Wonderful (Lucinda Chaplin)

[James Potter]

James walked pasted the wall three times thinking what he needed. He needed a room that was just full of fun but a place to do homework at the same time. He was lost on his Charms homework. He couldn't figure out how to do it right. He kept on messing up on how the paragraphs looked like. When he stopped pacing he saw a door.

He reached for the handle and opened the door. He saw that it had loads of books on the walls and tables in places and in some corners some things he could play around with to make up a new prank. He would love that but he wasn't sure if that was the best choice at time being. He needed to concentrate on the Charms Homework first. He went and looked at the books and finally found a book about charms and how to write essays about the subject of choice.

Of course all the books that were in there were all about charms. He took a quill and parchment and wrote down the title. "Uses of Wingardium Leviosa by James Potter." he said as he wrote down the words. He had the look of concentration on his face. But one that did not look like it hurt to write. He loved writing and thinking but when it comes to homework he did not like it. He opened the book and began to read. He doodled on the parchment he was going to use for his essay on accident. "I can't figure out this dumb homework." he said as he threw the quill across the room.

[hohum]

Lucinda had positively nothing to do. This was a rare occasion, considering she had been so busy lately. With homework on one hand and lessons on another, she barely had time to herself these days. Today, however, on this cloudy and stormy day, she had no worries. All of her homework was completed, her Gryffindor friends were off completing it (for they had neglected it, of course), and Kat was off to visit her grandfather who was recently found.

What to do…what to do…She strolled aimlessly out of the Gryffindor Common Room. As she passed the empty wall on the seventh floor, a door was formed. She smiled - of course, the Room of Requirements. She could practice her dueling! She was so out of practice, and it was the perfect place. She heard about Dumbledore’s Army, back in Harry Potter’s day. When she opened the door, however, it wasn’t the DA room she had expected. Instead, there were clusters of old books upon shelves, scattered desks arrange in no particular order, and another person.

It was a boy with messy black hair and a lean figure. Lucinda knew instantly who this was, even if all she had was the back of his head for a clue. She folded her arms and smiled, leaning against a bookshelf and watching the frustrated James Potter attempt…homework?! She wanted to laugh. Now this really was a rare sight to see. Irritated, he threw his quill across the room and she laughed aloud this time.

“Throwing fits won’t help you, James Potter,” she said, keeping her stance and smiling teasingly at him. She nodded to the now dented quill on the floor, raising a joking eyebrow.[/size]

[James Potter]

James turned around with a small fusterated smile. "Yeah I know!" he said with a irritated tone. "But I at least wanted to surprise you with one ansignment done. But I got stuck at the very beginning. Did you know I had been coming in here for the past few weeks trying to get it done?" he asked her with a serious smile. "This isn't the normal me. This is someone I don't know." he said with a small smile.

[hohum]

James’s tone was serious, as he explained how diligently he had been working to get his Charms homework done. He attempted a smile, but was all too serious. He managed one after his little joke, and Lucinda put on a mock expression of surprise, opening her mouth and putting her hand over it as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She rushed up to him and planted her hand on his forehead.

“I’m shocked, Mr. Potter!” she teased. “You don’t even have a temperature!” She smiled as she removed her hand. “Perhaps you’ve been hit on the head recently.” Shrugging, she walked over to pick up his discarded quill. The poor thing was mutilated. “Now did he really deserve this?” she asked, pulling out her wand and saying, “Reparo.” The quill was fixed in no time.

Smiling at her little accomplishment, she put the quill back on the desk and spun a vacant chair over. Placing it right across the desk from James, she sat in it backwards so that the backrest was in front. She placed her head in her hands atop the backrest and looked down at James’s doodles.

“Well, it’s a start,” she said, gesturing toward the header on the top of the page, smiling widely again. Even when James was in a serious mood, she could always find some way to laugh and make him smile again. He was so easily entertained.[/size]

[James Potter]

James looked at her with a small smile when she checked his tempature. "Well that's good to know!" he said with a small laugh. Making his hair a mess which it already was but making it more of a mess. He looked at her a bit.

When she picked up the quill he threw and said what she said he had to laugh. It was hiliarious how she said that. "Okay no the quill didn't derserve that but it doesn't have feelings it's feather that could get ink in it and you can write with it." he said with another laugh. "But if it did I think it would have squirted ink at me." he said with a small smile.

"Thanks but it's just doodles. Look I would really love you if you help me get this stupid essay done Lucinda. I really would!" he said with a small hopeful look on his face. He would kneel if he had too. He didn't want to do that but he would. But if Lucinda knew him well enough she would know that he's back to his natural self when he started pranking again. Which he hoped would happen soon.

[hohum]

Lucinda could always get James to laugh, even when he was in the most grave or gloomy mood, a smile and/or a laugh would always perk up. Knowing him for as long as she had - practically their entire lives - she knew which buttons to press, making it easy to have fun with. Except for his pranks, which he tended to go overboard with sometimes, she just learned to accept those and fight back.

He laughed hard when she gave him back the mended quill. He explained the functions of the quill and how it didn’t have feelings. He said that if the ink did have feelings, it probably would have squired ink at him, and Lucinda burst out laughing. “If I was the quill, you bet I would have.” She put the quill into the ink bottle to collect some of the black liquid for him.

He put that hopeful expression on that Lucinda was a sucker for. It was almost a pleading look as he asked her to help him. He just wanted to go pranking some lone Slytherin, she knew. She rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair, making it balance on it’s ‘front’ two legs. She put her head in her hand in a thinking manner.

“Hm…” she said, thoughtfully. “I don’t know…this might cost you.” She gave him a teasing, serious expression, indicating that she meant business. She couldn’t help it when the corner of her mouth twitched as she attempted not to smile, playing her serious charade.[/size]

[James Potter]

"Knowing you Lucinda you would spray ink at me." James said with a smile on his face. "And for that reason I'm glad you aren't a quill." he said as he took the now filled quill from her with a smile on his face.

"Come on Lucinda please I'm really begging you here to help me. If I don't pass it would be all your fault for not helping me and it isn't due for another month." he said with a smile on his face. He knew that it was due with in a month and he really wanted to get it done. "And I don't want to get it done just to go prank some Slytherin I want to get done so I could go fly my broom when it get's nice." he said with a truthful smile. He was telling the truth there.

[hohum]

“You bet I would, and you are also lucky I’m not,” she said to James’s comment. She grinned and he took the quill from her, prepared to right. That sucker pleading face was smack right back on his face after their jokes. He pleaded with her to help him, claiming it would be all her fault if he failed and that he really just wanted to be free.

“It would not be my fault, James Potter,” she replied simply. “You are fully capable -” she stopped herself in mid-sentence, slapping herself on the forehead. “What am I saying?! Fully capable of homework…” she scoffed at herself, and grinned up at him from her teasing. His expression was still begging, and she finally rolled her eyes in defeat.

“Alright, alright, I’ll help you. But you owe me big time, mister.” She took the book from under his hands and flipped through the pages, scanning for the right one. It was a few minutes before she found the right one. She slid the book back onto the desk, pointing at a paragraph. “Right there. Just sum it up…then we’ll move on to the second half of it, which means I’ll probably have to tell you.” She rolled her eyes again and leaned her chair back once more.[/size]

[James Potter]

James smiled when he finally got her all rounded up. Truth was that he had the homework done. "Ah Lucinda thanks you are such a pal. But why don't you take another look at this parchment." he said handing her both parchments. The one that was done was right underneath it but look like it was just one. "I just pulled a prank on you. All that was just a set up."

[hohum]

Lucinda’s mouth dropped open at his little stunt. She wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to throw a fit. She settled for amused anger.

“James Sirius Potter!” she snapped, reaching over and slapping him on the arm. “You insolent, narcissistic, pain in the neck!” She threw the papers at him, disgusted. “Don’t you ever ask me for homework help again, because you’re on your own from now on!” She slumped back in her chair, pouting at him.

Without warning, she leaned back a little too far in the backless chair - her arms folded tightly across her chest - and fell straight to the floor. She hit the floor with a solid THUD, sending books and loose papers cascading from their shelves right on top of her. She yelped as she shielded her head from the falling weapons.

She looked around her and laughed so hard that she was forced to double over in her crooked sitting position. She was told that when she laughed this hard, the sound was sweet and silvery. She never noticed, but this laughter was uncontrollable. [/size]

[James Potter]

James face was in shock when she fell backwards. Sure he knew it was somewhat of a mean trick but he had to pull a prank on her. And he has done this one before and he somehow managed to get her to help especially when it came to his most favorite class which would be DADA. He got up from his chair. The punch on the arm didn't hurt nor that the paper thrown at him didn't either but he knew that would happen.

He went over to her. "You okay?" he asked as he offered her an helping hand. "Sorry about the prank there by the way but I just had to get you." he said with a smile on his face. "I guess I should mention the finished work is actually the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework that you helped me on in the Common Room the other day." he said with another smile. "I guess you could say I pulled another one on you and I do really need help with this subject as it's one I don't really care for. And I give you my word that I will not play another prank on you when it comes to Homework." he said truthfully.

"To show you I actually give you my word I'll sign a piece of paper that says I won't." he said with a smile. "I, James Sirius Potter will not play a prank on Lucinda Chaplin when it comes to Homework Again!" he said as he wrote it down and then signed it. "Here you I hope you take my word for it. And I'm being serious here." he said with a serious smile. His serious smile is a smile that can be trusting.

[hohum]

Lucinda was able to compose herself as James came over from behind the desk. He offered her his hand and she just looked at it for a moment. He explained that it was probably mean for him to have pulled such a prank, and he admitted that he did the same thing with his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. Lucinda finally took his hand then and she allowed him to help her up. He promised that he wouldn’t pull another prank on her when it came to homework ever again. His seriousness slightly alarmed her, but she was happy that this was one prank he would never pull on her again. He pulled out a random piece of parchment and created a contract, scribbling fiercely upon it.

Lucinda watched in pure interest as he signed it and gave it to her. “I’ll have to frame this,” she said, examining it as if it were a rare artifact. “You have terrible penmanship, by the way.” She looked at him and smiled at his serious smile. She couldn’t help but to giggle. “While we are on confessions, I’m glad that you did actually do your Defense Against the Dark Arts homework before I helped, because I gave you the wrong answers.” She smiled, holding back any laughter that was coming her way. “I knew you had already done it.”

“So, you really need help with Charms?” she asked at his serious smile. That was his truthful smile, indicating that he really meant whatever he said. She trusted that smile - an odd occurrence, but true. She sighed and straightened up her chair so that she sat in it backwards again. “Well, since I have this nice slip of paper…what exactly do you need help with?” She tilted her head to the side and smiled down at him, using her playful grin.[/size]

[James Potter]

James looked at her with a small frown for a minute. "I don't have bad penmanship!" he said with a small smile. "I have an alright penmenship. It could be better and it will trust me!" he said with a smile. "Actually I already knew you gave me the wrong answers on the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. How did I know that well since I had already done it I knew you did." he said with a smile.

"And I don't get the uses of Wingardium Leviosa is for. I know it levitates any object you want but I can't come up with what she wants us to do." he said with a small smile. It was a truthful answer. He didn't know what to or how to write it. He sat there looking at the parshment like it was liver which was the one food he would not eat. He didn't like liver or anything that looked odd to him. Which Lucinda knew about that.

[hohum]

“Your signature is a bunch of little squiggles,” Lucinda said, peering closely at the writing. “Completely illegible. At least I know that its you.” She folded the paper and put in pocket of her robes for safe keeping. James then went on about how he already knew that she had given him the wrong answers. She felt her mouth drop open again.

“damn! How is it nearly impossible to trick you?” She shook her head and laughed, sticking her tongue out at him. He then explained his issues with the homework, and looked at the paper with a face that made Lucinda chuckle. She had seen that face the last time his mother tried to force him to eat this icky green liver.

“Wingardium Leviosa is just a spell that makes objects fly,” she said simply, “as you said before. Just put a bunch of random words about it. I don’t think there is much more to it. Use big words…wait, don’t use big words. You’ll confuse yourself.” She winked and smiled. She sat and watched him for a minute. They had known each other for so long, their friendship never ending. She knew him better than anyone else in the entire school, and he could probably say the say thing about her. All those damn pranks he pulled. One of these days, she was going to get him.[/size]

[James Potter]

James looked at her. "It isn't squiggles or scribbles. It's words that you can read. You just don't want to admit it." he said with a smile on his face. He looked down and then showed her his DADA homework that had nice writing on it. "Now does that look like squiggles or scribbles?" he asked her with a smile. "And that is my hand writing too by the way. I do put effort in my handwriting when it comes to homework." he said with a smile.

"Then why bother trying to pull a prank on me if it's so hard?" he asked her with a smile. He knew pretty much almost every prank there was and was gonna try to come up with his own. Well he did came up with one and he did try it out on Lucinda without her knowing it. And it dealt with water and a book. He just couldn't help but smile with that one.

"Right big words make my head hurt." he said with a small frown. He hated big words but to impress a teacher he probably would. But he decided against that. He just started to write random things about Wingardium Leviosa. The next thing he knew he had 3 inches worth of Charms Homework. "I think she only asked for two inches but here's 3 inches." he said with a smile. "With nice hand writing too thank you very much!" he said emphathizing nice hand writing.