- Chapter Twenty -
"Motherfucker."

Elladora watched as James made his way over to the sixth-year Gryffindor girls that were sat at the breakfast table. He had expressed his worry that Lily had taken a less liking in him since he became so preoccupied with his friends, so he told them that he was going over to apologise for something that Lily didn't even notice was happening.

Nevertheless, the redhead smiled warmly and waved him off after a small conversation. He returned to his friends, a bright smile on his face whilst pumping his fist in the air. Elladora high-fived him and turned back to her porridge, she had been eating it before James announced that everyone had to watch him talk to Lily.

"So, name suggestions for mine and Evans' children?" He wiggled his eyebrows and the boys chuckled. "I'm thinking James II."

"Sirius."

"Peter."

"Remus."

"Harry." Elladora spoke up. "That's a nice name, you sort of look like a Harry, James. So I think your child would look like one too if he was a boy."

"In all due respect, Dora." James started, cringing slightly. "Harry is a ridiculous name."

She shrugged and turned back to her porridge. Sirius looked deep in thought. "Actually, Harry Sirius Potter doesn't sound like a bad name." He said, pointing his spoon that he had in his cereal at his friend.

"Harry James Potter." James corrected before grimacing again. "I'm not naming my child Harry, ew." He said and poured himself some orange juice.

"Suit yourself. Harry's actually quite a good name." Remus agreed and so did Peter. Elladora raised her eyebrows at James and he rolled his eyes with a fond smile on his face.

"Enough about Harry," He gagged on the name and the other four exchanged amused glances. "What do we have first period, boys?"

The Gryffindors all grabbed their timetables out of their bags or pockets of their robes and unfolded it, scanning the parchment for the right lesson. Sirius' had tea stains all over it and odd doodles that he had drawn with a quill, then again Elladora didn't really know what she was expecting as she looked over his shoulder.

"Care of magical creatures with the Slytherins." Remus said and smiled at their very own rogue Slytherin, who nodded and returned to her porridge. "Apparently today we're doing Hippogriffs."

"Oh, I've read about those, the front half of an eagle and the hind half of a horse. Its extremely fast and is presented as being able to fly around the world and to the Moon, though no ones ever actually tested it." Elladora said.

"Dibs on sitting next to her." James pointed at the girl and pumped his fist in the air once again as Peter groaned, Peter wasn't that mentally gifted, so sitting next to the person who has read all about them would be a bonus, plus he admires her greatly.

"Let's get going then." Remus said and stood slowly, time had flown by and it was already the start of the moon cycle. That reminded Elladora of her potion.

"After Care of magical creatures I'll take you to the potion." She whispered and he nodded thankfully as they all set off through the doors of the great hall.

Now, when Elladora had read all about the Wolfsbane potion invented by Damocles Belby just a couple of years ago, it seemed very difficult, but when she was one of Slughorns favourite students, it wasn't hard to sneak into the potions cupboard and gather most of the ingredients.

The potion had to be taken by the werewolf each day before the upcoming full moon otherwise it would remain ineffective. It was supposed to make the werewolf sleepy and less wild when transformed which could be amazing on their friends behalf, so that they could all chill out in the shrieking shack, maybe Elladora could come this time.

Fat chance, though, she still had to make it again, seven goblets would surely drain the current cauldron she had stored away in her secret location. Guess she would have to put up with moaning Myrtle once a month which didn't sit well with her at all.

•*•*•*•*•

Professor Kettleburn, their teacher, let them in the classroom as soon as they got there. Some Slytherins were already sat in there, like Snape, along with some Gryffindors, like Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon, the latter looking like she had just rolled out of bed.

True to his word, James did sit next to Elladora in this class, but instead of sitting at the back, he dragged her towards the desk behind Lily Evans and her blonde friend. "James." She protested but those pleading eyes got her every time and she allowed herself to be pulled away from her usual back desk, to which Remus and Peter had inhabited, Sirius reluctantly plopped himself down next to Snape.

Last year there had been an incident, as James had phrased it, Sirius had thought it would be funny to 'prank' Snape by telling him to go down to the whomping willow one night. So being the nosy git he was, Snape did go down to the tree and actually went it, starting to make his way into the shrieking shack, James however, had dragged Snape back out, saving him from Remus' werewolf nature.

That's why they pranked him after exams that one time last year, Snape had gone around saying that the four boys had tried to kill him. Of course James actually saved his life, so they got angry and pranked him again, this time it was hanging him upside down, just as some revenge. But once again, it all backfired.

Severus looked disgusted to have Sirius next to him and scooted away slightly, the Gryffindor doing the same as he glared at Peter and Remus for making him be the one to sit next to their nemesis. James, however, was not paying attention to them and was instead gazing at the back of Lily's head, chin rested in his hand.

Wouldn't it be funny if...? No she couldn't do that, or could she? Elladora pushed James' arm with her hand and it slammed on the table, as well as his head dropping but coming up just in time for him to not break his nose. Everybody turned to face their desk as the girl kept her face impassive and flipped through her book whilst James narrowed his eyes at her playfully.

"Mr. Potter, please pay attention and stop staring at Miss. Evans like she's an art exhibit." Kettleburn sighed and Elladora could see a light pink blush forming on Lily's cheeks as James grinned mischievously at their teacher who was writing something on the blackboard, letting the chalk graze down the surface.

"Hippogriffs." He said and everybody stared at him expectantly. "Body of an eagle, rump of a horse. Fascinating creatures that you can read about in chapters 10-to-15."

The class groaned as he flicked his wand at a pile of books and they distributed out to every student. Kettleburn laughed almost deviously. "Read the chapters, make notes and do the work otherwise it's a detention."

James huffed and pushed the book off of the desk, gaining half of the classes attention. Three identical smashes came from the back and Elladora turned to see that all three other boys had pushed their books to the ground too, although Remus looked as though someone had just killed his pet as he stared down at them.

"Detention for all four of you." Kettleburn glared, but it was no match to the glare that Remus was burning into the back of James' head. "Anyone else want to be stupid enough to do that?"

Elladora hesitated for a moment before standing up from her desk. A couple of small gasps and murmurs came from around the room as she did so. Professor Kettleburn looked at her for a moment before raising his eyebrows inquisitively. She reached forward and pushed her books off of the desk too, resulting in more gasps from the class. "Motherfucker."

The half-bloods and muggleborns covered their mouths in shock. Remus, who had actually taught her that word, hit his head on the table in front of him, putting his arms over his head to save him from the second-hand embarrassment. Peter stayed frozen, staring at her wide-eyed as Kettleburn rose from his chair.

"That kind of language, witch or not, is unacceptable, Miss Hargreaves, you will join these four boys for detention tomorrow night." He said slowly as she nodded, collected her books off of the floor and placed them safely on the table, sitting back on the chair softly.

She turned her head slightly to the back of the room where Remus was shaking his head at her, Peter was still staring and Sirius had the biggest grin on his face as he laughed silently. A smile grew on Remus' face as he buried his head back in his arms, shaking with another round of quiet laughs. Peter also started laughing, which lead to James laughing and Elladora staring from one of them to another with pure admiration in her eyes.

She was so lucky to have friends like these.

•*•*•*•*•
(Hello! This chapter is short because this one and the rest of them leading up to Christmas are mainly fillers, just to show their friendship a little bit more before things get good!)