Change - James F. Potter

chapter 11: The Cheshire Cat, a Pig, and a Fly Trap

Cassie POV:

Potions was taught by a rosy-faced man named Professor Slughorn and seemed to drag on forever.

"As I am sure you have heard," he went on yet another tangent, "I host the famous Slug-Club parties around the holidays. If you excel in academics, you just might find yourselves with an invitation." He winked toward Sirius and me, who had chosen to sit together in the back of the classroom.

I rolled my eyes and leaned over to whisper to Sirius, "It sounds just like every other party we've been to. Packed with the 'best of the best'. Throw in some dull entertainment and bad refreshments and it's golden. He probably just wants to say that he entertained the oh-so-powerful Blacks in case he ever needs a favor." I roll my eyes in a very dramatic way and wave my hands around.

Sirius snorted which turned my sour scowl into a genuine grin. He immediately put his hands over his mouth when Slughorn turned around to find who had disrupted his talk about all the famous people he knew. Before we had a chance to say anything, James, who was sitting on the other side of Sirius spoke up.

"Sorry Professor, I was just testing out my pig call. You would be shocked at how many pigs one can find in these old classrooms. I have already stumbled across two." He looked directly at me and Sirius as if implying that we were the pigs.

Many of the other students found James hilarious, however, Lily was not among them. She made a show of rolling her eyes which only made James' cocky smirk grow larger.

I scoffed 'he thinks I'm the pig? He should have seen himself at dinner last night. He should have heard himself at that. I'm pretty sure he really did squeal like a pig at one point.'

Sirius POV:

I stared at James with my mouth hanging wide open. James had again taken the fault yet again and with a grin on his face.

"And Sirius here is trying to catch the flies. We can't have free pig food lying around to attract them now can we?" I quickly shut my mouth but laughed alongside everyone else.

James had a way about him that made me feel at ease like life was a highway, not a road to hell. He and I were very alike. His humor was similar, only he didn't have to deal with the consequences. In a way, he reminded me of Sio. They were both mischievous and would take the fault for me without a second thought. 

He and my other dormmates, Peter and Remus, had all made Hogwarts feel more like a home than Grimmauld Place. Granted, none of them were Cassie, but they were friends who did not only talk about blood status and dark magic.

"Yep! There was a pig in the bed next to mine that had been attracted to the flies so I thought I would save you the trouble of having to deal with a pig." A smirk came naturally to my face and I could see Slughorn shaking his head with a mild grin.

A lot of the other students were busy talking about me and James and our unintentional comedy skit. It made me smile to know that I was no longer invisible. Hogwarts has given me a voice and I would be damned if I don't use it. Grimmauld Place can be as awful as it wants, but only on holidays, so I had to make the best of the time I had here at school.

I turned my head to see Sio smirking at me. One thing that was very similar about our facial expressions, was our smirks. If you were to put our faces together, it would look similar to the Cheshire Cat from the muggle stories. Cassie and I had found an old copy of the book lodged under a rock at the park one night after we had snuck out. It quickly became one of our favorite books. Any book is my favorite as long as it isn't about dark magic or spells to illegal things. Mother found our book in the attic one day when we were supposed to be studying the night sky. She was furious and burned it right in front of us. Since then, Cassie and I have tried to find ways to bring up muggle things around my mother. After months of driving my mother mad, Regulus pointed out the fact that my smirk goes to the right and Cassie's to the left, meaning if you put them together they resembled that of the mischievous cat. Since then, we have both made it a point to smirk as often as possible.