Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I don't own Rice Krispies. I do own Operation Rainbow, though, seeing as it was all my idea.
Chappie 13
Operation Rainbow
James plopped down next to Sirius at Gryffindor table. When he had woken up, the dormitory had been deserted; he had rushed to get to breakfast on time. His hair was plastered to the left side of his head from sleeping on it and there were bags under his eyes. No one looked up. 'And a good morning to you too,' he thought.
James considered his breakfast choices. 'Hmm, cold eggs. Or cold pancakes. Or cold bacon.' He sighed and rested his head on his hand. 'I need to wake up earlier.' He poured himself a bowl of cereal. "Hey, pass the milk, Sirius."
No one answered. No one even looked up. Sirius continued to eat his muffin.
James elbowed him in the side.
"What?" Sirius asked through a mouthful of muffin. "Can't you see I'm eating here?"
"No! I'm blind. Pass the milk."
Sirius grabbed the pitcher and handed it to James. "Hey, where were you this morning?"
"Umm. . . aslee-"
"Hey, Potter, I'm just going to borrow this for a sec, okay? Maggie just used up the last of ours." Lily grabbed the pitcher out of his hands. "Thanks!" She walked down the table to where Maggie was sitting and poured herself a glass of milk. Maggie whispered something and Lily leaned down and blocked the pitcher from view. When she stood up, James thought he saw the milk flash blue for a second.
"Hey?" he asked the Marauders. "Did you just see that?"
"See what?" Remus questioned.
"The milk! Did you see the milk? It was like, blue!"
"Okay." Sirius rolled his eyes. He bent over the table and stage whispered to Remus, "I told you to not let him have that extra burrito last night, but no one listens to Sirius do they?"
Lily sauntered up, a huge smile on her face and handed James the pitcher. "Here."
It might have been his paranoid thoughts, but James thought she was just a little too happy to be bringing back a half empty pitcher of milk. 'Oh yeah, that's right,' he thought to himself as he poured the remaining milk on his cereal. 'No girl can resist me!' He set the empty pitcher in front of him and ate a spoonful of his breakfast. 'Mmm, Rice Krispies. Snap, crackle, p-' His thoughts stopped as he watched the pitcher refill with milk. 'Hold on a second! Why did she need to borrow this milk? Hogwarts's food always replenishes itself. Even if she didn't know that, Maggie would.'
"Hey, Sirius," James mumbled to his friend. "The pitcher just refilled."
"Oh my god!" Sirius shouted.
"I know!" James answered. It was almost like he and Sirius were on the same wavelength.
"You finally learned something, Prongs!" Sirius thumped his friend on the back. "I was beginning to think that this education stuff wasn't for you, but I think we've just seen a breakthrough!"
Or maybe they weren't. "No, I mean, why did Lily have to borrow our milk?"
"I don't know mayb-"
Lily cut him off as she waltzed up to them. "Hey, Potter, you look kind of green this morning. Are you okay? Maybe you should go to the hospital wing."
"What are you talking about? I'm not green." But in fact, he was. He was the most brilliant shade of green you would ever see. All the way from the top of his head to the bottom of his shoes. Completely green. "Lil- Evans!" he screamed. "What have you done?"
"Oh, James," Maggie consoled him as she walked up behind Lily. "Don't be so blue. I hate it when you're sad."
"What? I'm not blue, I'm. . ." James looked down at himself. "I'm blue," he said miserably.
"Ooo. Ooo! My turn. My turn!" Shay called as she ran up behind Maggie and Lily. She squeezed between them so that she was standing right in front of James. "I want to see this. How about purple? Orange? Yellow? No, no, I've got it! Red with green polka dots!" She smiled and evil smile and skipped off.
But back to James. First he was a deep, deep royal purple, and then the bright orange of hunting equipment, and then the intense yellow of the sun. But then, oh this was the piece de résistance, then he was the most dazzling shade of red with forest green polka dots scattered across him. It hurt you eyes just to look at him.
By now, the whole hall had noticed the funny colored boy sitting at Gryffindor table, and some of them had even realized it was James Potter. They told the ones who didn't. Suddenly, and with out warning, the Great Hall erupted with a roar of laughter. From that point on, Lily Evans was the golden girl of Hogwarts. She was the first person to have ever pranked James Potter and she was the only one who ever did.
"Evans!" he started to yell, but then a certain peace came over him and he smiled. "Nice job," he stated indifferently. "Amateur, but nice, nonetheless."
Lily looked like she was about to smack him, or tear off his head, or rip out his guts, or something, when Sirius piped in, "What? Are you off your rocker?" he asked James. "That's one of the best pranks I've ever seen! And, mind you, I've seen quite a few." He stood up and bowed to Lily. "M' lady, you have my utmost respect." And he whacked James over the head.
"Why did you have to do that?" James, still in his polka dotted form, asked Sirius as they walked to their first class of the day.
"Do what, my most magenta James?"
James turned a radiant hue of magenta. "Tell her that you liked this!" James indicated himself.
"Well," Sirius said with a snicker, "I don't like that, I liked her prank! It's sure to be hilarious all day long."
"Plus," chimed in Remus, "you were being kind of a jerk. It really is quite funny! Don't you think, Sirius?" Both Sirius and Remus nodded.
"Let's try, I don't know, pink!" said Sirius.
"No. No! I'm sure he'd be happier in Gryffindor colors. Scarlet!" Remus countered.
"Or gold!" piped up Peter.
"Nope, I've got it," Sirius whispered manically. "Floral!"
James groaned. They walked into transfiguration.
"I have taken the liberty of assigning you seats this year," a stern looking woman said. She had a clipboard in front of her and she started reading names off of it and pointing to seats in the classroom. "Mangrich, Margaret. . ."
She had gotten through less than half of the class when she called off, "Evans, Lily. And next to her Potter, James." Professor McGonagall looked over her glass at him. "Come on Mr. Potte- oh my, is this one of those new fads?" she asked him. She looked directly at the large rose covering half of his face.
"Umm, no, Professor." He rushed to his seat amidst chuckles and giggles. At least they didn't have class with the Slytherins.
McGonagall continued with the seats.
"Make it stop!" James whispered to Lily.
"Make what stop?" she asked innocently.
"This!" he pointed, hysterically, at his cheek.
Lily gave him a questioning look. "I don't know what you do in your spare time, Potter, but that sounds like a personal problem to me." She smiled.
"No! I mean this! Blue!" he said as he turned royal blue. "See! People aren't supposed to change colors! It's not normal."
"Hmm, I thought you said it was amateur?"
"I did," he replied, now aloof, "but you've had your fun. Make it stop!"
"I'm sorry," she told him, "but it is out of my control now. You'll just have to wait it out like the rest of us."
"Yeah, but the rest of you think it's funny," he said churlishly as he opened his transfiguration book and started reading the assignment written on the board.
"Exactly." She smirked. "Oh, and Potter?" He looked up from his transfiguration book. "Next time I'll make sure you don't wake up on the wrong side of the bed." She reached over and ruffled his bed hair.
The rest of the day was anything but better for James. Typically, when he walked through the halls, girls swooned at his very glance, but not today, today was different. Today, girls and guys alike chuckled behind their hand or pointed and laughed out right when he walked by. A typical conversation would go as follows:
A group of girls would be just within hearing distance of James when one of them would say, "Did you see him when he was pink?" Or blue or checkered, it varied, but on with the story.
Another girl would answered, "No, but now that I see it, he does look so adorable pink, doesn't he?" Or blue or checkered.
James would roll his eyes and turn away but then another girl, or maybe the first, would reply, "Yes, pink really is his color, we'll have to remember that when we're Christmas shopping." And the rest of the girls would nod their heads, or laugh and go on their merry way.
And James would shake his head and turn around the corner only to be met by Lily, who always seemed to be right there, around the corner, and had always just heard the conversation.
And then she would say, "Hmm, yes, you do look stunningly brilliant in pink." Or blue or checkered, whatever the girls had mentioned. "But I would have to say," she would continue, "that your true color is violet." Or persimmon or lime, whichever color happened to be striking her fancy at the moment, and she would walk away.
To James's immense relief, by the end of the day it had worn down so that when someone mentioned a color around him he no longer changed to the dazzlingly bright hue of that color. No, by dinner, he was turning to colors resembling pastels and by the next morning it had stopped all together. But the next morning he had something even better to think about then colors.
DONE! Like it! Hope you did! Hope everyone had a good Fourth of July! I didn't! Yeah I probably slept like five minutes because my crazy neighbors kept shooting off fireworks and my dog kept barking at them! Yeah. I love Fourth of July. Thanks everyone for reviewing! We made it past 100! Whoot!
shmokey-bear: I tried to make it longer! It's not really James POV because it wasn't in first person but did you like it anyway?
heartsdesire456: Well, I would like to point out that I have 12 chapters and a prologue so that's totally different from 13 chapters:) But now I have 13 chapters! Thanks for reviewing!
grannyHPfan: The 'interloper' is Lisa. Sorry I didn't include her in this chapter but did you like it anyway? Thanks for reviewing!
WhiteTiger1992: Did you like it? Thanks for reviewing!
EastCoastHPgrl: I'm not telling! It's a secret! I hope I cleared everything up for you! Thanks for reviewing!
smittyloveshpfic: They are in 5th year, but Hari is in 7th year! Thanks for reviewing!
futurePOTUS: Muwahahaha! You'll just have to wait! I have missed your reviews! Thanks for reviewing!
NJ MacReiley the Helpless Romantic: Hmm. . . that does sound interesting. I haven't really read any anime but I'll take your word for it!
hpronw: Yep. Jerky James. Hope you liked the outcome! Thanks for reviewing!
Lily and James Love 4 ever: Was it beyond your wildest imagination? Thanks for reviewing!
Trocle: Glad you liked it! Thanks for reviewing!
Flame of Desire: Was this soon enough? Thanks for reviewing!
Kelsie B. (anon.): I'm glad you like the plot so far. Can you tell me , specifically, what is wrong about James's and Sirius's character? I know I rushed in earlier chapters but has it gotten better or worse? Maybe it has stayed the same? I really appreciate you ideas! Thanks for reviewing!
AlannaDragon: I love camping. My family used to rent a cabin up in Canada and we'd go there for like two weeks. There wasn't anything there either. It was beautiful. I loved it. One time this black bear got into our garbage. It was kind of scary but we got some great pictures! I hope you have fun on your trip! Have you ever read the Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones? They are my favorite series! How about the Homeward Bounders by her also! That is defiantly the best book ever written, in my opinion! Thanks for reviewing!