Summary: ~*One-Shot*~
Sirius Black and James Potter are two of the most trouble-making third-years at Hogwarts. What happens when they find a crystal ball that makes their predictions come true?
Categories: Marauder Era Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 1
Completed: Yes
Word count: 2036
Read: 1533
Published: 11/08/06
Updated: 11/13/06
1. Predictions by Dragon_Warrior
Predictions by Dragon_Warrior
Author's Notes:
Here's a one-shot that i've been wanting to write for a while. Enjoy, R&R, and read my other fic please!
Professor Morell clapped her jeweled hands together. "There are only five minutes left of class, dahlinks, round off your last prediction," she said in her light, accented voice.
A certain raven-haired boy was lounging back in his comfortable chair, not paying the slightest attention and picking at his teeth with a pin.
"Come on, Sirius, let's get a move on," his similarly black-haired friend was saying. "Morell said we only have five minutes!" He shot a meaningful look at Lily Evans, who was sitting only a few chairs away.
"You just want to be Mr. Prim and Proper for Red," Sirius chided.
"So what?" James Potter replied. "And don't call her Red, she hates it."
Sirius rolled his eyes and focused on the round, crystal ball that was resting on the small table before him. Waving his hands around it spectacularly, he said in a hollow, mysterious voice, "I see your future, Prongs. In a week, you will change...you will become something else!"
James scowled. "Very funny," he said, forcing Sirius' hands down. "Do you really see anything in that goldfish bowl?"
"Nothi--" Sirius began, but he broke off. Professor Morell was standing a little ways away from their table, watching them intently. She nodded at him.
Sirius cleared his throat. "That is, nothing bad. No, nothing bad will happen to you, James. For half a week."
Professor Morell smiled. She liked happy predictions a good bit more than ominous ones.
As she toddled away, James stole another glance at Lily. "Isn't she just amazing?" He asked Sirius.
Sirius gave a little snort and looked in the other direction. "Wormtail's not doing to well, either, is he?"
James looked over to where Sirius was pointing. He grinned as he watched little Peter struggle to predict what was in store for Frank Longbottom.
James sighed. "Moony was smart not to take this class, wasn't he?" He asked.
Sirius smirked. "Moony's smart in and about everything. We really should listen to him once or twice."
"Class is dismissed, dahlinks!" Cried Professor Morell. Everyone eagerly packed their bags and scurried out of the tower.
No one noticed that the crystal ball that had been sitting on James and Sirius's table was gone.
"Why did you take it?" Remus Lupin asked in his trademark calm, even voice.
Sirius shrugged. "I dunno. I wanted to."
Remus looked at him with a funny look. "You...wanted to." He said.
"Yes." Sirius said testily, as if he was trying to explain that the grass was green to a stubborn two-year-old.
"Oh-kay." Remus said. "Well, if you fellows want to sit around and wait for an oversized Remembrall to give you answers, I won't go stopping you. Good luck." He picked up his books and retreated to the dormitory.
Sirius, James and Peter were left alone, sitting in armchairs around a small table. On that table, there sat a large crystal ball.
Peter spoke up, breaking the slight trance that hung over them. “Er, guys? I don’t like this.”
Sirius shook his head, disappointed. “Peter, Peter, Peter. You’re thirteen and scared of a crystal ball?”
“Not scared, I just...I have a bad feeling about this. I’m going to bed.” Peter got up and practically ran to the dormitory.
James looked at Sirius. “Scared.”
“Definitely.”
They sat a moment longer.
“So,” Sirius said. “Let’s make predictions!”
“Okay!!” James said excitedly. “Here’s one”“
He waved his hands around the crystal ball showily. “In four days time,” he said in a mysterious voice, “the Minister of Magic will yodel!”
Sirius slapped James’s hand away. “That’s stupid. Let’s make a REAL prediction. Like...” he looked deep into the ball. “You’re going to get a letter tomorrow.”
“Not.”
“You are too. Look, the word ‘Anonymous’ is on it. You’ll see.” Sirius said confidently.
And he did.
At breakfast the next day, a dumbfounded James was staring at a folded piece of parchment that his owl had brought him.
“Told you,” Sirius said in a strained, frightened voice.
"You sure did," James said, even more shakily.
They looked at each other, and, without another word, scurried back to the common room.
"How much time do we have before class?" James asked.
Sirius checked his watch. "Five minutes. Let's go."
He pulled out the crystal ball from his pocket and made it its normal size again.
"What should we do this time?" He asked, his eyes glittering.
"I know!" James exclaimed. "I predict," he began, looking into the ball, "that Moony, that is, Remus Lupin, will eat treacle at dinner today!"
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Yeah right, like that'll ever happen. Moony's repulsed by treacle!"
“That’s the point!” Said James. “If this works, we’ll know it’s not just a coincidence!!”
“Whatever. It’s time to go to class, anyway,” said Sirius, still disbelieving.
They packed their things and left for class, both eagerly awaiting the evening.
“Try it, Remus. It’s good,” Lily said, offering her friend a piece of treacle tart.
Remus looked at it as if it might attack him. “No thank you!” He said firmly.
“Pleeeeeeease?” Lily asked, waving it around in front of Remus’s nose.
One look into Lily’s puppy eyes and he couldn’t take it. Lily’s puppy eyes beat everybody, mostly James.
“Fine!” He said, taking the tart. He sniffed it once, twice, and then stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed it one time and swallowed.
“Well?” Asked Sirius, who had been watching the whole scene.
Remus smiled. “It’s delicious! Lily, pass me another!”
As Remus proceeded to scarf down the tarts, James gave his friend a look. “Well, Padfoot, I think the crystal ball desires another visit,” he whispered.
Sirius silently nodded.
Sitting around the crystal ball yet again, James and Sirius pondered their next prediction.
“Havoc, havoc. Something to cause havoc,” James was muttering.
Sirius grinned. “Yeah, something really bad. Hmm...”
James snapped his fingers. “I got it! How about this...” He once again waved his hands over the ball.
“Hey! Let me do it!” Sirius said. “It’s my turn. What was the prediction?”
James said two words with a grin: “Moaning Myrtle.”
Sirius immediately understood what his friend meant. Doing the familiar hand motions, he said, “I predict that Moaning Myrtle will flood her bathroom more than ever before! The water will be everywhere!”
James smirked. “I can’t wait for that!”
The smirk disappeared when he realized. “Padfoot, you forgot to specify a”“
The two boys heard screaming coming from the direction of Myrtle’s bathroom, it was so loud.
“A time,” James finished.
Sirius jumped up. “Let’s go!”
They ran to disaster.
Water. Water everywhere. It would take forever for it to be siphoned away. When the boys arrived on the floor where Myrtle’s bathroom was located, they were standing in water that was a foot deep and rising.
“Blimey, I didn’t know there was this much water in the whole bloody school!” Sirius muttered as he picked through the crowd of people watching Myrtle’s worst flood yet.
“We sure caused havoc this time, didn’t we?” James asked as he watched the teachers try to suck up the water with their wand or make it disappear. It wasn’t so easy.
Sirius nodded. “Yep. Best one of the year, I think. Just too bad that no one knows it was us, huh?”
“Yeah. Let’s go back to the dorm for the night,” James said, yawning.
“Alright,” Sirius answered. “We can think of predictions for tomorrow.”
James agreed.
The next day, the two Marauders were up bright and early for yet another prediction.
“This one’s yours to predict, but mine to think of,” Sirius said to James. “And I’ve got a good one.”
“Okay, what?” James asked.
Sirius whispered in his ear, and James’s eyes twinkled with mischief. He made the prediction over the crystal ball.
After putting it away, the two got up and ran for Potions class. They could hardly wait.
The Potions were lightly giving off steam in the room, and it was very hot. James and Sirius looked at each other and tried to keep from laughing. Besides each other, the only person they looked at was Severus Snape.
When the moment of truth came, they knew it. Snape was getting up to get more ingredients for his potion when suddenly, he tripped over nothing...
...right into his perfect concoction.
Potion spilled everywhere, and Professor Slughorn, who had begun to doze off, quickly reawoke in time to disappear it with his wand.
Everyone was laughing, but James and Sirius were rolling on the ground with tears in their eyes. They didn’t notice Lily Evans’s expression as she turned, white-faced, back to her potion.
Class was dismissed a bit early so that Slughorn could help Snape remove the purple spots on his skin.
“I love this crystal ball!!” Cried James that evening.
“Same, this is the most fun I’ve had in ages!” Sirius agreed.
“I’ve got the perfect prediction, now,” James said. “One that I’ve wanted to come true for a long time.”
He looked into the crystal ball that had made these predictions come true. “I predict that Lily Evans will ask me out”today!”
“No.” A voice floated from behind the Marauders.
“Huh?” said James, turning around.
Lily Evans was standing behind him. “Oh, no, Potter,” she said. “Sure, I’ll send you letters, I’ll make Remus try treacle, I’ll have Myrtle flood her bathroom. I’ll even trip poor Snape. But I will NOT ask you out. Ever!”
Both boys were stunned. “What? You mean it was...you?” Sirius said in a daze.
“Of course it was me, you bloody idiot! You think that stupid glass Quaffle was doing it?”
“Crystal,” James corrected.
“Shut up.” Lily spat.
“Well...that’s interesting.” Sirius said, recovering.
Lily sighed, backing down a little. “I just wanted to have a little fun, play a joke on you for once. You prats are always bugging people and playing tricks, and I wanted to beat you at your own game. Honestly, I thought you would have known.” She shook her head at them.
James turned red. “You had us fooled.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Lily said with an air of pride.
They both nodded.
“Well,” Sirius said dolefully, “I suppose we’d better return the crystal ball to Professor Morell.”
James nodded. With one last look at Lily, he said, “Come on. Let’s get going.”
“I hope you’ve come to return my crystal ball, dahlinks,” Professor Morell said as they came through the trapdoor.
“Yes,” they said sheepishly. James came up to her desk and places the ball there.
“Anything else you vant, dahlinks?” She asked them.
“Er, well, we’d like to apologize for taking it,” Sirius stammered.
“Vell, the great Sirius Black apologizing? I am very impressed.” Professor Morell made a shooing gesture at them. “Now, run along please, dahlinks.”
They left the room and went to bed, mulling over the day.
That was essentially the end of the strangest experience the two mischievous Marauders ever had. Lily explained to them how she had done everything. She told them how she had originally overheard them. She told about how she had sent the letter as soon as she had heard Sirius. She told them how she practically forced Remus to eat treacle (although they had seen that). Lily told them how she had upset Myrtle to no end, causing her to flood the bathroom terribly. She also told them how she had strung an invisible rope just before Snape had passed by his cauldron, and how guilty she felt afterwards. the boys consoled her then.
All had been explained. Except one thing.
The one thing none of them, not even Lily, could explain away, was the news in the Daily Prophet the next day.
It said that the Minister of Magic, usually quite refined, had broken out yodeling in the middle of a meeting.
A/N So, what do you think? I'd love to know! Like the ending? Thanks for reading, friends!
Much love,
JJ
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