Crabs

The next day, Lily and the rest of the Gryffindors started their classes. Charms class was first, with the Slytherins, and they did role call, got assigned seats, and listened to an introduction by their Charms professor. Lily sat by Sirius Black and Severus Snape, who glared at each other over the top of her head the whole period. That was one of the unpleasant classes of the day, considering the tension there was between Sirius and Severus. Defense Against the Dark Arts was a much more interesting class. Lily sat next to Remus and Bekki, and they were starting a light introduction topic on werewolves. Remus seemed a little nervous at the thought of werewolves, maybe he just was a bit frightened of them.

Sitting at a table in a corner of the Gryffindor common room, Lily, Bekki and Melanie were finishing up reading the chapter which had been assigned to them for homework on werewolves.
"I just don't get it," Melanie was saying. "How can they bite other animals and not turn them into werewolves, but if they bite humans, they turn the humans into werewolves. It just doesn't make sense."
"It doesn't have to make sense, Mel," Bekki said, sounding more than a little frustrated. "That's the way it is! Accept it!"
Melanie couldn't think of an argument to that, so she shut her mouth and resumed reading the chapter.
Soon, Lily sat back in her chair, snapped her book shut and waited for her two friends to finish reading. When they all had their books closed, Lily asked, "What do you wanna do now?"
"Let's go se what those boys are up to," Bekki said, pointing to the top of the staircase, leading to the girls' dormitories.
Lily turned around and saw James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter Pettigrew sneak inside the door to the girls' dorms.

The three girls stood up and started up the stairs and into the girls' dormitories, after the four boys.
Lily watched as the boys disappeared behind a dormitory door. She motioned to Bekki and Melanie to follow her, then tiptoed to the door and opened it slightly, just enough for them all to peer inside. Lily recognized her trunk and belongings at once, and realized that the four boys were going to make mischief in the 7th year girls' dorm. She watched as James pulled a reddish, snapping shape out of a rather large box and place it under the covers of a bed. Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all doing the same.
Suddenly, Bekki was rising to her feet, opening the door the rest of the way and stepping into the dorm.
"Bekki!" Melanie hissed. "What are you doing? Get back here!"
But it was too late.
"What are you boys doing here?" Bekki asked, as though she were just finding them there.
Four guilty faces swiveled toward Bekki.
"We were just..." Sirius didn't seem to find a believable excuse, so he trailed off.
"That's what I thought," Bekki's voice was dangerously calm.
All of a sudden, one of the reddish, snapping shapes dropped onto the carpet and started moving toward Bekki. It was a crab. Bekki's worst fear was of crabs. Lily saw Bekki's eyes widen in shock for a moment, and Lily clamped her hands over her ears a second too late. It was a wonder that Bekki's scream didn't break the windows.

"AAAAAAAA!! A CRAB!! GET IT AWAY FROM ME! HELP! HELP! HELP!!!" Bekki wailed, flailing her arms and running blindly around the dorm.
James stood there, staring blankly at Bekki, while Sirius's expression was one of pure horror and Remus was squinting and covering his ears. Peter was hiding underneath one of the beds, shivering. Finally, Remus sighed and grabbed the crab by one of it's legs, then stuffed it inside a box, where it wouldn't be seen. But that didn't stop Bekki. She kept right on screaming and running around the dorm and waving her arms. Melanie was taking pictures with a tiny camera that she kept with her at all times.
Bekki's screams had attracted the attention of a bunch of Gryffindors, and there was now quite a crowd gathered around the doorway, watching Bekki and the four boys inside the dormitory.
Sirius had begun to run around after Bekki, trying to catch her and put a stop to her screeching, but without much luck. James and Peter were just as they had been, James standing there gawking at nothing, Peter cowering under a bed, but Remus was trying to hide his amusement behind a hand while he cleared away the crabs from under the sheets of the beds.
Where were the teachers? One of them had to have heard Bekki's screaming. The crowd began to thin, seeing that nothing else exciting was going to happen, and soon, Melanie and Lily were left alone to watch.

Sirius had finally managed to grab Bekki and was attempting to put a hand over her mouth, but to no avail. Every time he got a hand near her mouth, she would bite him and start screaming again. Her wails were coming a bit hoarse, now. Soon, Sirius gave up that approach and pulled Bekki over to a bed, sat her down on his lap, then took a deep breath, swallowed, then set his face determinedly and started kissing Bekki. Lily tried to imagine trying to kiss someone who was screaming and shuddered. Bekki had stopped screaming, though and was now pounding Sirius's chest and pulling away from him.
"How dare you do that!" Bekki said, slapping Sirius on the cheek.
"Do what?" Sirius asked, rubbing his cheek. "Sneak into your dorm, put crabs in your bed, or kiss you when you weren't finished screaming?"
Lily, James, Melanie, and Remus all cracked up. Bekki's face broke into a smile.
"All of the above," she said wickedly. "Now, what do you say?"
"I'm sorry I snuck into your dormitory and put crabs in your bed and kissed you when you weren't done screaming," Sirius said, smiling back at her.
"And what have you learned from this experience?" Bekki asked, stroking his cheek.
"Never to kiss someone who's screaming," Sirius told her, laughing.
Bekki kissed him in reply. Just then, a lump on the bed started moving and when Bekki pulled away, the lump dropped to the floor and started scuttling across the floor. Remus had missed one. Bekki took one look at the crab and her eyes rolled up into her head and she fainted into Sirius's arms.
"I was hoping that wouldn't happen," he said, standing up, holding Bekki's limp form. "Let's get her to Madam Pomfrey."
James walked ahead of Sirius, opening doors to let him and Bekki through, all the way to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey brought Bekki back to consciousness. Lily wanted copies of those pictures.