From The Beginning Till The End

~ Chapter 9: The Beginning ~

RRRIIIINNNNNGGGG!!!

Argh!!!

Lily opened her eyes unwillingly. She was starting to have this wonderful dream about James when the alarm clock went off. Where am I? This is not even my bed! It took Lily a few seconds before she registered the fact that she's a witch and in the first-year dormitory in Hogwarts.

Lily dragged herself out of bed and headed towards the bathroom to wash up. Am I anxious or what? First to be up. Once in a blue moon though. Since it's the first day of school, she might as well be early.

It was already a quarter past seven when she got out of the bathroom. She changed into her new robes and looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror. Arabella was now washing up in the bathroom. Stefanie was still sleeping soundly in bed and had not stirred since the alarm clock went off.

When Lily and Arabella were all ready to head down for breakfast, they winked at each other and jumped onto Stefanie's bed. They started to tickle her all over.

"AAHHH!!! STOP!!! I'm up!!! I'm up!!!" Stefanie struggled to free herself. She then went into the bathroom while Lily and Arabella shared a high-five on her bed.

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"All ready?" James mouthed to Sirius and Remus outside the girls' dormitory.

Both of them showed thumb-ups signs in return and waited impatiently for the three girls to emerge.

After waiting for about ten more minutes, they heard the door open. Sounds of footsteps and the closing door reached their ears. Lily, Stefanie and Arabella were chattering happily as they walked down the spiral steps.

Sirius mouthed 'three, two and one' to his partners in crime.

Immediately, there was a huge downpour of what felt like water but was reddish in color.

The boys dashed back to their dormitory instantly before the girls could say anything. When they were safely back in their dormitory, the boys burst into hysterical laughter.

"That was so hilarious!" Remus exclaimed in between his laughter.

"I reckon they still haven't figured out who did it," Sirius said and burst into another fit of laughter.

"The looks on their faces were priceless!" James agreed before he started laughing uncontrollably again.

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"Sirius Edward Black, you're going to get it from me..." an angry Stefanie muttered under her breath.

"How do you know he's responsible?" Lily asked reasonably, while trying to wipe the reddish paint off her face.

"We've no proof," Arabella added. She was trying to get the paint off her face to no avail.

"I'm hundred and one percent sure that it was Sirius and James. Maybe even Remus!!! Firstly, I saw them buying lots of joke merchandise at Zonko's last month. I think they had bought enough to last for the entire school year! Secondly, remember yesterday when Sirius pushed us into the lake? Lastly, it was targeted at us only! Why not someone else?" Stefanie demanded angrily as she tried to remove the paint using some simple spells. "And Sirius is my twin," she said rather viciously.

"This is not coming off no matter how hard I try! I think it might be permanent for some time," Arabella commented, looking a little worried at her appearance in the full-length mirror.

"This is useless. We're going to be late for breakfast if we stay here. How about we just go into the Great Hall and act normal, or perhaps even make a joke out of our reddish outlook if people start laughing. Meanwhile, we can find some way to prank the three guys?" Lily suggested, trying to suppress an evil grin.

"Great idea. Let's go!" Arabella said and tried dragging the sulking Stefanie out of the bathroom.

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"Look, here they come," James mouthed to Sirius and Remus.

Everyone looked at the three reddish girls who were walking into the Great Hall. Everything was silent for a few seconds before small giggles popped up here and there.

The girls proudly walked towards the Gryffindor table and settled down. They started helping themselves to the toast and eggs. They were not talking much to each other and tried to ignore all the giggling sounds coming from all over the Hall.

"What happened to the three of you?! I will not tolerate such nonsense!" Professor McGonagall barked as she walked towards the girls.

Lily started explaining the whole story with some additional details such as traps and tricks from James, Sirius and Remus. Professor McGonagall waved her wand and muttered a complicated sounding spell, and in the next moment the three girls looked normal in their black robes once again.

The next thing that was heard down at the Gryffindor table was none other than Professor McGonagall's voice.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Potter and Mr. Lupin! In my office right! NOW!!!"

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The three boys had to serve their first detention that week together in the hospital wing, cleaning off bedpans and other equipment without using magic.

"Without magic!!! Is Pommpy trying to kill us?" Sirius groaned as he started scrubbing the bedpans.

"Well, this is detention after all. Do you think Pomfrey will let us sit on that couch and use magic to clean the entire hospital wing as detention?" Remus said, getting lazier by the minute.

"Let's have some fun out of it," James said with a mischievous grin as he took out a tube that squeezed sticky substances but became invisible upon application. He started coating the edge of the bedpans with it.

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