My inspiration for this story was the song "Like We Used To" by Rocket To The Moon. It doesn't matter if you've heard it, just read my story! And good reviews brighten my day... :)
Lily sat on the couch in the Gryffindor common room with Roger Brooks's arm around her. Sure, she was content, but she still felt a little sad. She felt like something was missing. As Roger looked up from his book to smile at her, Lily recalled a scene that happened a couple of weeks ago...
"James, I thought you had finally changed!" Lily yelled.
"Come on, Lily, I'm sorry! It was just one little prank, and I really didn't mean for it to happen to Alice, you know that!"
Lily did know that James would have to be pretty stupid to purposely play a prank on her best friend.
"James, you shouldn't play pranks on anyone. It's just plain mean! We can't be together until you're mature enough!"
You might think I'm being way too harsh, but I really thought James loved me... If he did, he wouldn't have betrayed me like that and kept on playing pranks after I specifically asked him not to… But anyway, after I had my heart broken, Roger came up and comforted me, and it went up from there. So we're "a couple" now, apparently. He's a great guy, and he really cares about me, but… Well, never mind. No "buts." My life is great now, with a guy who actually wants me.
I forced a yawn.
"Well, I'm pretty tired… I'll see you in the morning." I said to Roger, slipping out from under his arm. He looked as though he expected a goodnight kiss or something, but I just smiled at him and walked up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
My four best friends were already in our room. Taylor sat on her bed writing in her diary, Melissa and Lauren lounged on their beds and talked to each other, and Alice leaned against her pillows and stared at the ceiling. They all looked up when I walked. Melissa and Lauren said, "Hey," Taylor said, "Hey, girly!", and Alice smiled her sweet smile at me. I grinned around at them all. Melissa was a girl who used to be very shy, and still was at times, but after getting over her nerves about going to Hogwarts and making great new friends, she calmed down. She wasn't as outgoing as the rest of the group, and she sometimes beat herself up over nothing, but you couldn't find a sweeter girl anywhere at Hogwarts. She always put others first and had good intentions. She had long, straight, brown hair, and matching big, brown eyes. Taylor was a fun, party girl. If she liked a guy, she would turn her charm on and flirt with him until he asked her out. Even though Taylor could be stubborn or proud at times, she was a great friend who would do anything for her girls. She was a tall, dark-skinned girl with black, shoulder-length curly hair. Lauren was athletic and smart. She seemed to get good grades without even trying, and she was a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. With her short, cute, blonde hair and big, blue doe eyes, she always seemed to look innocent, even though she sometimes wasn't. She was independent and curious about everything around her. Alice had medium-length brown hair and a round, soft face with pink cheeks. Alice has lots of common sense, but she sometimes needs help with schoolwork, so I help her study. I wouldn't say that she's a girly girl, but she likes dressing up and painting her nails and stuff like that, like me. Alice has been my best friend since my first day at Hogwarts, and sometimes it's like she can read my mind. It's spooky, really.
Taylor went back to writing in her diary. Once she got into it, it was hard to pull her away from that little, purple book.
"You girls talking about boys again?" I asked Melissa and Lauren as I plopped down on my bed that was next to Alice's.
"We most certainly are not!" Lauren replied. "Well actually… Yeah, we are. I didn't want to lie to you, but Melissa made me…" she said, turning to smile jokingly at Melissa.
"Yeah, because we all know Melissa's just like that," I said, laughing. "Well, any interesting boy news?"
"Not really, just discussing Peter's huge crush on Lauren," Melissa said casually, though she smirked at Lauren as she said this.
"Ugh, don't remind me," Lauren pleaded dramatically. "He's really nerdy… I just want to be friends with the poor guy, at most, so I hope he doesn't try to make a move on me or he might get slapped."
We had overheard the other Marauders teasing Peter one night in the common room about his not-so-secret-anymore crush on Lauren. The Marauders… Oh, great. How did we get on this subject? I so don't want to talk about James right now, but I guess I owe you some explanations. James has had a huge crush on me since as long as I can remember, but he was an arrogant toe-rag, so I ignored him and probably hurt him emotionally and physically during the process. But over the years, he started changing and becoming a better person… And after seeing how determined he was, I thought I'd give him a chance. Boy was I wrong in making that decision. I never want to see him again. Since we now hang out with the Marauders a lot more than we used to, I guess that'll be hard. Anyway, Sirius is loud and obnoxious, but for some reason, Taylor likes him. I wonder if they'll ever get together… Oh, who am I kidding? These two could get a date with anyone, why would they waste anytime hooking up with each other? Remus is the brains of the group. Not only does he have book smarts, he always knows right from wrong, a skill I wish he could teach his friends. Peter isn't the most exciting of the Marauders, but he always seems to be there to listen and just… be there.
"Oh, and Melissa, we've got some very interesting news you might just like to hear about!" I said excitedly. Lauren, Taylor, and I made a semi-circle in front of Melissa, for they already knew what I was talking about.
"What?" she said a little reluctantly.
"Oh, well if you don't want to know…" Taylor said, turning away.
"Okay, okay, tell me!"
"SOMEONE HAS A CRUSH ON YOU!" we all screamed at once.
Melissa looked quickly around at all of us with shock and excitement on her face. "How do you know? Who is it? Is he nice? Do I know him?"
"Duh, of course you know him, twit!" Lauren said.
"Well then tell me! And how do you know he likes me? Did he tell you?"
"He didn't tell us, but we can just tell! He was staring at you in the common room last night, for example," I said.
"That's all the evidence you have? He looked at me once?"
"No, we have lots of evidence, we just didn't want to tell you until we were sure, and we're sure now."
"Well if he was watching me in the common room, that must mean he's a Gryffindor, right?"
We all nodded, smiling.
"That's not much help! Tell me! Please!"
"No, you have to guess!" Taylor said.
"I hate guessing."
"Just name all the guys in Gryffindor then!"
"Can you at least tell me if he's in our year?" Melissa asked.
We all looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged and nodded at her.
"Yeah, he is."
"Okay… Well, who was in the common room last night?" she thought out loud. "Let's see… Bill, Marcus, Lewis—"
We sat passively as she reeled of boys' names.
"—Jack, Remus, Peter—"
We all jumped and stared at her.
"What, did I say it? The last few names I said were Jack, Remus, and Peter... It's one of them?"
We nodded encouragingly.
"Well it's definitely not Peter… He's got the hots for Lauren… And Jack has a girlfriend, doesn't he?"
We all grinned hugely.
"IT'S REMUS!" I squealed along with Lauren and Taylor.
"He likes me?"
"YES!"
"No way."
"YES!"
"Are you serious?"
"Not Sirius, Remus! Get with the program!" Taylor said. Nice play on words, I thought. Sirius must get tired of jokes about his name.
Slowly, Melissa grinned, and it turned into a beaming smile. "I never really thought of him that way… I mean, I love hanging out with him, and… He is pretty cute, huh?" She was glowing. It must've boosted her self esteem to know that a guy is practically in love with her. Well maybe she didn't know he liked her that much yet, but she will. I guess I just got used to James always liking me so much… I guess he doesn't anymore, so that's not a great feeling… But back to reality, we'd make a nice couple…I…I mean—THEY would make a nice couple. Melissa and Remus. Maybe he'll even ask her out to Hogsmeade. Maybe I can even be a bridesmaid in their wedding, since I won't be having my own happy ending anytime soon.
