~*~Chapter 10~*~
It was September 1, start of term. The birds were singing; the sun was smiling down upon the isolated castle; excitement filled the air; and James came bustling into the girls 3rd year dorm, ruining a perfectly good morning.
After ten minutes of James levitating Lily out of bed and laughing at her pajamas, plus another five of Lily retaliating for the evil deed (which consisted of lima beans and rubber cement), the two were finally making their way down to the kitchens.
Once there, they grabbed a tub of Mackinac Island Fudge Icecream and sat down.
"Mmmm..." James sounded through a pound of food in his mouth. "There ain't nothin' better than ice cream in the mornin'."
Lily snorted and choked on her ice cream. After a rough pat on the back, courtesy of James, she said, "I think you spent a little too much time with Morgaine this summer. That sounded like those Texan sheep ranchers of hers."
"There's nothing wrong with a minor alteration in the English language," he backed himself up.
"Yeah, well that was an abhortion of the English language. Americans absolutely butcher it."
"I don't think so."
"Example: groovy. What the heck? What bloody idiot made that up?"
James grinned at her stubbornly and mocked, "Grooooovy, baby."
When he saw it was annoying her, he did what the typical male would do and rubbed it in even worse.
"Grooooooovy."
...
"Free love."
...
"Yo - my man."
...
"Righteous."
...
Pretty soon, James got so patronizing that even the fudge icecream was losing it's yumminess; Lily had had enough idiocy for the day.
"James?"
He dug a mound of icecream on his spoon and paused with it in front of his face. "What's shakin'?"
She rolled her eyes. "You left one out --" Smashing the food into his face, she said, "--Peace out!" and ran away laughing.
~~~~~~
After asking Vinnie for a wet towel to clean the dripping slush and melting fudge off his face, James made a beeline to the dorms to get ready for the feast that night.
"Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliaphobia." He chortled at the thought of Lily who still couldn't pronounce the password correctly.
A voice immediately interrupted his thoughts with a "Hey James!"
"Speak of the devil," he mumbled teasingly.
"What?" She flipped her hair as if morally insulted.
"You flipped your hair! You're turning prissy! Wow... I'm astounded."
"Oh give me a break. I wouldn't pay a goose to act like that. Prissy..."
James shrugged. "I thought it was a good change."
At the scandalized look on her face, he changed the subject.
"I finally got the spell right, just to let you know."
"About time Mr. Procrastinator. I've had my job done for weeks now."
"How is the poem anyway?"
"Devishly brilliant. -- But!" She added as an afterthought. "--You're not allowed to hear it until the ceremony, so ha."
"Whatever. I'm not going to argue; there's no point."
"Good, because we need to get downstairs and get it all prepared."
"Yeah, let's go." He pulled her off the chair. "All the teachers are out in Hogsmeade having a butterbeer before the term starts. Everyone except Snape of course. He's on 'Potter/Evans Duty'."
"Fun. We better stay out of his way."
"I don't think that'll be a problem. He's probably in the dungeons creating a potion to poison us all anyway."
"Boy, aren't we optimistic."
~~~~~~
Walking as casually as possible, they went to the enormous Great Hall to set their prank up.
"Yum, the sweets are already on the tables. Lets grab some!"
"James, we'll be in here in an hour to eat. Lets just do this and go. I'm not going to get caught and be sent back to 2nd year because you were having a sugar deficiency."
They quickly crossed the room toward the Sorting Hat.
"Do you realize that last year, our initiation prank involved the sorting as well?"
"Yup, it's our tradition."
"Says who?"
"Says me, duh."
"Sure James..."
Lily took out the poem and James cast a spell that turned it into what looked like floating dust. The next spell caused the 'dust' to be absorbed into the hate.
The seond the after-effects of the spell wore off, the Great Hall door flew open and in walked the dreaded potions master.
Lily gasped and whispered. "In the dungeons, indeed."
"What are you two doing in here? Standing quietly and counting constellations in the ceiling is quite unlikely," the professor snapped.
"We were uh--" Lily searched for something to blame their presence on. "--getting candy!"
"Yeah," James agreed. "Candy."
Snape's eyes darted back and forth between them. "Can't you wait until the feast?"
"No, I'll be too sick to eat if I have to stare at your face." James snarled quietly, just loudly enough for Lily to hear.
She stepped on his foot. "He had a stomach the size of a horse."
"Well, I'll be sure to have Dumbledore get something as large as a farm animal in here for your meal."
"Gracias," James gave him the thumbs-up as Lily dragged him out of the hall by the collar of his shirt.
James turned to her once they had left the hall and grinned. "I did a good cover-up, eh?"
"Sure. I'm going to get ready; they'll all be here in an hour. And if you do anything to make me miss the sorting ceremony, then doom on you."
After getting ready for the evening and visiting the owlry to send a letter to her family, Lily met James in the entrance hall to 'greet' their friends.
"James, don't mention anything at all to anyone about the prank. You do -- you die."
He gluped. Lily could be rather scary at some times.
"Got it?"
"Quite so, Queen Elizabeth." He said sarcastically, looking out into the dark landscape. "Look, they're coming!"
Several lanterns could be seen in the distance, and like the wind, the horseless carriages pulled to a stop in front of the castle.
"Remember James, not even to Sirius or Remus," she warned.
"Right-O." His posture straightened as a 5th ear prefect led the school in. He shook his hand professionally. "Nice to see ya again, chap."
This continued for quite a while, consisting of corny phrases such as "Welcome to Hogwarts, mi lady." and "Please, don't burden yourself with your coat. Let me." until the 1000 students took their seats.
Then came the first years, led by Professor McGonagall. James, once again, extended his hand. "Welcome back to Hogwarts, I trust you had a nice summer. Might I add that you look absolutely ravishing tonight."
The stern teacher took out her wand. "Charming. Might I add that if you don't scoot quickly along, you will be watching the sorting ceremony through the eyes of a frog."
James sheepishly found himself retreating from her view while Lily quietly snickered.
~~~~~~
An eager 20 minutes later, after they had taken their seats at the end of the Gryffindor table, McGonagall and the first years entered the hall.
"Your attention please!" McGonagall began her static speech. "As you know, there are four houses here at Hogwarts. They are Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, and Slytherin; all of them were homes to some of the greatest witches and wizards of all time. Momentarily, you will know to which house you belong, and to do so, you must place the sorting hat on your head. But first, as is tradition, the hat itself will sing about the four houses for you."
Welcome back for another year
The summer's come and gone.
Now sit back, drink a butterbeer
While I sing my song.
There are four houses as you can see
You will belong to but one.
The raven, lion, badger, and snake
Some really cool, but others dumb.
Firstly I will explain Ravenclaw.
People there have a lot of wit.
The spend all their time studying;
That means they're all idiots.
Secondly are those Hufflepuffs
Whose hearts are warm and cozy.
That loyalty of theirs gets you absoultely nothing
And I'll tell you, they're all really nosy.
Thirdly is the worst house of all.
That dreaded house of Slytherin.
Their hair is greasy, and they're all just stupid.
Plus, they smell like the mud that they roll in.
Their teeth house slime, their skulls house beans.
Why would you want to be in there?
You'd become a nasty, lifeless liar
And you'd have to endure Snape's filthy hair.
Enough about those cheapskates,
let's move onto the next.
They have the heart of a lion, brains of gold.
You're right, Gryffindor's best!
Their quidditch team is unbeatable
There's no match for their skill.
In this house the kids are popular
That people bow to them at will.
Minister Potter was from Gryffindor.
In there presently is Lily Evans,
Whose ghastly brilliance is glorified,
And to whom the angels bow from heaven.
Isn't it evident to you now
Which house of the four is best?
So cross your fingers, put me on
And hope you pass the test.
Those few seconds after the song were silent; they could almost hear the crickets chirping outside. Everyone just looked around, too stunned to react. And then like a flash of lightening, the Great Hall was filled with hysteric laughter from three of the four tables. The Slyterins were outraged, as planned.
Laughing along with the school, were James and Lily who were quietly congratulating eachother on the prank.
"I'd give that three thumbs up," James whispered.
"Here here!" Lily agreed, rejoining the laughter.
Lily looked up and could infer that Dumbledore was working very hard to keep a straight face. He glanced at them and winked, knowing perfectly well who the culprits were.
The tide of giggles still hadn't gone down when Professor Secreus Snape stood up, outraged. "Headmaster, this is degrading to my house! The people responsible should be punished!"
The Slytherin table cheered in agreement.
"I totaly agree with you Professor Snape, but we do not know who the offenders are."
"Oh, I think we know exactly who it was," Snape snarled, crossing his arms in agitation.
"Enlighten me then," Dumbledore demanded with benign authority.
"Ok, the person, or persons, don't like Slytherin, especially my son --"
"Who does?" A Ravenclaw yelled out truthfully.
Snape glared. "As I was saying... Doesn't like Slytherin, is obviously in Gryffindor, has some infatuation with Miss Evans --"
James blushed and whispered to Lily, "I do not."
"-- Plus, that person would have had to be here for a while to devise and perform the prank." Snape grinned sneakily. "The only person it could have been was James Potter!"
The potions profession must have been expecting a bunch of gasps from the student body, because he looked downhearted at the small reaction. Everyone was used to James' crazy behaviour.
"No headmaster." James stood up from the table. "It couldn't have been me! Professor Snape was on guard duty while all the other teachers were out. If it was me, then he wasn't doing his job watching Lily and I, and I'm sure he didn't slack off."
Lily smiled, knowing James' smooth-talk would win them all over when she saw Snape shaking his head 'no' to the headmaster. If he wasn't guarding those two, then he'd be in big trouble.
A smile crept over Dumbledore's face. "Yes, well if Professor Snape was doing his job correctly..." He lowered his spectacles on his nose and locked eyes with Snape. "...Which I'm sure he was, then there's no way it could have been you."
"Thank you, Professor." He sat down against as the Headmaster rose from his own chair.
"I am sorry if some of you were hurt by those words; unless the person confesses to the prank, there will be no punishments for lack of evidence. Now, let's return to the sorting, shall we?"
As the ceremony began, James recited quietly into Lily's ear, "Lily Evans: whose brilliance is glorified; to whom the angels look from heaven?! Where'd you get that from?"
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies, my friend."
Once the hall became quiet again, McGonagall picked up her scroll of parchment and began reading off the names. The sorting was same-old, same-old until a very pretty, tall girl with marvelous black hair was the last standing.
"We have a transfer student here from Spain. She is in her second year." Professor McGonagall announced. "Bogus, Sibley -- Will you please come forward."
The entire congregation snickered as she nervously walked across the platform.
"What kind of last name is 'Bogus'?" Sirius teased.
Remus and James didn't case. Truth be told, they couldn't take their eyes off her.
"She is...cute. Very cute." Remus admitted somewhat modestly.
"Man, am I glad Lily's teaching me Spanish..." James agreed with a grin.
As Sibley sat tensely, waiting for the hat to make its decision, a wolf-whistle came from the Slytherin table. She threw them a nasty glare, and when "Gryffindor!" was announced, the entire non-Gryffindor mal population groaned; James and Remus gave eachother the thumbs-up under the table. The two of them wasted no time in matter of meeting her:
"Hello Sibley, I'm James."
"And I'm Remus. Welcome to Gryffindor."
She was very surprised to be welcomed as she was. "Nice to meet you. Are you in 2nd year?"
"We wish -- I mean!" He stopped to correct his forwardness. "No, we're not. We're 3rd years, but should be in 2nd. We got bumped up."
"Unfortunately," Remus added in.
Sibley giggled. "Lo siento, but don't worry, I won't be stuck up and associate with people only in my year."
"Niiiiiice," Sirius finally spoke up. "Would you like a tour later on?"
During all this, Lily was being entertained by their stupidity, but couldn't keep quiet any longer. She burst out laughing. "You boys are too funny. Let her breathe for Merlin's sake!"
"Who are you?" Sibley asked. "One of their friends?"
"Unfortunately," she mocked, winking. "I'm Lily Evans."
"Ooh, the one in the poem."
"Yeah." She turned to James and whispered, "See, I've gained fame from my stroke of brilliance."
"Who pulled that prank anyway?" Sibley asked.
Lily elbowed James, who was about to blow their cover, and said, "I honestly have no idea."
"Whoever it was must really like you. Getting that prank to work must have taken someone pretty cunning."
"Si," agreed Lily.
~~~~~~
In the few minutes she'd known her, Lily found out a lot about Sibley Bogus: She was an orphan who lives with a foster family during the summer; she's very smart; grew up in Spain, but has no Spanish heritage as far as she knows; hates phonies; and has a strange admiration for spoons.
"Spoons?"
"Yes, spoons. I was told my mother collected them, and I have this recurring dream that includes a lot of bent spoons. Go figure."
Sirius was slowly nodding. "Wicked..."
~~~~~~
The feast ended as quickly as it began, for Lily anyway.
"Guys, I'm going up to the common room really early. I'd like to get to my dorm and claim my space before the alleged roommates squander off my property."
"Lily, I don't think they'll be that evil."
"You never know." She shrugged.
Remus jumped up. "We'll all go with you. We need to 'welcome' everyone back with a bang."
"Whatever. Just as long as the 'bang' doesn't include dynamite."
"Don't worry!" James smiled sweetly.
"Yeah right."
"Hey, do you mind if I come along?" Sibley asked meekly. "I hate to be a fifth wheel, but I don't know the routine or who anyone is, so --"
"Of course you can join us!"
"Gracias, and I'm holding you to your word on the tour."
"No problemo."
The trip down the corridors was quite exhausting for the boys; they were following Lily and Sibley - who were walking briskily in every direction - whily Lily showed off the Hogwarts floor plan. She and Sibley yacked away in unrelenting Spanish, leaving the boys with question marks above their heads.
In the middle of a conversation between the two regarding clothes, quills, and yes, spoons, a familiar voice was heard down the hallway.
"Oy! Lils!"
"We've been looking all over for you!"
They squashed her in a hug.
"Hey Kristy. Hey Ash. It's great to see you again! Sibley, these are my two great friends, Kristy Johnson and Ashley Marcelo."
"It's good to meet you," Sibley said politely, not knowing what else to say.
Kristy shook her hand. "Right back at ya." Her focus flew back to Lily. "It's going to be weird with you not in our room. We'll be all alone."
She started singing the song: I'm all alone, there's no one here beside me...
"No you won't. Sibley's probably staying with you."
Ashley looked at the new girl who was twiddling her thumbs awkwardly. "Oh," she said shortly.
Luckily, an unwanted silence was prevented by another four girls entering the corridor -- four girls they didn't know.
"Oh look," one of them pointed. "There's Lily Evans right now!"
Lily was startled when they all rushed over to her, grinning madly. The one in front, a tall, skinny African-American, thrust out her hand.
"Hi! I'm Skyler Yvette Bradford."
"What's with saying all three names?" Sirius asked rudely. "Trying to be all proper?"
"Politeness, something you're obviously lacking."
Before a verbal lashing could occur, Lily ordered the boys to leave, which they did, and continued her conversation.
"Sorry about him, that was very rude."
"Forget it. But as I was saying, I'm Skyler Yvette Bradford and we're all 3rd year Gryffindors. You'll be rooming with us."
"Great! What are all your names?"
One girl, carrying a textbook, spoke up. "I'm Lexi."
"I'm Celeste."
Lily raised her eyebrows at the remaining girl who was pretending to be a mime.
"Oh, that's Adalya. She's a little blessed in the mind, if you get my meaning. She's strange, no doubt about it. Quite the character, but she's awesome."
Sibley laughed, bringing attention to herself. "That's hilarious. I can so see myself miming at birthday parties someday." She teased.
"Me too!" Adalya gasped seriously. In moments, they were absorbed in their over conversation, leaving the other four to talk.
They had completely forgot that Ashley and Kristy were still standing there.
"I love your last name," said Lily. "Bradford -- It makes me think of Bradford Extraordinaire. I always wanted to be Ms. Bradford when I was little. She's such a creative designer!"
"Thanks. My mom'll appreciate you saying that."
"You -- you're mom!?"
"Yeah, she's the one who founded the company."
Lily's heart skipped a beat. "No way! So you have loads of her clothes?" She was thrilled.
"Of course," Skyler admitted, trying to act modest. "It'd probably hurt her feelings if I refused to wear her clothes. It always makes me feel like I'm showing off that she's my mother, but she wants me to wear them."
"Can I please see them and try some on? Wow... a collection!"
Lily, Skyler, Lexi, Celeste, Sibley, and Adalya made their way quickly to their down, to the clothes collection.
Back on the 2nd floor, Kristy and Ashley stood, speechless, as they thought about their best friend who had just ditched them for a bundle of famous cloth.
~~~~~~
"Too bad we have to wear school robes to class," Lily said, examining one of Skyler's dresses in the mirror. "This is a killer dress, and trust me, if I like a dress, it's gotta be good. I'm not the mini-skirt type girl."
"It looks great on you."
"Skyler," she mumbled, going through her friend's closet, finding different outfits. She pulled out a black leotard and looking at it strangely. "I'm this this is something the average person wears around London."
"Oh, I have tons of leotards in there. I'm a dancer."
"Cool. Ballet?"
"Pointe, actually. Madame O'Reilly comes here to give me lessons twice a week. It's really important to me; I've been doing it since I was 4 years old."
"Wow, that's impressive." Lily scanned Skyler's build: She had long, creamy brown arms and perfectly formed extended legs. She was made to dance. "You're just like those ballerina dolls."
Skyler was flattered and didn't know how to respond, so she suggested, "Let's go talk to everyone in the common room."
"Yeah, lets."
Once down there, she was glad to see that everyone was still feasting in the Great Hall. Her roommates were the only ones in the common room.
"Hey, what's chillin'?" She slouched in a big arm chair. "Tell me all about yourselves, in-depth please. I have a thing with detail." Lily was ecstatic when it came to meeting new people and memorizing their entire life story.
The one with the honey-blond, wavey hair jumped up enthusiastically. "Me first!"
The girls all laughed. Adalya was always the first in line for these type of things.
"Ok, all about me--"
Skyler murmured to Lily. "Brace yourself, anything 'Dalya says or does lasts ten times longer than intended."
"-- I love to write, greatly dislike people whose goal in life is to be a snob, ummm... I love books, I adore food. I get pretty good grades, I'm a devout Mormon, I have a lot of team spirit, and I'm very... how should I put it?... weird."
Her friends teasingly nodded in agreement.
"Oh! And my name is Adalya Joe Oswood, and my best friend is Mr. Air. He's always there for me."
"Mr. Air?"
Adalya motioned to the atmosphere around her.
"Ahh..."
Celeste laughed. "She did mention she was weird, right?"
With a wink, Adalya said "Oxygen and I stick together."
Lily turned to Celeste. "Ok, you're up."
"Right. Since we're being all formal here, I'll give you my full name as well: Celeste Eve Frost."
"Otherwise known as 'The Man'!" Adalya burst out. "She has a fondness for men's clothing."
"What!?" She stared at her baggy shorts. "It's comfy!"
As she fiddled her short, flipped-out brown hair, Skyler started humming 'Oh Christmas Tree'.
Celeste threw a pillow at her. "Evil."
Lily giggled. "I don't think your hair looks like a Christmas tree! -- Yikes!" Another pillow came flying toward her. "Ok ok! You can continue -- Man."
She rolled her eyes which were decked in black eyeliner and mascara. "I read a lot of poetry, mostly because my cranky old Uncle Robert sends it to me. He's really good. -- And I have a boyfriend..."
"She always has a boyfriend," Adalya said.
She scowled, but kept going. "I'm a genious..."
Again, Adalya snorted, but Celeste chose to ignore it.
"And the love of my life is Quidditch. I live for it."
"You need to get to Steep-Ridge Quidditch Utopia next summer!" Lily suggested. It's awesome."
"You've been there?" She gasped.
"Yeah, my dad and Minister Potter own it," she said, doing her best to not sound stuck-up.
"Oh my gosh... You're just messing, right?"
"I kid you not."
Celeste did a double-take. "Get out! Seriously!?"
"Yes."
"That's amazing! Lexi over there, she's a natural on the pitch, but was insane enough to never pursue it."
Lexi, stretched out on the couch, snapped shut a book titled '1001 Words to Improve Your Vocabulary'. "I'm pursuing a career in medicine, thank you very much. A Healer, to be exact."
"Me too!" Lily smiled. "Tell me about yourself now," she said, secretly giggling at the girl's strawberry-blonde pigtails, face of freckles, and small, square glasses.
"The name's Lexi Leigh Dukart, and I will do whatever I can to remain at the top. Hence the vocabulary workbook. My hobbies are tutoring, studying, reading, and beating the pants off anyone who dares to play me a game of chess."
"Oh really?" Lily folded her hands professionally. "I'd like to take you on sometime."
"Name the time and place."
Lily burst out laughing at Lexi's mock-seriousness.
"Wow, new friends, Lil?" She heard James say as he, Remus, Sirius, and Sibley walked in from the end of their tour of the castle.
"Yeah, this is Skyler, Celeste, Lexi, and Adalya."
James tripped over one of the chairs while staring at the girls and blushed.
"Well Graceful, how went the tour?" Lily questioned.
"Great, until we encountered Peeves," said James.
"Oh gosh, what did he do this time?"
"He had an apple launcher and a plentiful supply of ammo -- dungbombs." Sirius wrinkled his nose. "That whole floor reeks."
The girls sniffed tha air. "I don't smell anything. You're lucky he didn't hit you."
"Especially considering Peeves has perfect aim. I don't know how he missed you," Lexi commented.
"Neither do we actually, but it was strange. Sibley took charge and marched right up to him, demanding that he bug off," James explained.
"And what did he do?"
"Didn't back down, of course. He loaded the launcher while Sib yelled at him."
Remus interrupted him. "And all of a sudden, she shuts up, closes her eyes, and before we know what happened, Peeves gives her an evil look and glides through the wall."
"He just... left?"
"Yeah, but I think that --"
~~~~~~
As they talked about the strange event, Sibley snuck out of the room and crept up the stairway to her dorm room, doing her best not to draw attention to herself. There was no way she could handle earning strange glances again. At her old school, that's all people every did - stare."
She had never had real friends before. At home, no one had courage enough to dare get even remotely attached to her. Her guardians didn't help either. All they did was enlarge the wave of fear that haunted her classmates' eyes. Never did she even have roommates; no one wanted to stay with her. They were all threatened by her. Not that she blamed them; they had ever reason to think she was cursed, or whatever the hell they thought of her.
But here, here people jumped at the chance of introducing themselves to her. Her, everyone was helpful and nice, everyone wanted to be her friend. And that, she figured, was only because here, no one knew her secret.
Chapter 9 ~~~~~~ Chapter 11
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