A Fairy Tale

A Fairy Tale | Chapter 3

At the beginning of dinner the next night, Remus had poured a small content of the potion into Lily's pumpkin juice, while Sirius and Peter distracted everybody with some loud jokes that weren't the least bit funny, mind you. After the pity laughter had died down, the Gryffindors tuck into their food.

"So, Lily..." Sirius said through a mouthful of chicken. "Are you thirsty?"

Lily gave him a funny look. "No," she said. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason. Just thought you might like to...you know, drink."

"Ah...okay."

Sirius and Remus eyed Lily's glass of pumpkin juice all through dinner, waiting for it to be picked up and drained. Sirius couldn't take it anymore. He picked up his own glass. He took a long sip.

"Mmm..." he said, closing his eyes for a moment. He opened them and looked at Lily. "Delicious. Wouldn't you like some, Lily?"

"Not right now."

"Well, why don't you drink it anyways?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why do you care so much, Sirius? Did you put anything in it?"

"No!" Sirius yelled. "Why would I ever?"

"I don't know how that mind of yours work--assuming you have one, that is. Maybe to pull a prank on me or something."

"I would never!"

"Right..." Lily turned her attention back to her food.

Sirius took another long sip of his juice. "Mmm!" he said loudly.

"What?" James asked.

"N-nothing. Just enjoying my wonderful pumpkin juice. You should have some, Lily."

"But I'm not thirsty right now," Lily said.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake, woman, would you please just drink your bloody pumpkin juice already?!" Sirius cried. He couldn't take the suspense any longer.

Lily looked shocked. "All right," she said. "Calm down. If this little prank of yours mean so much, then I'll just drink it. Jesus." She picked up her pumpkin juice, watched by every Gryffindor (and some Ravenclaws that were sitting nearby), and took a small sip.

"Satisfied?" she asked Sirius, setting her glass down, and returning to her food. Everybody else shrugged and did the same.

"I don't get it," Sirius whispered to Remus. "I thought it was supposed to take effect immediately. She should be all over James by now, if not in his pants already."

"Sirius!" Remus scolded. Then he turned to look at Lily, who was eating normally. "I don't know. Maybe we should wait a few minutes."

"Okay."

And so they waited. Nothing happened. Except this:

"Pass the bread, please," Andie said to Peter.

"Here."

"Thanks--uh oh. Oops." Andie had accidentally knocked over her glass of pumpkin juice while reaching out to retrieve the bread. The juice flowed across the butter, passed the potatoes, and stained the tablecloth. Andie cleaned the mess with her wand. She reached to refill her glass, but the pumpkin juice pitcher was empty. "Shit," Andie cursed. "Lily, can I have some juice, please?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." Andie took a sip from Lily's glass and went back to eating. She didn't notice all the Gryffindors looking at her. Looking up from her pasta, she finally noticed. "Why is everybody looking at me?"

"An-Andie," Lily whispered. "Your...your..."

"My what?"

"Your face!"

"My face? What's wrong?"

"Look for yourself," Ronnie said, transfiguring a spoon into a small mirror.

"Oh--my--god!" Andie screamed. Her face was covered in warts. "H-how did this happen?!"

"Maybe it was something you ate?" Sirius suggested through fits of laughter.

"Shut up. I was fine a few minutes ago..." Andie thought hard. Her wart-covered face suddenly had a frown. "Until I drank Lily's pumpkin juice! Sirius Black, did you do this?!"

"No!" Sirius cried. "At least I don't think I did...and if I did, then it wasn't intentional..."

"Urgh!" Andie screeched, dumping the rest of Lily's juice on Sirius's head. "I can't believe you!" She ran out of the hall in tears.

"Well, if it helps, I think there were less warts than the last time!" Sirius called after her.

"I don't think that helped," Peter said unnecessarily.

"No, really!" Lily said, sarcastically. She glared at Sirius. "So that was it? That was your stupid little prank?"

"That wasn't suppose to happen," Remus said.

"You're in with this too?" Ronnie asked. "I thought you had more sense than that! You remember what happened last time." Boy, they sure did. The last time Sirius had pulled a prank on Andie--she had woken up to a face full of warts. Andie had ditched all her classes to cry in the girls' dorm for two days, not eating nor sleeping. She had ignored Sirius for a month then, even when all the warts were gone.

"You two were in this too, right?" Lily said, looking at James and Peter.

"I was not!" James cried. "You blame me for everything!"

"Whatever. I hope you prats are happy. Come on, Ronnie. Let's go find her." The girls left after shaking their heads disappointedly at the Marauders.

James looked at Sirius and Remus. "You guys pulled this prank without me?"

"Seriously, James," Remus said. "We really had no intention for it to turn out this way."

______________________________________________________________________________

"What went wrong?" Remus asked. They were once again in the unused classroom, looking through the library book, next to the cauldron filled with the pinkish-red liquid.

"I don't know," Peter said. "I did everything you said. I added the asphodel, the grass, the two dozens beetle eyes--"

"Whoa, whoa," Remus said. "You added two dozens beetle eyes?"

"Er--yeah?"

"Peter! You were only supposed to put in one dozen!"

"Oh. Well--oops."

"Oh Merlin. No wonder. It changed the result, Wormtail!"

"Wait," Sirius interrupted. "If that's true...then how come nothing happened to Lily when she drank the juice? I mean, it was her hair. It should've affected her, not Andie."

"Was it Lily's hair?" Remus asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe you got Andie's hair by mistake. I mean, the potion turned a pinkish-red color, see? Maybe you had gotten a piece of Andie's pink hair by mistake."

"Oh, shit."

"Padfoot!"

"Sorry! But could you blame me? I mean, pink and red are so alike!"

Not really.