Change - James F. Potter

Chapter 13: Drawing Boards, Cattails, and a Big Mistake

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Any of the photos/gifs and songs posted do not belong to me, and neither does the world of harry potter and all characters except my originals.

Cassie's POV:

We have all agreed that setting the library on fire is not the way to pull a prank by the time we have scrambled up the many flights of stairs required to reach our common room.

"What if we stick all the books to the ceiling!" Sirius looks as if he has solved our problem and is about to pound his fist when I sigh and shake my head.

"We don't know the spells for that yet."

"Oh yeah"

He scratches his head in thought and it looks like it is back to the drawing board. 'Back to the drawing board sounds like such a metaphorical thing' I think to myself. If only it was. Sitting in front of us is a large drawing board that has been framed in red and gold. Apparently, a physical drawing board was needed so often in the Gryffindor common room that the prefects a few years ago had added one to the common room for communal use. Who would have thought?

James is currently sketching what looks like a snitch in the upper right corner of the board. His snitch is what inspired the sketch of my own. It is a beater's bat. I am shading the handle of the bat when it suddenly hits me.

"We use a concealing charm to conceal all the book titles!!" I am so enthusiastic about my idea that I don't even stop to see the boys' reactions. I jump up from my spot on the sofa in front of the fire and race to the bookshelf adorning the wall adjacent to the fireplace.

My eyes scan the shelf and I vaguely notice Sirius and James rushing to my sides. The book that I am looking for has a pale blue cover the color of cold fire. Its cover reads "Books of Spells" by Miranda Goshawk.

My half of the Cheshire cat blooms on my face and I know that I have found what I need. Without haste, I make my way over to the drawing board that sits still in front of the empty fireplace. I have to dodge only a few other students on my way.

A cloud of dust surrounds the book after I plop it down on the drawing board. James, Sirius, and I are all coughing when Lily decides to make her way down the stairs leading to the girls' dormitory.

It feels as if there are dust bunnies breeding in my lungs and vaguely makes me think of inhaling cattails. Siri and I, when we were little, had escaped a party at the Malfoy's Manor by wandering deep into the estate. We had found a pond that was brimmed with the plant. After using them as wands and swords, we had figured out that they could also be 'defluffed'. By the time we had defluffed them all, it was too late and we ended up inhaling the majority of the fluff. I had coughed up fluff for days and my lungs always felt congested.

This dust is similar to the feel of cattail fuzz in my lungs and I do not enjoy it one bit. I am swatting at the air in an attempt to clear the dust by the time that I notice Lily staring at us with a confused expression.

"What are you guys doing?" She almost sounds concerned, hell I know I would be too if I were in her position.

"Nothing"

"It's only kind of against the rules"

"Well hello there Evans, did you miss me?"

All three of us try and explain our actions at once. This stifles a giggle out of all of us. Lily is the only one not to join our laughter.

"Uh-huh," she does not seem convinced by our three different responses, "Right, so I'm going to leave you guys alone now..." Her sentence dies off as she exits the portrait hole at the pace of a sloth.