Remus, amused, walked alongside James as they headed to Hogsmeade. James, who had dragged him along to collect a bunch of lilies, was carrying the aforesaid bouquet of lilies. He had the biggest grin on his face, and Remus swore James' head would snap into any minute now.
James' eyes darted around in their sockets, frantically searching for that wonderful bright red head. "Keep an eye out, Moony," the unofficial leader of the Marauders whispered, "She'll probably be harder to find after that chocolate incident last week."
Remus couldn't help but grin at the ridiculous thought of last week's adventure. He supposed he should have been upset for James, after all, Remus had been the one to suggest chocolate frogs.
After a passive glance around the area, he spotted the red head Lily Evans speaking to her friend and roommate Alice, and immediately draped his arm across James to direct his vision discretely to Lily. He could hear James gasp excitedly, and the two carefully and inconspicuously watched the pair of girls, waiting for the right time for James to ambush them.
The two marauders observed a cursory glance and subsequent double take from Evans, whose eyes they watched widen before the girl hastily dragged Alice into the Three Broomsticks.
"Oh bugger! She saw me!" James scowled and darted towards an alley, intent on taking a roundabout path to the object of his affections. Looking back for a single moment, the boy said, "See you later, Moony!"
Chuckling, Remus walked contentedly down the street to the Three Broomsticks as well. He immediately noticed Sirius and Amelia sitting together in a booth, and just as quickly decided to avoid the pair. He ended up at the bar, sitting barely within range of the two girls who had just entered prior.
"—took six whole months, but finally, those two are on a date!" Alice nearly squealed, only barely keeping her voice at a conversational level. She was, Remus noticed, on the edge of the stool, hardly containing her excitement.
Dismissing the gossip, Remus ordered a butterbeer. Ten minutes passed as the young man sipped slowly on the drink, savoring it, before he saw James sneaking in through a window just behind Lily and Alice.
One discrete thumbs-up later, and Remus was departing, the last thing he heard being, "—even got him flowers! How adorable!"
He quickly made his way to Honeydukes, where he bought two chocolate frogs ad began his trek back to Hogwarts. Perhaps Peter was in the mood for some Exploding Snap.
The prefect had just been planning a way to con the mousey boy into owing him several treats when he came across a girl. He had just barely seen the swish of a yellow and black scarf, which told him that his fellow student was from Hufflepuff. He also saw her hair of a distinct color.
It was pink.
But before he could react, his head hurt and all he could see was robe.
"Oh, bugger! I'm so sorry! I'm such a klutz!" The girl lamented, pushing herself off of Remus and helping her up. "I was just trying to – oh! It's you!" Tonks instantly flushed a full a vibrant red, and Remus noted that the blush seemed to spread out through the metamorphmagus' whole body; however, before he could fascinate himself with the shapely red legs that extended from beneath the skirt of her uniform, the girl regained her composure with a cough and spoke, "So, Remus, right? How was James' emergency? What was with all that chocolate?"
Brought out of daze by the question, Remus thought about the hilarious incident from a week prior, and almost immediately broke down into chuckles and snorts.
"He tried to ask out Lily Evans again, using some chocolate frogs." He managed to get out that much before the snickering overwhelmed him again.
"Well, yes, but what happened?" Tonks pressed, curiously watching the boy.
Remus managed to quiet his chortles before relenting and retelling the story. They had started walking back to Hogwarts while he did, and aside from no less than thirteen near-trips by Tonks, all of which Remus had managed to prevent, it was a pleasant walk.
The pair had just finished their journey back to the castle, and likewise Remus had just finished his story, when Tonks stated, "Wait, I thought James only had eyes for Evans?"
Remus threw her a lop-sided smile, eyes twinkling with mirth, "He does. I have no idea where she got that idea from."
"Oh. Well, do you know who she thought he was seeing?"
"Not a clue." Remus' grin widened. But Tonks' face only implied more confusion.
"Aren't you curious?"
"Well yeah," Remus looked thoughtful at that, "But every time one of them asks Evans, she just scowls and stomps away." He shrugged.
"'Them'? Haven't you asked her?"
"I've not had a chance. She's been avoiding me."
This statement got her even more confused very quickly. "Why would she avoid you?"
"I don't know," the Gryffindor shrugged, "But she's been doing it since the beginning of the year. She won't even do our prefect rounds together – says that we'll cover more ground split up. Load of rubbish." Remus glanced away grumpily, "I've missed out on so many chocolate frogs 'cause of that."
"Chocolate frogs? How do those tie in?" Once again Tonks' confusion escalated.
"Well, you see—"
"Moony!"
Both students turned to see a red-faced Sirius followed by an equally red-faced Amelia. The other pair was dashing towards them with completely idiotic grins on their faces.
"Moony, you've got to see this!" Sirius cried excitedly as he threw his arm around his friend. He pointed towards Hogsmeade to show Remus a movement.
Remus stared at what seemed to be James Potter running, only half dressed with parts of him covered in a yellow, viscous liquid, as a swarm of honeybees chased him.
"Padfoot! Moony! The flowers didn't work!" James shouted. He sprinted up the short staircase and drew his wand. Half-turning while not slowing down at all, James practically dived through the threshold – incidentally bowling over the Remus, Sirius and Amelia – and quickly spelled the door shut behind him.
Remus could hear the thumps as the bees flew straight into the door. It sounded a tad like raindrops.
"Bees? Prongs, what happened?" Remus looked to the messy-haired boy that lie prone and half on top of him.
"Never mind that!" Sirius wailed, "Why'd you run into us?"
"Well, I was talking to Moony here—"
"And I was talking to—" 'Where'd she go?'
"Me, Moony. You were talking to me." Sirius said flatly. "Honestly, I think you hit your head in that fall."
'Oh, right. Tonks is Sirius' cousin. They must not get along.' Sirius must not have noticed her.
Amelia, however, had. "Excuse me," she said delicately, attempting to shift the focus of the conversation to help Remus, her fellow prefect, out of a potentially awkward situation, "Could you please get off of us, Potter?"
Or maybe she just wanted get off the floor; who knows what kind germs could be there.