you think sent me this book?"

"Don't you think you're overreacting? For all we know, he could be sincere about it." Scorpius pointed out, waving the sausage on his fork around.

"Mate, you're going to hit me with that thing." Albus made him put his hand down.

"You're right," Lily sighed and closed the book, "but it doesn't hurt to be prepared."

Albus and Scorpius decided they would do their best never to get on her bad side; she was fucking scary.

As they were talking, James entered with Ophelia, chatting pleasantly. James found himself enjoying the pretty blonde's presence.

Albus noticed him first and motioned to Lily, "Do you think that will end the rumors about something going on between him and Endora?"

Lily looked over and saw James with the older girl from her house. Her eyes lit up. She really looked up to Ophelia.

"Who even is that?" Scorpius asked with curiosity.

"Her name's Ophelia Blake. She's in my house. She's wicked good at transfiguration, and she helped me a lot when I was stuck," Lily explained.

There were already whispers, but such was life at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. When things were a secret, naturally, the whole school would know, simply because no one knew how to shut the fuck up.

"So, Ophelia, you're good at transfiguration, right? Think you can spare some time to help me with something?"

Ophelia turned her clear blue eyes toward him and sat down, regarding him, "Yeah, sure, why not? What do you need help with?"

"Human transfiguration, I can't seem to get it right." He sat with her and poured himself a cup of orange juice.

"Mm, it is tricky if you're not in the right head space." She gave a far-off look for a moment. "Alright," she snapped her attention back to him as quickly as it had gone away. "Let's eat, and I'll help you out."

He gave her a lopsided grin, "Thanks."

"Don't thank me just yet," she hid her smirk. She was going to torture this poor boy. "What are you even planning on attempting?"

He wanted to say a chair so he could trick girls into sitting on him but decided that was not the thing to say to the girl he was starting to take an interest in. "I guess my hair."

"Just your hair? I half expected you to say you wanted to be furniture."

James almost spit out his drink, face going as red as his house colors.

She offered him a napkin, brow raised at his reaction. "Was I right?"

"W-what!? No! Of course not!" He coughed, using the napkin to wipe his face, embarrassment all over it. This girl was fucking sharp.

Ophelia looked amused and unconvinced. "Sure."

"Really! I swear."

"Mmhm." She returned to eating. "Next, you'll say you want to learn about Amortentia for the hell of it."

James just let out a groan and ate his breakfast with misery. So much for being the cool, suave James Sirius Potter. He never expected her to read him so easily.

And so here they were, in an unused classroom on the 4th floor. Ophelia was at the blackboard with a piece of magicked chalk in her hand. "Alright, first things first. Let's begin with the basics."

James rolled his eyes as he sank down into a chair. He was starting to regret this as Ophelia began lecturing him. But as she spoke, he felt he was understanding it a lot better than when the professor had gone over it in class. Even his book wasn't this detailed or made this much sense. He watched as Ophelia did something complicated; she gave herself curled ram horns that came from either side of her head. James sat up, eyes wide at how magical she looked. The horns were thick at the base with bumpy ridges, they curled forward, the tips were dull, and some of her wavy blonde hair was wrapped around them the way vines would hang from trees.

"So it's all about mentally visualizing what you want." She met his eyes and tilted her head. Ophelia's hands were on her hips as she frowned at him, "James, are you listening?"

"What, huh? Yeah! Yeah! I'm listening!" He coughed, his face flushing. He couldn't believe he was staring at her so intently like that. James looked up at her face again; she had rosy, plush lips and bright blue doe-like eyes, and if he looked real close, he could see a faint splattering of freckles across her cheeks. A sigh left him, and he had to fight for composure. "So, um- can I touch them?" He asked with uncertainty.

"The horns?" She tilted her head and stepped closer to him.

His breath hitched when she came in close, bending her head down as she presented her horns. Cautiously, he raised his hand and brought them up to run his fingers, calloused from holding a broom, along the ridges of her horns. It was hard, but it didn't feel like plastic, and they were smooth despite the ridges. "Wicked…" he whispered softly. His heart was in his throat when she lifted her eyes to meet his.

"Want to give it a try?" She asked as she pulled away, dispelling the change on herself.

He nodded, "Yeah, let's go." He clapped his hands, hyping himself up like he usually did for quidditch games.

Ophelia tried not to laugh, "Right, so, you just say Crinus Muto to do the spell. While doing it, make sure you have the image of what you want to change in your head and how you want to change it." She transfigured one of the chairs into a large standing mirror for him to look into when he was done.

James inhaled sharply and then waved his wand, "Crinus Muto!" He didn't feel any different and looked at Ophelia with his bright hazel eyes, "did it work?"

Ophelia's eyes were wide, almost panicked. "W-what were you envisioning?"

"A lion's mane… why?" He held his breath as Ophelia slowly slid the mirror into his line of sight. What he saw was not his face but the head of a lion. He bolted up out of the chair, his eyes wide, and started screaming—or at least, it would have been a scream. It was a full-on roar that echoed down the halls.

She winced. "James!" She reached out to grab his arms. Ophelia shook him to make him get a grip. " Calm down! If you don't calm down, it will only get worse, and you'll be unable to change back. You have to breathe."

"That's easy for you to say! You don't have a lion's head!" Each sentence was a deep rumble accentuated with a growl. It visibly sent a shudder through Ophelia. James wasn't sure if the reaction should gladden him or if he should be upset that this botched lionesque visage made her blush. So she liked growling. He filed that away in the back of his mind for now.

Ophelia sighed, "You have to relax, James. You can get out of it; just think about being you. Remember what your own face looks like, and imagine your face on… well, your face."

He growled again, frustrated, but there was a glint of satisfaction when he noticed her shift. James sat down and reached up to touch his face. At least the fur was soft. His nose felt odd, too; he could pick up all the scents around him, and he knew the smell he was picking up on was coming from Ophelia. It was a sweet, flowery smell, like fresh-cut gardenias and something else, something warm. The more James breathed it in, the more he calmed.

"That's it, James, breathe." Ophelia placed her hand on his head, more because she couldn't resist the temptation to feel the mane. It was as soft as she imagined it would be. Her fingers carded through it slowly, scratching lightly at the scalp, causing a low purr to leave James's throat. She locked her jaw at the sound and focused on the task. "Ok, you're almost there. Think about your face. Start with your eyes, then your nose… followed by your mouth." Her voice was soft and gentle.

His face soon returned, but now it was completely surrounded by a lion's mane, just as he had intended. "Did I do it?" he asked, his voice shaking with fear that he was still stuck.

She chuckled, "Well," she moved away and allowed him to see the results.

"Holy shite. I do not look good with a beard."

"To be fair, it's mostly all on your neck. I think you'd look handsome with a full beard, but nothing too crazy, though. We wouldn't want you to look like Hagrid."

"Stars, no, I don't even know if he's ever combed the damn thing. He might have beasts living in it for all we know."

"Birds." Ophelia supplied.

They looked at each other and laughed for a good moment. James looked at himself, appraising the change. "Mm, it's not bad."

"Aren't you glad you didn't try for a chair?" She asked with a teasing glint in her eye, leaning into the mirror as she watched his face go bright red.

"I had no such notion!" He lied, he 100% did. Oh to be a nice comfy chair that a girl could sit on.

Ophelia smirked. "I don't know, James. You could still be a chair, even without transfiguration."

James's jaw dropped, and his eyes shot to her. He knew he was a horny teenager, but he never expected in his life to hear a girl say something like that. The amusement on her face made him start to rethink many things.

"Alright, enough joking about. Why don't you imagine your hair being normal again?"

James closed his eyes and breathed deeply, imagining how he was before. When he opened his eyes again, his messy dark brown hair, which had bits of warm auburn highlighting throughout, was back, and there was not a trace of lion left at all. He let out a sigh of relief. "I don't think I'll ever really get that right."

"Transfiguration is hard enough." Ophelia admitted, "If you're not a natural Metamorphmagi, it's even more difficult to attempt human transformation."

He tilted his head, "Are you one? It seems to come so easy for you."

She shook her head, "No. I just have an affinity for it, and," she paused and leaned toward him conspiratorially, "I've been training with McGonagall to learn how to be an animagus. She thinks I can do it sometime this summer or next year."

His jaw dropped again. Gods, this girl was full of surprises, and he liked it.

"You're going to swallow a bug." Ophelia's fingers moved under his chin, and she closed his mouth for him.

He coughed and looked away from her, "anyway," he rubbed at the back of his head.

"You did pretty good, Potter. Despite the mishap, you managed to transform yourself back to normal, well, normal for you." She teased. "If you're going to try again, make sure you keep a clear image in your head of what you want, not just a generalization."

"Right." He nodded as he put his wand back in the holster across his chest. A thought formed, and he smirked, "How cool would it be to be on the quidditch pitch with a lion head?"

"Visually, very cool, but also very disturbing. I wouldn't recommend it until you got better at transforming and transforming back."

His shoulders slumped slightly, "you could let a guy dream."

"A normal guy, I would, but you tend to be a bit…"

"A bit what?" He narrowed his eyes at her.

"Reckless."

It was one word, but James knew it to be true, even if it stung. "Ouch."

"You'll get over it." She said dismissively. "Anyway, I think that's enough of a lesson for today."

"Agreed." He shifted and scratched the back of his head, "so, next Hogsmeade weekend?"

"Are you asking me out on a date?"

He grew nervous, "nnnyyyyyeee…. Yes?"

She snorted, "I'll think about it." Ophelia poked his nose and left him alone in the room.

James stared at the spot she was in, his heart racing. He was even more hellbent on brewing that Amortentia, and he was going to get his cousin to help if it was the last thing he did.