A purely self-indulgent revamped version of one of my old fics, because I've missed writing about the Marauders.
Update schedule- roughly every 2-3 weeks.
I hope you enjoy!
"Tallulah, my darling! You have finally returned to me." Sirius Black exclaimed, throwing himself at my feet. His shaggy dark hair grazed the floor as he wrapped his long arms around my legs.
For a moment, the shock of seeing such as dominant character on his knees left me speechless. However, when I felt his hands making their way up my legs, I quickly came crashing back down to reality.
"Get up Black." I said slowly, as I untangled myself fro his embrace and moved towards the other end of the compartment. His gorgeous grey eyes connected with my own blue ones, and I had to remind myself that, even though Black was ludicrously good looking, he was ultimately a horrible little child stuck in a young man's body.
Sighing, he rose from his position on the floor with all the grace of a swan, and came to sit down next to me. I inwardly cursed my best friends, Lily, Faith and Avi for not being with me. It was just my luck that I would be forced to have my first encounter of the year with Black all alone.
So, how was your summer?" He asked, draping an arm around my shoulder.
"My summer was, in word, wonderful. My family and I went to Spain for a week, and I got to know a rather attractive local boy called Jose. His kissing was sublime. And then I hung out with friends and family the rest of the time. But enough about my holiday. How was yours?" I asked innocently.
He seemed momentarily stunned, and I figured that he hadn't expected me to go into quite so much detail. So, I took advantage of the moment and went to go and sit on the seats opposite. Sadly, Black's disorientation didn't last long and, with an almost predatory gleam in his eyes, he followed me.
"Oh Lulah, you really do know how to strike a man when he's down. What were you doing with a foreign boy? I thought we had something special." He said solemnly, without a trace of a smile on his face.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that? Only my friends call me that." I said exasperatedly.
"Don't be silly, love. You and I both know that we are more than friends." He smirked, advancing closer towards me, so that I became trapped against the wall of the compartment. Being so close to an extremely attractive guy…well, it did things to a girl. I could feel a heated blush creeping its way up my neck, but I point blank refused to yield to his twisted attempts at seduction.
"Sirius Black…you have precisely ten seconds to remove yourself from my presence before I scream the whole train down." I said. When he made no move to adhere to my request, I began to grow impatient. Why should I have to deal with him acting like this, huh? And why does he know just how to get me all hot and bothered…
Just as I was reaching for my wand to threaten him with a hex or two, I heard a voice from the doorway.
"You know, Tallulah, they say that there is a fine line between love and hate."
I looked up to find none other than James Potter, best friend to Sirius Black, standing in front of me, with Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew on either side of him. They walked into the compartment and sat down in the seats opposite Sirius and I. James wore a grin on his face that I had come to associate with the promise- or rather, the threat- of mischief making.
"I am well aware of that James. But when it comes to Sirius Black, I hope you realise that said line will never, ever be crossed." I retorted. "Speaking of love and hate, though, have you seen Lily?"
"No, I haven't seen her yet." James replied, a dreamy look passing over his face face. His hazel eyes were shining, and he subconsciously ran a hand through his already scruffy dark brown hair.
"Maybe that's a good thing." Remus Lupin added, smiling. When he did, the skin around his pale blue eyes crinkled up, making him look unbelievably cute. I couldn't help smiling back.
"How can that be a good thing?" James asked. "I'm not sure I can go on for much longer without my Lily fix."
"It looks as though you won't have to." Peter said. Sure enough, Lily's voice could be heard from the other end of the compartment, along with Faith's and Avi's. They couldn't come in here. Lily would quite possibly kill James if she found out he was in our compartment. But not before he subjected her to an unhealthy amount of flirting and diabolical chat up lines. I couldn't do that to her.
"Lily, Faith and-" My shout was cut off by Black, who placed one large hand over my mouth, preventing me from warning my best friend about her imminent interaction with a boy she ardently despised. Despite my evident struggling, however, he held fast, apparently determined to do whatever he could to be the perfect wingman to his best friend. When it appeared obvious that I would not be able to win in a battle of strength against Black, I slowly, but reluctantly, stopped struggling. Slumping back against the back of my seat, I hoped and prayed that Lily wouldn't hate me for letting her be lured in to what had become the Marauder's domain.
"So then he asked for my address so we could stay in touch and when-"Lily stopped talking as she entered the carriage with Faith and Avi. Her emerald eyes surveyed the room with a look of distaste, until her gaze settled on me.
"For God's sake Sirius, let go of her." She muttered, striding towards her. Deftly, she took her wand from her pocket and pointed it at him. Beneath Black's hand, I smiled. Her no-nonsense attitude can really come in handy sometimes.
"Alright, alright, I'm letting go." Black said quickly, releasing his hold and moving away to sit between Remus and Peter.
"Thanks, Lily." I smiled, as she and the others came to sit next to me.
"Don't mention it." She said. "I think I know better than anyone how horrible it is to be harassed by an arrogant little brat." Her gaze fell on James as she said this, but he seemed oblivious to her annoyance, and simply smiled dumbly back at her.
"Potter, what are you doing in this compartment?" she asked icily. It was a question that she did not need, nor want, the answer to, but James decided to answer anyway, regardless of the stony look on Lily's face.
"Lily, I have merely come to see you after our summer apart. These past six weeks have been torture without seeing your beautiful face every hour of every day. Say you felt that same way. Say that your heart too yearned for the comfort of my never-ending love!"
Beside him, both Remus and Peter rolled their eyes, with latter of the two even going so far as to make retching noises in the corner. Black, however, was smiling at his friend, in an almost indulgent manner. It seemed as though James could do no wrong in his eyes.
Faith, Avi and I regarded Lily warily, unsure as to what her next move would be. Sometimes when James goaded her in such a way she would sigh and shake it off, but other times she would explode. And, from the look of disgust that was currently etched upon her face, I would say that she would be more likely to itch towards a full on hex fest if I didn't do something to stop her.
"Well, boys, its been fun." I said, smiling at each of the four Marauders in turn. "But, I really do think you've outstayed your welcome now."
"Indeed." Avi agreed. She cast a long look at Peter, who had probably been crushing on for as long as James had liked Lily, and winked at him. Predictably, he turned bright red, and quickly shuffled out of the compartment.
One down.
Just as I was preparing to attempt to shove Black into the train's corridor, Remus stood.
"Excellent." Lily muttered under her breath. "Maybe he can take the trash out with him."
I laughed, placing my hand over my mouth to disguise a rather unladylike snort.
"Well, ladies, I think my friends and I have disturbed you for long enough. Lily, as ever, I apologise profusely on behalf of James." He said, with an apologetic smile on his face. Then, much to my surprise and delight, his gaze fell on Fairlee, who was staring up at him through wide eyes. "And Faith…I'll see you at the welcome feast."
With that, he swiftly left the compartment, presumably under the impression that Black and James would follow of their own free will. Faith blushed while Avi, Lily and I tried- and failed- not to laugh at her discomfort.
Faith glared at us, managing to look about as angry as a baby rabbit.
"Oh, you three can just shut up." She groaned, placing her head in her hands to hide her now scarlet face.
"Ohhh!" we cooed in unison, before breaking out into a fresh fit of giggles.
Black and James, meanwhile, fixed us with looks that were laced with confusion and just a hint of glee.
"Does Faith here have a little crush on our Remus?" Black asked, watching Faith, who had raised her head from her hands and was looking at him blankly, with rapt interest.
"Because we could totally see that happening." James chipped in, glancing sideways at Black and offering him a huge grin. "Maybe you could be the one to finally tame the wild beast, Faith."
Black let out a bark-like laugh, and slapped James on the back.
Avi, Lily, and I joined Faith in looking at the two Marauders in confusion.
"Going to let us in on the joke, Black?" I asked.
He glanced over at me and pretended to ponder my request, before shaking his head in the negative.
"Nah, I don't think you could handle it, love."
I narrowed my eyes.
"Don't you proceed to tell me what I can and can't handle you little-"
"Okay, I think that's enough." Lily said. She gave Black and James a look of barely-contained contempt, before pointing towards the compartment door.
"I think that's your cue to leave, boys." Avi said, when they remained seated.
James sighed.
"Fine. We'll leave now. But I just want you to know, Lily- you can shut me out of this room, but you can't shut me out of your life." He exclaimed, as he reluctantly exited the compartment.
"Oh yeah? I can always try." Lily retorted, wrinkling her nose in disgust when James blew her a kiss through the window.
As the four of us turned to face Black, he raised his hands in surrender, and stood.
"As always, ladies, it has been a pleasure. I look forward to seeing you later." He said, sweeping down into a mocking bow. He stayed there, stock still, for so long that my hand automatically twitched towards my wand for the opportunity to do a little bit of boy hexing.
However, before I was able to engage in my rather Marauder-like mischievous fantasy, he righted himself again, and swaggered out of the compartment without a second glance at us.
Lily let out a loud sigh of relief. Seemingly happy that our compartment was Marauder-free once more, she flopped down onto the seat opposite me with a contented smile. Faith followed suit, which left Avi to take the seat to my right.
Once we had all sat down, Lily was the first to speak.
"You know, Lulah, for someone who claims to loathe Sirius as much as I loathe Potter, you always seem to manage to find ways to be alone with him."
Resisting the urge to give her the bird, I shrugged my shoulders, and tried to ignore her petty jibes.
"Hey, you two would totally have my blessing." Avi chipped in. "I've always said you and Sirius would make a cute couple."
"And I've always said you were wrong. Think of the-"
"Oh, and you would have gorgeous children!" Faith said, smiling dreamily as she imagined some strange, nightmare-like scenario where Black and I were in love, married and with a couple of kids to boot. The thought was enough to make me sick.
Right, that does it.
"Stop planning my life for me." I said through gritted teeth.
"Someone needs to." Lily muttered.
"Not wanting to sit through another of Lily's lectures concerning the importance of deciding on a future career whilst still at school, I hastily shifted the focus toward our group's resident Remus-lover.
"I think the real person we should be questioning is Faith, now that we've got concrete proof that ole Remy likes her."
Faith scowled.
I refuse to discuss this right now. Lets not jinx the fact that, for the first time in six years, Remus Lupin actually spoke to me first, without any prompt from his friends." She said.
"Oh come on, Faith. Remus is a great catch." Avi said.
I raised my eyebrows.
"Since when was sweet and sensitive your type?" I asked.
"It isn't. You know I don't have a type. I love all men." Avi grinned, flipping her long, black hair over her shoulders.
"I'm sure your mother would be so pleased to hear you say that." Lily laughed.
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her, Lils. Its better this way: I get to play the field now, and then, in, say ten years or so, I can settle down with a "nice Indian boy". Avi said, imitating her mother's strong accent perfectly.
"Ten years is an awful long time to 'play the field." Faith said.
"It was indeed. I didn't even want to think about where I would end up in ten years time. This was part of the reason why this was going to be a scary year for me. I, along with the rest of the Seventh Year, was about to partake on the last year of formal wizard schooling- ever. For a girl who was so used to having her life evolve around the familiar restraints of schooling, the prospect of leaving education and being thrust out into the big, wide world was both startling and terrifying to me.
Before I could ponder too much over the inevitability of having to decide on a career, Faith's voice awoke me from my inner crises.
"Guys, we've not got much of the journey left- maybe now would be a good time to get changed into our robes." She suggested.
As the others began taking their uniforms out of their suitcases, I walked over to close the blinds on the door to ensure that nobody could see us getting changed.
"As I did so, I looked down the corridor to see that Black had gotten Severus Snape, a boy in our year who used to be friends with Lily, in a headlock, whilst James was taking evident delight in changing Snape's hair from greasy black to the Gryffindor colours, red and gold.
Frowning at their childishness, I shut the blinds quickly, and turned back around to face my friends, who were now having discussion about their timetables for the year.
As I joined them in complaining about having double potions with the Slytherins on our first full day back, I couldn't stop myself from grinning from ear to ear. I was back at Hogwarts, my home away from home, and no one- not even the Marauders- was going to ruin my last year at school with my best friends.