Turn Me Green, Kiss Me Pink

Chapter - 2

The Anniversary Ball

Two hours later, Lily found herself at the long, narrow drinks table, delicately ladling some pumpkin juice into a small four-ounce cup and sipping it. She moved onto the next large crystal bowl, brought her face as close as she could to the contents without touching it, and peered into the shiny silver-green glutinous substance. A hand brushed against her cheek as it reached for the dipper and poured some into its own cup. She assumed it was Amir who had been with her at the Pumpkin juice bowl previously but was proved wrong when they spoke.

"We´re drinking right out of the bowl now, are we?" the voice asked, watching her pull her head back out but still not facing him.

"James..." she said, tearing her eyes off the mesmerizing liquid that was turning purple before her eyes to look at James, who started to pant obnoxiously and slurp the drink out of his cup, his eyes wide, mocking her. Her mouth twitched, but she held back her initial reaction and settled for glaring at him impatiently until he got tired of his act. "What is this?" she asked, pointing to the liquid that was slowly changing from purple-gold to a metallic pink.

"No idea, it´s good, though. It tastes like liquid sugar or something else...Try it with your pumpkin juice. Hey, what´s up!"

"Hey, James," Amir returned as he joined them, drinking cheerfully.

"Eww, no!" Lily said, looking shocked at James.

"Fine then, I will," he answered, pouring some of Lily´s pumpkin juice carelessly into his cup, spilling some on the floor in the process. He shook the cup, and the two juices swirled, changing rapidly into a bottomless black; they looked at the vile colored liquid curiously. James shrugged, gulped it down quickly, and immediately choked, spitting black, inky liquid all over the tablecloth. Lily looked fearful and nauseated as she patted his back frantically while he coughed. Amir, laughing excessively, generously handed him some napkins, and from a few feet away, Charisma abandoned her dance partner and ran over to her boyfriend, who was doubled up with laughter and a coughing fit, wiping his mouth on a napkin indulgently. She shot Lily a furious look and took up rubbing his back while people around them watched, confused as to whether they should laugh or call the nurse.

"I´m okay, I´m okay..." James gasped, gently pushing Charisma´s hand away from his back. "That was really good, you should try it, Lil´!" he said, grinning at Lily while Amir´s laughter subsided.

"Yeah, right," she said dryly, wiping a bit of spit off her arm with a white napkin. She glanced at the white tablecloth and was astonished to see the black spots slowly fade away before her eyes.

"Hmm...It was a little too peppery, and it kind of burned...Maybe some butterbeer would help?" he asked, spooning a great dollop of the tan liquid from a few bowls away into the cup. He sipped the now red drink and swallowed thoughtfully.

"Perfect! C´mon Lily, try it," he persisted, clearly enjoying the revolted look she gave him while he pushed it under her nose. He sighed in resignation and turned to Charisma instead. "Care for a sip?" She shook her head smilingly and asked what it tasted like. He took another sip.

"It´s sweet and a bit tangy, and the butterbeer made it thicker and - well - buttery. And it´s less peppery now..." Amir looked at it with interest and suddenly added a dollop each of butterbeer and the mysterious color-changing drink into his pumpkin juice. He sipped it.

"Mmm, this is really good," he muttered, finishing the whole thing in one huge gulp. James grinned at him and extended his cup towards Lily again. She looked at Amir, as though asking for permission, and when he nodded, poked her finger into the cup and licked it tentatively. Charisma, unable to tolerate Lily´s daring to stick her finger into James´s cup, turned to him before she could comment on the new drink.

"Why don´t we dance?" she asked, grabbing his arm insistently. He looked at Amir.

"Great idea, mind if we switch partners for now? I haven´t danced with Lily tonight, and I must, as it is my duty as a friend..." he said. Charisma looked at Lily venomously, who smirked in return as Amir grasped her hand and pulled her towards the dance floor, inquiring why he´d never seen her before. Lily smiled lazily and allowed herself to be pulled into the crowd.

"Lily, I need to talk to you about something..." he started as the Melody Mermen struck up a new, slower tune. The band played from behind a glass wall that separated them from their audience and filled with water to resemble a kind of gigantic aquarium. A spell was cast on the wall so that people outside would hear the beautiful music in English instead of the ear splitting screeching and wailing the Mermish lyrics would normally translate to.

"Go ahead," Lily answered, placing one hand on his shoulder and clasping his with the other while James wrapped his free hand around her waist.

"Well Lily, yesterday, I spent a good fifteen minutes of my time teaching you how to dance with people of ...uh... specific proportions, and I´m insulted that you still haven´t put your new talent to use. I´ve noticed that you´ve danced with practically everyone of any importance but your date."

"I did dance with him!" she lied huffily.

"No, you didn´t," he frowned at her, annoyed.

"How would you know? Have you been watching me all this time??" she cried indignantly.

"No..." he said, looking at something over her head, beyond her. She steered him around until she stood in his place and caught a glimpse of a table with six people staring straight at her before they all became extremely interested in the crystal plates and glasses in front of them. She fumed at the sight of this and glared at James.

"Why can´t anyone mind their own business?"

"Lily! Just look at him! He´s been sitting there sulking all this time! How can you let him down like that?" She considered his words.

"You´ll all leave me alone if I dance with him?" she said icily.

"I promise on our part," he said sincerely. She dropped his hand and pulled away from him suddenly, as though he had scorched her and stalked off towards the table where her friends sat. James followed her quickly, not wanting people to notice that his partner had just ran off mid-dance. Remus and Angela left the table as they approached and Isabella conversed animatedly with Leila and Peter over Sirius, who muttered several commands to his plate in rapid succession and watched gleefully as it desperately tried to fulfill them. When Lily stood over the table and James took a seat next to Isabella, the plate was piled high with everything from meatballs to ice cream to even a muddy boot and a gold chain that Sirius picked out of a scoop of mashed potatoes and handed to Isabella, who, in turn, took it with two fingers and casually wiped it clean with a wet napkin. Lily walked around the table to Peter, took his hand, and pulled him out of his chair in a manner that could be argued as either violent or very enthusiastic.

"C´mon Pete, we´re going to go dance," she said, steering him towards the less crowded area, right in front of the glass aquarium where the music blasted so loudly that there was no hope for conversation.

-:- -:- -:-

"I think you should tell him," Isabella suggested, her arms wrapped loosely about Sirius´ neck and her head reclining on his shoulder. He hugged her closer as they turned slowly to the music.

"What happened exactly?" he asked, after a prolonged silence and a deep sigh.

"I told you. She just started accusing Lily of being jealous of her. She said something about how Lily´s trying to `giggle´ her way into James´ heart, whatever that´s supposed to mean, and I think she called Lily a whore," she answered, smiling at a girl nearby that was glaring at her.

"Hmm...And when was this?"

"Yesterday, right before Lily went to play Quidditch with you guys...So you´re going to tell him?"

"No," he answered bluntly. She picked up her head and pulled back slightly to look at him, surprised.

"Why not? There´s something wrong with her. And James is an idiot for not noticing it every time she gives Lily a nasty look or tries to get her away from him, which is every time they´re together," she added bitterly.

"That´s why. He doesn´t know that she does that stuff because she´s obviously doing it at times when he doesn´t see it. He´s not going to believe me. Besides, she can´t stop Lily from being James´s friend. Maybe I´ll tell him if something else happens."

"Yeah, I guess you´re right..." she sighed. The song ended, and a new, much faster one started. Isabella gave an excited squeal. "I love this song!! They hardly play it anymore..." Sirius grinned and started dancing wildly to the music that was getting faster and louder, still holding a laughing Isabella´s hand, who was very unstable in her high heels. The surrounding couples backed away and watched them in astonishment. Some joined, including Professor Drake, who seemed to be forcing the young, stern, Transfiguration Witch, Professor McGonagall, to actually move in rhythm with the music, but nobody danced as raucously as Sirius.

"You call that dancing, Black? You look more like a limping hag!" someone called from the very front of the crowd when Sirius did a sort of complicated foot-tapping, now completely detached form Isabella, who still danced normally in front of him, laughing hysterically. He ignored the speaker, Severus Snape, and grabbed Isabella´s hand, twirling her round and round, faster and faster.

"Your girlfriend looks ready to barf ..." he drawled, sneering at her paling face. Sirius continued to act as though he hadn´t heard him but ceased spinning her around as she was turning a bit green and had gone from laughing to smiling weakly.

"Oh, my mistake, she always looks like that..." he finished. Sirius suddenly whirled around and drew his wand from his pocket. He pointed it at a shocked and unarmed Snape and narrowed his eyes in concentration. A few seconds later, the brown, sleek head of a horse protruded from Snape´s collar, topping the rest of his body, which remained intact. A number of teachers ran to the scene and surrounded Snape while most of the student body were either laughing or trying to see what was going on. Professor McGonagall rounded on Sirius.

"Thirty points from Gryffindor, Mr. Black!" she spat, her nostrils flared in anger and her hat askew. "Detention for the next two weeks! How dare you attempt transfiguration on a fellow student and fail at it, too! Mr. Snape will be in the infirmary for at least a night to repair!" she barked. Sirius tried to look apologetic but couldn´t help laughing when Snape threw up his arms and neighed indignantly at him from behind her.

"And hand over the wand," she demanded, her hand outstretched for the thin strip of wood in his left hand. He backed up a step.

"No, no, Professor... I promise not to use it..." he pleaded.

"Hand it over, or you´re out! You´ve caused enough trouble with that thing already. First the goblets and now this!" He hesitated but then surrendered the wand, muttering under his breath about how the goblets were harmless. Earlier in the evening, he had enchanted about ten crystal goblets filled to the brim with different drinks to follow the First Years and hover precariously over their heads. Several of them had gone to Professor McGonagall, complaining about the sticky drops of juice in their hair and pointing angrily at the tall, laughing Sixth Year. With a last disapproving scowl, Professor McGonagall gently pushed Snape out of the hall as quickly as possible. The hushed crowd that had gathered around the scene dispatched and left Sirius staring after his victim, looking quite put out. James strode over to him, grinning, and led him to the drinks table.

"That was great! Would´ve done it myself but...You know, there´s only so much the badge allows..." he trailed away, hitting Sirius square on the back proudly.

"Wow...And we only learned human transfigurations last week!" Peter beamed as he approached.

"Well, technically I did it wrong..."

"But what happened was much better," he cut in encouragingly. Sirius smiled as he looked around for Isabella, disappointed to see that she was back in the crowd and hadn´t even acknowledged what he´d done.

"So what did he do to get you so pissed off?" James interjected his thoughts eagerly.

"I wasn´t even listening, really. But he kept saying stuff to me, probably insults, you know...And he was getting in my way so I thought I´d show him!" he lied nonchalantly, secretly very annoyed that he had just lost free afternoons for two weeks, his wand for tonight, and thirty points from Gryffindor for defending his girlfriend that was now off, ungratefully dancing with some big, Slytherin bloke...

"Cool, too bad we weren´t there, too..."

"Yeah, we could´ve had detention together..."

"Uh-huh, where´s Remus?"

-:- -:- -:-

"Angie, where are we going?" Remus asked for what seemed to him the hundredth time. She mumbled something incoherent as she pulled him around a corner, one hand gripping his right wrist and the other holding onto her dress, impatiently lifting the voluminous skirts as she struggled to climb a flight of stairs. She finally came to a stop and let go of him when they reached an old mirror framed with an old, rusty golden pattern of leaves on what he thought was the end of the fourth floor corridor. She looked at it thoughtfully, and then, glancing at his bewildered expression in the reflection, she reached up and traced a finger over the three largest leaves and the vines that connected them. She stepped back and Remus watched in astonishment as the mirror cracked and then dissolved, leaving a dark gaping hole in its place. Angela walked in, pulling him with her once more, and the mirror appeared back in place to shut the hole behind them, its reverse side illuminating a stone passageway with a cheerful yellow glow.

"Whoa...How´d you find this?" he asked, looking at her in awe.

"Family secret," she replied with a smirk, still pulling him along. They came to a fork and two smaller passages branched out, equally illuminated from the light of the mirror, though he couldn´t imagine how it had traveled so far. They took the left path and climbed a long spiraling flight of stairs until they reached a landing with a door about four feet high. Angela turned the knob and they ducked through to yet another small staircase and then climbed out of a trap door. They were on the roof, on top of one of the towers. Remus looked down and saw the trapdoor vanish.

"If this is a family secret, why am I here?" he asked while Angela walked to a stone bench and placed a hand on its back. He watched as she crossed her arms in front of her chest, placed them on top of the bench, and leaned on it, her back to him. He sighed and took in his surroundings. They were definitely on top of a tower, and since there was a view of a great black mass to his right, the Forbidden Forest, they were at the west side of the castle. The open rooftop itself had a surprisingly clean gray, stone floor; a thick hedge about fifteen feet in height ran along the middle, and to his left, two benches long enough to lie on situated several feet apart, one near the hedge and the other near the trapdoor. He recognized the hedge and realized that they must be on the other side of the Astronomy Tower.

"Angela? What are we doing here?" he asked uncertainly since she had ignored his previous question. She was still leaning against the bench back, gazing at the stars. She turned around slowly.

"I wanted to tell you something," she said finally, leaning against the bench and facing him now. She took a deep breath.

"Okay..." he said uneasily as she looked very serious.

"Remus, I like you," she said, staring at him intently and pausing for a reaction.

"Um..." he uttered intelligently(Don´t you mean unintelligently or flabbergasted?), his eyebrows raised at these unexpected words. "Uh...I...uh..."

"I´ve had a crush on you since Third Year...No, Second...I don´t know, it was sometime after Lily and James got to be friends and we all started hanging out together. Anyway...I´m sure you must´ve noticed that I usually act like an ass around you..."

"No... no, you--"

"This probably isn´t new news for you. Sirius told me before the ball that everyone knows that I like you."

"What? He...when..."

"But the way you act around me is really getting to me."

"What do you mean?" he asked quickly, managing to finish his sentence without interruption.

"Ugh!" She ran a hand over her face, from forehead to chin in frustration. "I´ve been thinking about telling you this for a long time..."

"That you like me?"

"No...not that. It´s just...I think it´ll mess up our relationship..."

"What will?"

"I wouldn´t have started this if I thought you didn´t like me..."

"Okay..."

"I know Charisma was right." She seemed to be talking to herself now. She was staring into space, one hand on her neck, toying with her locket and the other still holding the back of the bench.

"Charisma? What are you talking about?" he asked, taking a step towards her. She let go of the bench and walked towards the hedge, now leaning against the other bench.

"You wouldn´t have asked me to the ball if you didn´t like me. I know I wasn´t just a last resort."

"Angela, what are you talking about?" He ran a hand through his hair. This was getting annoying.

"Why don´t you ask me out?" she asked suddenly, now looking at him.

"Okay... Angie, d´you want to go out sometime? Maybe we can get some butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks next Saturday. We can get there, Hogsmeade weekend or not," he said with a mischievous smile on his face.

"No! I mean, yes... I meant...Why didn´t you ask me out before?"

"I don´t know..."

"I know you like me, Remus. Why do you act the way you do?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You´re such a jerk sometimes."

"What? How am I being a jerk?"

"Not now. Sometimes you act like a friend. Like Lily, and Isabella, and Sirius, and James, and you know... But other times you act like such a jerk, you barely even talk to me." Her eyes were watering up, and she bit her lips. Remus sighed in frustration, trying to keep from yelling at her.

"Look, Angie, listen. I don´t know what you´re talking about. I´m really sorry if I do that to you, I guess I just don´t notice..."

"You don´t notice?"

"Well..."

"You don´t notice sometimes when we´re sitting in the common room and you haven´t said a word to me all day?" She paused, looking at him in disbelief. "You don´t notice it when you snap at me just because I put my arm around you? You don´t notice how one day you hang out with only me and the next day you ignore me?" she yelled tremblingly.

"No, it´s not that. Don´t cry, don´t cry..." he said, panicking from his spot two yards away from her. "I´m sorry, I don´t know why I do it, but I do notice. I promise I won´t do it again..." Tears were running down her cheeks now as she backed into the hedge with her left hand behind her back and the other hand frantically wiping her face. He crinkled his brow, and he could hear faint "pops" coming from behind her.

"Oh God, you know you´re just saying that to shut me up."

"You´re right, I am, but I will try not to do that again." She glared at him through tears, and he rolled his eyes despite himself. "I don´t understand why you´re crying..."

"I only have two years!" she cried indignantly, as though this was obvious.

"For what?!" he growled angrily, tired of how vague she was being.

"And I know you like me, but I don´t want to pressure you," she went on.

"Pressure me? What do you think you´re doing now?"

"I´m sorry, Remus, but... I don´t have much time...and since you like me..."

"Where did you get that? I never said I liked you, why do you keep saying that!" he barked, one of his hands at the back of his head, gripping his hair tightly, and his other fist clenched. She gasped, shaking her head, and stepped aside to reveal a large hole in the hedge. Her wand was out, and it was pointed at the woody stems and leaves that looked as through they´d been blasted apart. Suddenly and quickly she started bending through the hole with great care not to rip or scratch her dress. Remus ran forward and grabbed her hand, pulling it back to his side of the hedge.

"Let go, Remus! Forget this ever happened! I can´t believe I just said all that..." she said, trying to wrench her hand out of his grasp.

"I´m sorry, Angela, I didn´t mean it...I don´t know why I said that," he said sincerely, aware that she was digging her nails into his skin.

"You don´t know why you do anything, do you?" she spat and finally pulled her wrist out of his grip. "Reparo!" she said, just as he reached out for it again. The hole replaced itself instantly, while his hand was in between. He cried out, and she winced but ran past the dozens of telescopes used for astronomy lessons and towards the door.

He heard a door slam on the other side and tried to breathe evenly despite the pain and panic coursing through him at having his arm, wrist to forearm, stuck in a twiggy hedge. He wished desperately for his wand right now and wanted to kick himself for not doing as Sirius had done and extended the pockets of his slacks to fit one in. He took a deep breath and pulled his arm out of the hedge as fast as he could, cursing and blinking back tears as the twigs tore through his skin. With a final tug, it was out, his jacket sleeve torn up and his arm, elbow down, bleeding profusely. He had to go to Madam Pomfrey for this, he decided, looking around for an exit and realizing that he had no idea where that trap door was. He ran over to the area he thought it might be in, a few feet from the bench that was farther away from the hedge, and kneeled, running his uninjured hand frantically across the smooth stone floor, hoping to find its outline. At last, when every spot around the bench was tainted with drops of blood, he stood up angrily and paced around it.

"Where the hell did you get that wand?" he muttered, thinking of how she had stood with her hand behind her back, with her wand pointed at the hedge and blasting it apart, no doubt. "Damn it, Angela!" he yelled, stopping to kick the bench with all his might. It glowed yellow, and he froze as it slowly rumbled. He watched, astonished, as it moved aside to reveal a flight of stairs that descended from the tower, illuminated with the same yellow light that the passage they had used to arrive had been. Cradling his bloody arm to his chest, he wasted no time in dashing down the steps, silently congratulating himself for finding an exit by himself and not waiting to be rescued as he had planned earlier.