little miss black

-113-

James was true to his word and in the lead up to the Christmas holidays, he had pranked half of the school. Sirius, Peter and Remus were his first victims — he turned Sirius' cigarettes to worms, Peters bed was transfigured to a pig whilst he was in it and he had replaced all of Remus' chocolate bars with white chocolate (something Remus was yet to forgive him for as white chocolate was utterly wrong and shouldn't even be called chocolate). He had managed to pull of an array of pranks on the teachers, something that had landed him in detention more than once. He was a lot more subtle than Sirius and Peter, and usually the blame did not land on him, keeping him out of detention and from losing house points.

Cass was being extremely cautious of the Potter boy and was paranoid about everything. She knew that James would wait until she least expected it before striking. Marlenes hairdryer had been filled with talcum powder, leading her to hex a laughing James, Dorcas had walked straight under some slime bombs and James had jinxed Alice and Franks lips together whilst they were kissing. He hadn't done anything to Lily, which Cass assumed was because he was a) slightly terrified of her and b) hopelessly in love with her.

Cass stepped into the bathroom tentatively, looking around for any buckets of prank related substance. Not seeing any, she stepped towards the shower. She was about to get in when she realised she should probably inspect her shampoo and conditioner. She would not put it past James to put either hair dye or hair remover in one of them. She sniffed it, and was very glad she did because that was not the familiar coconut and vanilla scent of her shampoo. Rolling her eyes, she pulled her jumper back over her head and went down to the common room.

James and Sirius were looking around innocently, trying to act inconspicuous as they waited for Cass to come downstairs after her shower. Remus was watching them warily, trying to distract himself with a game of gobstones with Peter (the four marauders and Cass all had a free period). Cass stood in front of James and Sirius, arms folded.

"Is there something either of you wish to tell me?" She said. Sirius and James exchanged looks.

"No." Sirius said. "Why, what do you have in mind?" Cass narrowed her eyes at the two boys and held her shampoo bottle up.

"This ringing any bells?"

"Can't say it does." James said, his voice slightly higher than usual.

"So if I happened to use this, nothing would happen to my hair?" Cass said, raising her eyebrows.

"Uh not that I know off." James said.

"It would only bring out its usual silky shine." Sirius said. Cass pursed her lips.

"Fine. I'm going to go and use this right now and if I find out you're lying to my and my hair turns orange, or some god awful colour like that, or if it falls out, I will not be pleased."

"Okay." James squeaked. "Have fun." He exchanges a nervous glance with Sirius. Cass looked suspiciously at them once more before going back upstairs.

"We're dead." Sirius groaned.

"What did you do this time?" Remus said. "Her hair isn't going to fall out is it?"

"No, we're not cruel." James said, shaking his head. "I'm offended you think that of me Moony."

"It's just going to go purple." Sirius mumbled. "She likes purple, she can't get annoyed."

"I think she'll be more annoyed that you blatantly lied to her face." Remus said, seemingly amused by the situation. "And then you'll both be for it, do you not remember the last time you pranked her?"

Sirius and James both blanched and gulped.

"Maybe we should go and tell her about the shampoo." Sirius said, jumping to his feet.