“James, ever since you started going out with Calista we’ve hardly done anything together!” Sirius complained one cold January morning.
“Well, what do you suggest we do, Sirius?” James asked, shifting his position in his chair.
Sirius looked surprised. “Um, I’m not sure. Something though…”
Remus looked thoughtful, then excited. “You know what today is, don’t you?” he asked excitedly.
“Um, Sunday?” asked Peter, looking at him strangely.
“No, January 16th!” Remus reminded him.
“And that is something worth mentioning… why?” asked Sirius.
“History of Magic… last month… You honestly don’t know what I‘m talking about do you?” he realized, a rejected look on his face.
When no answer came from his friends, Remus continued to explain.
“On the 25th of every month containing 31 days, the mermaids create a series of whirlpools in the lake, as a sign of respect for a really, really important King from ages ago. Professor Binns taught us about it last month. It’s supposed to be really good to see, and it only happens once every couple of months.”
Noticing his friends looked far from thrilled, he added casually. “Only we’re not supposed to go out there, it’s really dangerous, because if you were caught in one of them, you’d get sucked under the water and drown.”
“I’m in!”
“When can we go?”
“That’s so cool!”
“Wow, that’s fantastic, I wonder what will happen if I…” James punctuated his sentence by throwing a twig into the water below him.
The twig floated for a second, then as if sucked up by a humungous vacuum cleaner, it was sucked away and into one of the enormous whirlpools, spinning around a few times before disappearing forever under the water.
From their safety up on the rock buildup beside the lake, the boys all felt a thrill of fear rush through them; the thought of being that close to something that dangerous was incredible.
The feeling reminded James of something that he couldn’t quite put his finger on, and he soon began lost in thought trying to pinpoint it.
“James, what’s the matter?” Sirius asked.
James looked up from his trance. “Sirius, what do you like about this?” he asked solemnly.
Sirius was taken aback by such an odd question. “Um… It’s pretty cool, I mean, um… I like feeling a little in danger, without the whole part that usually comes with danger, like incredible pain or extreme terror…”
Peter had to stifle a laugh at the uncomfortable look on Sirius’s face.
“Exactly!” James exclaimed. “Peter, if you saw thick black smoke, would you panic?”
Peter looked as bewildered as Sirius had. “Um, yeah a little bit, but until I saw a fire I wouldn’t get too hysterical…”
“What about if you did see flames?” James asked.
“I would probably do my best to help or get out of the way,” Peter told him.
“Oh sure, more likely you’d be out there running around like a headless chicken!” Sirius laughed.
“Ok, that gives me an idea then,” James informed them.
“What?”
James told the rest of his friends his plan, proudly.
The others nodded slowly, though Remus looked a little skeptical.
“But, we might get into a lot of trouble if we’re caught!” he argued.
“We won’t get caught,” said Sirius confidently.
Jada rested her head on her arms impatiently. Why is it that History of Magic always seems to go three times longer than any other class? she thought glumly.
She glanced to her right at Lily, whose head was dangerously close to her desk, and further along at Thaliana who had gone as far as to begin banging her head against her desk for sheer amusement.
Roxanna was snoring softly, her hair falling over her face in a frizzy mess.
Something to her left caught Jada’s eye though, and she looked up drowsily.
Seeping under the crack under the enormous doorway, was thick black-
Jada’s arm shot up in the air, but she spoke before waiting to be called upon.
“Professor Binns, isn’t that… smoke?” she asked, hoping with all her heart she was wrong.
Professor Binns looked at the doorway, and his eyes grew round. “Oh my…” he murmured.
Lily looked up in horror. It was true, heavy black smoke was slowly filling the classroom, sweeping over the students heads.
“It’s a fire!” James screamed, jumping up. “The castle’s on fire!”
There was a shocked pause, then the entire class went into an uproar, and kids began to run around in a blind panic.
Sirius jumped up and down on the spot, shrieking “We’re all gonna die, we’re all gonna die!” in a desperate chant, which caused the students to panic more.
Lily looked around wildly amongst the chaotic students, trying to spot her friends in the mad blur.
Professor Binns was doing his best to get order in the classroom, but no one seemed to be able to hear him, let alone follow his orders.
“LINE UP SINGLE FILE AT THE DOOR!” bellowed Professor Binns desperately.
“We can’t go out there!” yelped Remus. “For all we know, the fire could be right on the other side of the door!”
“WE’RE TRAPPED!” James screamed, sounding on the verge of tears.
Lily felt panic slowly take over her. To see James this terrified was very unusual. In fact, she’d never thought it was possible; James didn’t seem like the type to get worked up like that…
Wait.
James wasn’t the type to get worked up like that.
Suddenly, Lily was very suspicious. Something wasn’t quite right about this whole thing.
“We have to evacuate the classroom, but I assure you, There is NO CAUSE FOR ALARM! Professor Dumbledore is highly skilled in magic, and-”
“We have to get out of here!” screamed a Hufflepuff girl called Amelia Rothart, and she and Daniel Sarher, another boy from Hufflepuff pushed down the door.
The class flooded outside, most of the students screaming, and a few of them crying, certain they were never going to see family or friends again.
Lily followed the flow of students, allowing herself to be caught up in the sea of bodies until she reached outside, and a livid looking Professor McGonagall, dragging Peter by the wrist.
“There is no need to worry, Professor Binns; there is no fire. It was simply an instant smoke spell!” she explained, a dark look on her face.
She looked sharply over at Sirius, James and Remus, who had promptly dissolved into fits of laughter.
“You three!” she snapped. “Come with me.”
The three boys walked guiltily towards her. As they walked past Lily, she noticed James looked like he was on his way towards the guillotine.
Lily suddenly felt very sorry for him, and forgetting her anger with him for a moment, she whispered to him.
“Hey, James, you’re a really good actor. I really believed there was a fire; you may have a promising career ahead of you!”
James grinned happily, taking this as a sign that their fight was finally over.
James and his friends all received detention, as none of them had wanted to lie to the teachers. It turned out that what had happened was Peter was given the job to pretend to be sick, go to the Hospital Wing, “Feel better”, sneak back to class and cast the spell under the door.
Unfortunately, after he managed to do that, Professor McGonagall walked by and asked him what he was doing on his hands and knees by the door. She brought him back to her office and managed to wrangle a full confession out of him, about the prank, and also the snow incident the year before.
The good that came out of this though, was that the students had almost instantly heard about this, and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter became overnight celebrities; no one in Hogwarts history had ever managed to pull off a prank on the whole school, let alone two!
Lily wasn’t entirely happy with James, but he didn’t seem to be all that bothered, in fact, he spent most of his time lying or sitting down, and while he wasn’t getting much exercise, he was losing weight.
He had been given a few days off schoolwork, as the teachers were convinced he had come down with a bad case of the flu, but Lily was sure the symptoms weren’t right.
Lily consulted Remus, but he didn’t look any better than James, if not worse.
“Look, I’m not sure about anything, but I may have an idea what’s wrong with James,
I’ll go to the library as soon as I can to check it out, but I can’t now.”
“Why not Remus, it could be important!” Lily argued.
“You aren’t, um… concerned about James now are you?” Remus questioned, slyly.
“Of course I am! Just because I want to throttle him lately doesn’t mean I don’t care about him!” Lily cried.
“Oh, Ok, he’ll be pleased to hear that; he thinks you hate him for no reason.” Remus said offhandedly. “But no, I can’t look now, I’ve… um, I’ve got to visit my Mum tonight. She’s sick, really sick…”
Lily was shocked. “Oh Remus, I’m so sorry…” she trailed off.
He shook his head. “Don’t be; they think she’s going to be alright, really they do. Just, um, I think it’s right to, um, visit her.”
“Of course it is, forget I ever said anything,” Lily told him, looking at him sorrowfully.
OK! I really hope that you liked that chapter! I didn't think it was too bad personally! hehe! Ok, review challenge! The part everyone loves! This chapter's challenge is: Which OC do you most relate to, and why?