James scurried quietly down the stairs, heading toward the kitchen, a huge mischievous smile on his face. He tried to wipe the smile off, attempting to shake off the combination of nerves and excitement running through him, but it was nearly impossible.
He was going to try something he’d never tried before. Well, okay, he’d tried but he’d never been successful. This time, though, he would have to be; after all, if he actually found the cupboard then he could pull of the best prank of all time. Okay, fine, the best prank in the neighborhood.
The kitchen seemed smaller without his mom there, as something was always cooking in the Potter household. James quickly got his mind back on subject as he tried to remember what his dad had told him about the cupboard. It was hidden in one of the walls, with a secret way to get in. And, supposedly, it held all of James’ wildest dreams that didn’t include Lily in them. ‘Supposedly’ being the key word there.
James carefully circled the room once, finding all the spots on the walls without anything there. Only one spot was open, James’ mom being one to cover every inch of a wall. He began pushing in on it, but it was completely smooth.
“Dammit,” James swore. He’d have to use magic to get in. I should’ve known. He thought. What kind of magical family doesn’t keep things locked up with magic? The excitement of getting back at Sirius and Remus must be going to my brain.
In his head James could hear Sirius’ automatic response: What brain?
The real problem now, of course, was that James couldn’t do any magic until his birthday. So the amount of people who could in the house was numbered down to Sirius, Remus, Mrs. Dongle, and…Lily.
Lily? Granted, she was the only person who could actually help, but…Lily?
Giving up, James headed back up the stairs thinking that it would never work even if he did ask her to help. But then again…
James turned the opposite direction at the top of the stairs, going toward Lily and Mrs. Dongle’s room instead of his own, hoping against hope that this would work.
Mrs. Dongle could’ve been more than a hundred years old. Every time she moved she creaked. Her breath smelled like old gym socks and she snored. Badly.
Lily tried to sleep, but she became convinced that Mrs. Dongle’s snoring was as loud as a sonic blast. Nothing helped, so she carefully turned on the light by her bed and took out her journal. Apparently, nothing would wake her up, either.
Dear Diary,
Well, here I am at the Potter’s house…although I don’t know why mum and dad let me come. Something about me ‘needing to socialize more’; otherwise known as they need more vacation time without me and Petunia mucking it up. Thank God Petunia is sleeping over at a friend’s house this week. I don’t think I could listen to her yell at me about the ‘around the world trip’ because it’s too magical. I wish she’d just shut up. It’s not as if she didn’t wish she had magic, too. She doesn’t have to hate me for it.
It was kind of weird coming here today, though. Remus was the same as always, thank God he’s here. Sirius was his usual pompous self and James…was…uh…is there a word for how he is? Stilted? Off? Cute when he blushes?
Oops. Don’t count the last one. My brain wasn’t working.
Suddenly Lily was aware that the door was slowly opening and a finger was telling her to come. Slightly confused, she put down her diary and made her way to the door. Stopping suddenly, she realized that she was only wearing a nightgown and grabbed her sweater off the end of her bed.
Opening the door wider, James’ head appeared and mouthed the words ‘come here.’ Lily followed, rolling her eyes at his attempts to be quiet.
“What is it, James?” she asked, pulling the sweater closer to her to cover the nightgown.
James looked her over and raised an eyebrow. “What’re you wearing?” Lily blushed.
“What is it James?” she asked a little more forcefully this time, letting go of the sweater.
“I need your help. With magic. Downstairs. Right now.” He muttered.
Lily laughed slightly. “Can you talk in complete sentences?”
“I need your help downstairs so that I can open a magic cupboard so that I can pull the ultimate prank on Remus and Sirius.” James sighed, hoping that that about covered it.
Lily narrowed her eyes. “You mean that you can’t do magic outside school yet?” He nodded. “Hmmm…I don’t know…what will you give me in exchange?”
“What?” James couldn’t believe this. Lily was bribing him?
“Well, it’s not everyday that I have James Potter groveling for my help. So I figure that I might as well make the most of it, right?” She grinned innocently.
“I’m not groveling…” James muttered quietly. Then, louder he said, “Merlin, Evans. If you wanted to do something dirty you didn’t need to bribe me to get me to do it.” As soon as it was out of his mouth, he regretted saying it. Inwardly he cussed, kicking himself for ruining his only chance for a good prank.
As expected, Lily gave him a look of disgust. “Potter, I don’t even want to dignify that with a response.” She turned and began to go back to bed. James caught her by the arm.
“Wait! Please help me? I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
Lily looked down at his hand gripping her arm and he let go. The she sighed and rolled her eyes. “All right, I’ll help.”
James was surprised. “Really? I swear I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
She turned toward him and flashed him a grin. “You just better make sure that whatever it is you have planned for me is worth it.” James smiled back and he led her down to the kitchens.
He showed her the blank space on the wall and Lily inspected it. Turning back to him after a moment, she gave him the strangest look.
“What?” James asked, blushing a bit.
“It just now occurred to me that I’m older than you. Hmm…Interesting how that makes a whole lot of sense, isn’t it?”
“Shut up.”
Lily turned back to the wall, a small smile of triumph written on her face. She pulled out her wand from her sweater pocket and gently tapped the wall three times and then said “Potter.” Instantly a small cupboard appeared.
James looked at her, a mixture of gratefulness and awe on his face. “How’d you know to say Potter?”
Lily shrugged. “We have one of these at home; I’m the only one who knows about it. Each cupboard basically is fixed to use the last name of the inhabitants of the house. It’s actually very simple.”
“Yeah, yeah, I don’t need its life history.” James spurned, already elbows deep into the contents of the cupboard. He pulled out a small vial and examined it. “Perfect!” he exclaimed.
But Lily had already begun climbing the stairs, hurt by what James had said. James considered running after her, but he shrugged it off. She wasn’t his priority right now.
Instead, he quickly closed the cupboard, watching it melt back into the wall, and went back to his room. Sirius and Remus were still very much asleep, unaware that James had even slipped out.
James quickly read the label over again on the vial. If he wanted it to work, he would have to use it now before the morning. The label said that all it took was a drop on the victim’s head. (Alright, so it didn’t say victim exactly, but James envisioned it did.)
Remus was easy to drop the potion on, but Sirius was another matter altogether. It seemed that Sirius had a defense system set up just for this kind of thing. Obviously, he had been pranked too many times at night, or more likely, he had delivered too many pranks at night that he built up an immune system to it just in case.
In any case, it took four tries to just drop the potion on Sirius’ head before James finally held him down and forced the liquid to settle. Finally satisfied, James put the vial away in his sock drawer and settled down in bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
The next morning Sirius felt itchy. It was hot, like he had way too many blankets on himself. Cursing James for making him sleep on the floor, Sirius pulled off the covers, but couldn’t grab a hold of the blanket itself. It wasn’t until he sunk his claws deep into the material that he finally got it off.
Wait. Claws?
Opening his eyes, Sirius lifted his head up, took one good look at his body, and screamed.
Remus woke up to the sound of Sirius’ screaming. Not an altogether pleasant experience, but at least he woke up.
It was then that he noticed that he had fur. Not just any fur, either.
Orange fluffy fur. With white stripes.
And he was shedding. Everywhere.
He tried to sit up but couldn’t and had to resort to four legs, stretching out involuntarily. It was then that Remus realized what he was.
I’m a cat. Oh my gosh, I’m a cat. I’m a cat. Why am I a cat?
He looked at Sirius for support, who seemed to be coming to terms with what was going on. James sat up from the bed sleepily. But from the angle Remus was at, he couldn’t see James. Then he noticed it was because he was a small cat.
Ahh! I’m a kitten! Ah man, why does my irrational fear of cats have to manifest itself now?
Sirius jumped up on the bed and bit James on the arm. James let out a yell to rival Sirius’.
“And you’ll get more where that came from if you don’t change me back right now!” Sirius hollered, but his voice had a slight mew-ish tone to it.
Just then the door slammed open, Mrs. Dongle in her pajamas in the doorway with Lily behind her.
“And what is going on in here? What’s with all the noise?” Mrs. Dongle shouted, but she spotted the two boys-turned-kittens and exclaimed a sound of surprise and cooing.
“Ah, what adorable kittens!” She reached for Sirius, who was still on the bed with James. “Since when did you keep these cooped up in here?” She asked, holding Sirius against her chest, petting the life out of him. From the look on Sirius’ face, James could tell he was in for it later.
Lily laughed, trying to cover it up with her hand. “We’d better take them outside,” She said.
Mrs. Dongle gasped. “You’re absolutely right, Miss Evans.” Still holding Sirius against her, she turned to walk out the door, but Sirius started to thrash wildly at her, scratching her everywhere he could reach. He finally won his freedom when she dropped him in surprise.
“Maybe it’s better if you hold them, Miss Evans.”
Lily smiled broadly and with the utmost care picked up Remus and Sirius, who seemed much happier with the switch. The two women were gone after only being there a few minutes.
James was still sitting up dully; still dumb on what was going on. He remembered Sirius biting him, but Sirius was a kitten…
Oh, yeah.
Suddenly remembering last night, James began to laugh maliciously. It had worked!
Then he thought about what Sirius and Remus would do to him when they were back to their original forms.
Eegh…never mind…think of something more pleasant…like…uh…dandelions. Yeah, that’s it; dandelions.
He kept his mind on a different subject helped while he got dressed, but it left his mind completely when he spotted two kittens, one orange and one black, staring at him from outside his bedroom window, patiently bidding their time.
It was an omen if he had ever seen one.
Two Steps Back by emmablk1
Chapter Notes: Okay, so it took me longer than usual, but it was worth it, trust me. Lol, and there’s more than this to come!
Enjoy!