A Marauder's Guide to Getting the Girl
PART ONE
Written by alliegrl
Synopsis: He must have seen her nearly every day for the past five years but there she was, looking at him with those wide brown eyes and now it was like he was looking at her for the very first time. How had he never seen it before?
Chapter One
Sirius was leaning casually against the brick wall listening to his best mate, James Potter, talk about Lily for what he presumed to be the hundredth time since they had returned from France. His lips tugged upwards into a grin as he pretended to humor Prongs but his mind was elsewhere.
"I just thought that if she had taken the time to get to know me while my parents were around," James said energetically. "Well I mean - you were there. Don't you think that I would have had a shot if she had just agreed to join us for dinner?"
Sirius didn't even have the chance to reply before James was rambling on again. His hands were waving around fanatically as he accounted their encounter with Evans the month prior. Sirius had joined the Potter's for their vacation to Paris. It had been a rather unexpected trip for him as he had not been initially invited but Rose and Harold seemed eager to bring him along after he had moved in with them.
Of course that was what was currently plaguing his mind; he had left home at the end of July and moved in with the James and his parents. James had been bugging him to do it since fifth year but Sirius was ashamed to admit to himself, let alone out loud, that he was scared as hell to actually do it.
He didn't have much time to dwell on it though because his eyes caught sight of vivid red. James had already seen it and his hand had shot into his hair, ruffling the already messy locks of jet black so that it looked windswept. Sirius resisted the urge to roll his eyes; James was always trying to impress Evans. If she hadn't already fallen for his usual tactics then Sirius doubted she ever would. James however, seemed to wholeheartedly disagree.
"Excellent," James said under his breath. Sirius could feel his grin disappear into a thin line as he looked onwards to the direction that James was glancing. "Evans!" he shouted, moving towards her. Sirius watched as the girl in question visibly flinched and ceased laughing. Her eyes narrowed quickly and shot a glare in their general direction. He couldn't recall ever giving her an actual reason to dislike him, apart from his association to James but she seemed to share a strong distaste for him regardless.
"Potter!" her voice was icy. "If you didn't get the hint with the seventy seven unanswered owls you sent me or the three howlers reminding you how much I despise you and your arrogant bullying behavior then let me be the first to remind you today that this year, I want nothing to do with you. I don't want to speak to you, I don't want to see you, and I most certainly do not want to date you."
Ouch. Sirius thought to himself. He still didn't understand why Prongs was so interested in her but he had been fruitlessly pursuing her since the end of fourth year. In Sirius's opinion she was far to stuck up and bent on the rules; something that did not sit well with the lifestyle and he and James were accustomed to.
"Aw, Evans. Why do you need to be like that?" James replied with a chuckle. Deep down Sirius knew that James was discouraged. He could see it in the way his shoulders fell ever so slightly. Of course he would never allow anyone else to see just how much it bothered him that Lily thought so little of him but Sirius knew better. He watched as she opened her mouth, no doubt to shout something nasty but her friend Mary MacDonald quickly tugged at her sleeve. Both girls shot one final look of repulsion before they turned and headed to the opposite end of the train.
James didn't look immediately defeated and his hand shot instinctively back to ruffle through his hair one last time before he called out to her retreating figure. "See you later, Evans!"
"Tough luck Prongs," Sirius said solemnly after his friend had turned around. James only shrugged but he had a hard look in his eyes.
"Next time," he said and Sirius nodded encouragingly even though he was doubtful. "Probably should get a move on anyways," he continued, glancing at the clock to see that it was almost eleven o'clock. "Wouldn't want to be late and miss all the fun."
James' face lit up again and a mischievous glint sparked in his eyes. "Right you are Padfoot. Wouldn't want to keep the first years waiting."
They moved away from the wall and started towards the scarlet engine. Sirius's mind had drifted back into thoughts he had been previously considering before Evans had interrupted them. Though they were short lived as his eyes caught sight of a streak of blonde hair in his peripheral and he became once again distracted.
Normally he wouldn't but something inside stirred at his curiosity. He turned to look. Their Gryffindor classmate, Marlene McKinnon, was rushing towards the train. Her face was flushed pink and she looked embarrassed by something. Her eyes were averted downwards but glanced up ever so slightly as though she knew that he was watching her.
Sirius took an inhale of sharp breath as his eyes locked with her wide, brown eyes. Her lips were forming a simple, undoubtedly unintentional pout and he felt the corners of his own lips twitch upwards into a bemused smile. How had he never noticed how insanely beautiful she was before?
But then she moved her eyes back to the train and quickly moved out of his line of sight as she boarded it.
"Did you see McKinnon?" he asked James nonchalantly, wondering whether or not she truly looked different or he had just never noticed it before.
"Marlene?" James sounded surprised. "No. Was I supposed to?"
"No," he replied. "She just looked different. That's all."
"Are my ears deceiving me," James sounded far too pleased about something, "or did Sirius Black just ask about a girl?"
"Sod off Prongs," Sirius said dully. "Now you're just reaching."
Sirius knew that it must sound obscure to his friend to be asking about a girl; Marlene McKinnon, of all people. It's not that he hadn't ever taken interest in one before – the Hufflepuff Teresa Bletchley had caught his eye back in fifth year and they had shamelessly snogged a few times in an abandoned classroom before he realized what a nutter she was. Her friend, Natasha Madley, was just as equally mad and had been brazenly fixated on him since spring. Though his friends seemed to find it amusing, Sirius couldn't be bothered by her apparent attempts at flirting.
After growing up in the House of Black and having the mum he did, Sirius wasn't surprised why he was indifferent about dating girls. He would never be able to bring one for family dinners or share light hearted stories about holidays at home - especially now that he had permanently left home and had been disowned by his family.
Either way, he had kept himself pretty indifferent about the opposite sex and focused his attention on their Marauding obligations instead. The Marauder's was a self-proclaimed title that they had dubbed themselves back in first year. James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were his best mates and more like brothers than the real one he had left behind.
Since third year when they had discovered that Remus was a werewolf, they had been dedicating their time to learning how to transform into animagus. The effort that that task took alone was a good enough reason not to pursue a relationship. If only Prongs would see it that way but he was too preoccupied with Lily Evans to properly set priorities.
They found Peter and Remus in a back compartment already immersed in a heavy conversation about the logistics of their welcome back prank. Sirius grinned widely as he listened to their ideas. It was enough distraction to push everything else from his mind.
"What about Evans?" Peter sounded concerned.
"What about her?" James raised an eyebrow.
"Well shouldn't we make sure that she's not around before going ahead?" he said quietly. "You know how tightly she's wound up about things –"
"Wormtail has a good point," Remus chimed in, cutting off James who looked like he wanted to disagree about something. "I have to go to the prefect's meeting anyways. I'll be able to tell you where she's headed and then we can avoid her."
"Probably for the best, mate," Sirius looked at James pointedly. "You can chase after Evans all you want later but you know she'll kibosh our plan if she even suspects that something's up."
"You're right," James sighed. He readjusted his glasses and looked thoughtful. "So Wormtail you have the Bulbadox powder then?" Peter nodded eagerly. "Excellent, I was thinking that we enchant it a bit to make things interesting. Starting to get a bit tired of the same old tricks, you know?"
The boys worked steadily on charming the Bulbadox powder before James had the ingenious idea to attach it to stink pellets for easier transmission. Remus departed shortly after to the prefect's meeting and agreed to meet up with them after. The remaining three Marauder's waited patiently for him near the compartment he had disappeared into.
"Did you see Evans yet?" Peter asked absently. Sirius wished that he could have kicked him for such a stupid question; they did not need to get James distracted now.
"Of course, I saw her getting on to the train," he replied. "Maybe I'll get a glance of her walking out of the meeting."
"Don't be daft Prongs," Sirius said harshly. "What a stupid question, Wormtail. Honestly. Isn't the goal of our task to avoid detection by Evans? How do you suppose we are going to pull this off if she catches sight of Prongs hovering around?"
Peter withdrew slightly with a small shrug. "Just making conversation," he mumbled.
"Obviously we're waiting for Remus," James shot back. "Lighten up Padfoot."
Sirius bit his tongue. Remus emerged shortly after and the four hurried in the opposite direction from where Lily could be observed heading. "Couldn't have worked out any better," Remus said with a glint in his eyes, "She's heading to the back of the train which gives us plenty of time before we have to worry about her returning."
"I saw a bunch of first years a couple of compartments from here," James said eagerly. "Pretty sure the lot of them looked like they'll end up in Slytherin. Could be a great opportunity to test out our latest invention."
Finding the compartment was easy and James had most certainly been correct in his assessment that the students within were bound to Slytherin house. Sirius did the honors of launching the first pellet into the compartment and was rewarded with a shrill shriek. The rest of the boys disposed of the rest of their stash in surrounding compartments before they hurried away from the scene of the crime. The sound omitted from their prank was bound to draw attention from unwanted individuals.
"Quick," Remus said with a slight panic. "I think I saw Lily's red hair down the hallway."
"Yeah, it's definitely her," Peter said with a waiver in his voice. His eyes were wide and looking in the direction from where Remus had been indicating.
Sirius couldn't help but laugh and they took off running. "I think there's an empty compartment up ahead," he said, reaching for the door and yanking it open. His three friends hurried inside and he quickly slammed it behind him.
"Prongs, that was awesome!" Remus exclaimed. Adding the Bulbadox powder had been an ingenious suggestion, even Sirius had to agree with that.
"We sure freaked out those third year Ravenclaws!" James replied back with a manic grin.
"I bet those first years are crying for their mum's after that one, hey Padfoot?" Peter chimed in.
Sirius couldn't help but feel the excitement of their prank lighten the mood he had been engulfed in earlier. Even if Evans was on to them it had been well worth it. His smile only faltered slightly when a soft feminine voice cleared her throat from behind them. Sirius turned his head to look in the direction from which it had come and his smile automatically widened once again.
Marlene McKinnon was sitting by the window with an expectant look on her face. Her eyes scanned each of the boys before resting once again on Sirius. He couldn't help himself and flashed a glorious smile. She was indeed just as gorgeous as he had noted her to be earlier in the day and he was pleasantly surprised that he was excited to have stumbled in on her, even if she was friends with Lily Evans.
"Oops," Remus sounded apologetic. Sirius wasn't quite sure what he would be sorry for, they didn't seem to be interrupting anything of importance as she was quite alone.
"POTTER!" a loud and intrusive female voice broke the awkward silence from outside in the hall.
"That's our cue mate," Remus said quickly.
"Tell Evan's I dropped by," James had a goofy, lopsided grin plastered on his face. Sirius wondered whether or not he was contemplating hanging around. He would most definitely not be joining him if that was the case. Evans sounded irate and they were doubly at risk since they had taken refuge in her compartment.
"POTTER, I KNOW YOU ARE BEHIND THIS!" the voice was definitely getting closer. He knew that even if she didn't find them elsewhere that she was bound to return to her compartment sooner or later. They were definitely better off taking their chances elsewhere on the train. The four boys exited the compartment merely seconds before Lily came into view clearly determined to enforce discipline by any means necessary.
They were lucky that she did not continue to pursue them. James seemed a bit defeated about it but nevertheless acknowledged that he was thankful he wouldn't need to endure being yelled at again. They didn't dare attempt any further shenanigans as they noted the increasing presence of other prefects walking the hall outside their compartment. Remus assured them that they hadn't been assigned to do so which made it even more obvious their group was being watched carefully.
Sirius didn't mind all that much. The prank had given him a sense of enjoyment that lasted the duration of the train ride and he was more than content to bask in it. They spent the remainder of their trip listening to James talk about Lily - again, and to quietly discuss how their animagus transformations had been going over the summer. They weren't quite fully complete yet but he was optimistic that a few more months of practice would do the trick.
Both Peter and Remus had the good grace to avoid asking about Sirius's home situation. They had been content to leave it at the brief letter that he had written to them over the summer explaining that he was moving in with the Potters. They knew the extent of why he was leaving; questions didn't need to be asked and more importantly, he didn't have the desire to explain.
He wasn't unable to avoid one very specific conversation, however. "So McKinnon," James said after they had returned to discussing the success of their prank. "She's looking pretty good, don't you agree Padfoot?"
"Shove it, Prongs," he said. But he couldn't help himself and smiled.
A/N: Here it is! Sirius's POV from Chapter One of "A Marauder's Guide to Falling in Love." Hope you enjoyed! Leave me a review if you did! :)