She Loves Me Not

Chapter 1: The Great Escape

"GET THIS FILTHY BOY AWAY FROM THIS NOBLE HOUSEHOLD, YOU UNGRATEFUL LITTLE-" Mrs. Black slapped her son hard in the face, and shoved another boy out of her room and into the hall.

"Yeah you dirty filthy blood traitor!" Kreacher the house elf managed to yell before the angry Mrs. Black slammed the gold encrusted doubled doors in her son's face.

"Damn it!" James exclaimed, "Since when did your mum have a fire place in her bedroom, I've never ended up in there from the floo power. Sorry to ruin our plans to be secretive about me coming over here."

"Ah, don't worry, it's not your fault, but if I would've known that bitch had a fireplace in her bedroom I would've told you, I swear my mum never tells me anything. What is that red stuff on your shirt?" Sirius wondered just noticing a dark red stain on James's shirt that looked quite a bit like blood.

James looked down at his shirt, noticing the large crimson blotch in the middle of his shirt, "I have no idea." James reached up and rubbed on the stain, only to find the same red all over the palms of his hands.

"You cut yourself or something?" Sirius asked, while staring at the state of James's hands.

"I don't think so, I think it's from your mum's fireplace, I felt something wet when I landed, but I just thought the fireplace was just a little damp or something. Must've been something else…"

Sirius was silent for a moment, pondering what could have happened in that fireplace, he decided he'd rather not know, knowing his mom it could be anything terrible and possibly tragic, "Probably just some more Black magic," Black magic was what Sirius and James called all the illegal or "inappropriate" magic any member of the Black family would cast (including Sirius), "let's just go get you cleaned up, come on."

The two boys walked down the dark hall of the Black household. There were many heads of different house elves that at one point served the Black family, it was a tradition to behead their house elves when they had become too old to serve them any longer, and hang it on the wall in the hallway. James had now become used to walking past the head's that belonged to such house elves as Tearror (who served from 1846 - 1855) and Tearror's grandmother Horoar (who served from 1782 - 1807).

As they entered the oversized bathroom James considered removing the hideous stain, but decided not to, he was sure together he and Sirius would find a much better use of his magic, so he decided to try and clean it the best he could, the muggle way. James first washed his hands thoroughly making sure he got all the blood, or whatever it was, off of his hands. He took of his shirt and threw it in the sink, poured some soap on it and started scrubbing it the best he could with his two hands.

Sirius laughed when he saw what a poor job James was doing all he was doing was spreading blood and hand soap all over his shirt, "You know what mate, why don't you just borrow one of my shirts instead, I can't see you wearing that, the entire thing just turned red!"

James and Sirius walked down the stair and into a very discrete passageway, and tiny passageway located in the kitchen where a cupboard would usually be, most guests just thought it was a shelf. Sirius climbed in first, and James followed after him. The Small hole led to a steep, skinny stairway. It took the two sixteen year-olds about ten minutes to travel down the whole staircase. Finally they came to the end where to a very short hallway with only one door. Sirius opened the door and the two boys walked into Sirius's small, hidden bedroom.

Sirius dug through his wardrobe and pulled out one of his old shirts and threw it at James. James pulled it on, it pretty much fit, but it was a bit looser than he prefers to wear his shirts, although he had always been thin, even though he was very well built (considering he was the seeker for the Gryffindor quiditch team).

"So who do you think our victim should be Prongs?" Sirius asked James. Sirius and James had nicknames for each other along with their two other best friends, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. When they were in their first year they found a secret about their friend Remus, he was a werewolf. They decided to be his companions as animals by becoming animagi. After a few years they had learned how to turn themselves into a specific animal at will. James's nickname became Prongs because he would turn into a stag. Sirius's nickname was Padfoot because he could turn into a (very large, shaggy, black) dog. Remus's nickname was Moony, because he was a werewolf. Peter's nickname was Wormtail because he could turn into a rat. The four of them had formed a group that called themselves the Marauders. Sirius and James had been planning to pull a prank on someone using their magic this summer; they just didn't know who to prank, or how they would prank them.

"Well who would you rather prank Lily, Snivellus or Malfoy?" James asked like their choices were obvious.

"How about Lily, Snivellus and Malfoy are much more fun to prank in front of the whole school. Lily is fun to mess with any day; her reaction alone is enough of a reward. And plus, she live only a couple blocks down from your house," Sirius said thoughtfully. Lily was a red headed girl in Gryffindor that the Marauders loved to pull pranks on, therefore Lily pretty much despised the four Marauders, especially James and Sirius, she could occasionally get along with Remus and Peter. James had liked Lily since his fourth year, and everybody knew. James knew that she despised him, yet he still continued to prank her. Although Lily was very smart she would often get back at them when they deserved it. Snivellus was what the Marauders called a boy named Severus Snape who was a Slyterin. Severus was constantly made fun of for absolutely no good reason, just for his greasy hair and his gigantic nose. Lucius Malfoy was a Slytherin who despised muggle born witches and wizards, and was well known for being a death eater, although there was no proof of it. Slytherin and Gryffindor were well known enemies at hogworts and as the Marauders were Gryffindors and Malfoy a Slytherin there were automatically enemies. But the Marauders would constantly torment him he would always torment them back in a much more cruel way.

"Yeah your right, we'll get Malfoy and Snivellus plenty of times during school," James agreed.

They spent a very long time going over different possible pranks to pull on the unexpecting redhead. James said they could sneak into her bedroom and set off dung bombs, but they decided it was too mild. Sirius suggested they levitate her out of her bedroom, and send her into his mother's house, but they both decided that Mrs. Black might be a bit too dangerous of a prank. Finally they decided to do a spell of that will put on permanent makeup of how you envision it. They decided James would perform the spell on the day before they left for the train, to ensure that she would have to look like that when school started. They decided to give her a green-brown eye shadow that would go up to her eyebrows, very thick, black eyeliner, bright purple lipstick and dark orange blush. Too keep this image fresh in his mind for when he performed the spell, James wrote down his ideas on a parchment and stuffed it in his pocket.

The exact moment James had pulled his hand out of his pocket Sirius's Mom burst into the room accompanied by Sirius's younger brother Regulas and started yelling…again, "I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT! I TOLD YOU TO GET THIS FILTCH OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Mrs. Black was pointing at James, and then moved her finger to Sirius and Regulas just kind of stood there and nodded, "NO FOOD FOR ONE WEEK, AND IM LOCKIN THE DOOR TO YOUR ROOM!" Mrs. Black pointed her wand at James and blasted him home. She left the room, locked the door with out one more look at her abused son.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

James felt like he was being sucked into the air for one moment, and next thing he knew he was sprawled on the ground in his front yard. James felt horrible for his best friend and so he did what he always did when Sirius's mom denied him food, he stole food out of the kitchen and sent it off to Sirius with his trusty barn owl (which he named after his group of friends) Marauder. This time he sent his friend a grapefruit, a slice of chocolate cake, a few bottles of butterbeer, and 2 bottles of water. He would send Sirius more tomorrow. Marauder nipped the Marauder affectionately on his finger and she flew off.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Sirius was thankful that he also had a passage way from outside leading to the window in his room when he saw Marauder flying into his room carrying a large package. Sirius slid the window open and let Marauder fly in. Marauder knew Sirius just as well as she knew James so she stayed while he unopened his package and set the food on the top of his nightstand. Sirius patted Marauder on her head and told her to stay so he could write James a letter:

Prongs,

Thanks for the food, but I don't want you sending any more food after today, you'll find you won't need to. Don't send me any more owls today, I don't want my parents to possibly find out anything, I know I'll see you soon.

Padfoot

Sirius watched Marauder spread her wings and fly gracefully out of the window that led to the passageway leading outside. Sirius all alone again, he wished he didn't have to let her go, but he had to send that letter to James. Sirius hated being alone, but he was used to it because of his horrible mother. He wasn't depressed this time; he knew he would be seeing at least one of his friends soon.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

James sat in his living room waiting for his owl to return, thinking maybe he would ask Remus to come over. He decided to start the letter then so he didn't have to sit and wait for his owl. He pulled out a piece of parchment and his quill:

Moony,

Hey, are you busy? If not can you come over right now, because I'm bored (I got kicked out of Sirius's house) and I don't have anything to do, maybe we can play quiditch or something even though you're a little clumsy on a broom (did I say little? But I will help you if you want help), respond as soon as you can!

Prongs

After writing the letter James got bored, he decided to stop his boredom by getting out his Skysweeper 6000 (his new broomstick) and flying it around the living room. He was lucky that he was such an excellent flyer; most people he knew would have knocked down half of the valuables in the room. He dodged the lamps and the vases and never got even close to hitting anything, he was a very controlled flyer. Well at least he didn't hit anything until Marauder flew into the window. Marauder flew straight into James's face and knocked him off of his broom. James landed hard on the floor and his Skysweeper 6000 fell and hit his grandmother's favorite vase and knocked it down with a huge crash.

James's grandmother, Helen Potter heard the crash and with a pop appeared in the living room, "James! Do you realize how lucky you are that I happen to be a witch?" Helen cried as she restored her vase, "I told you not to fly in the living room!"

"It's not my fault I crashed! I fly in the living room all the time. I wouldn't have crashed if Marauder hadn't flown in the window, I never crash!" James said defensively.

"You fly in the living room all the time! James! Just for this you are going to clean the bathroom," Helen said feeling satisfied at the look on James's face.

"But grandma, I can't use magic yet, that's torture…its slave work!" James complained.

"It's your punishment, if I had you do something you liked it wouldn't be," Helen said and left the room.

At that James went over to Marauder and untied the letter. He read it, confused why would Sirius tell him not to send him food or any letters, but as Sirius's best friend he respected his wishes. He then tied his letter to Remus onto her and sent her off. "I hope you don't mind I asked Remus over, do you?" James asked his grandma knowing she wouldn't get angry; Helen always loved it when Remus came to visit.

"Oh, of course dear, Remus is a wonderful young man," Helen said and she left the room with another pop.

About ten minutes later Remus appeared in the fireplace wearing a suit, and a smile broke out on James's face. "Nice outfit Moony, glad you could come!"

"My mum held a huge family dinner, my dad got promoted," Remus answered. "So how is Sirius I thought you were going over there for a while today?"

"Well his mum blasted me out of the house again, she got a fireplace in her room and I landed in there when I used the floo powder," James answered, "He's locked in his room for a week without food…again, I sent him food and he told me not to send him any more and not to send him letters." James let Remus read the letter from Sirius.

"Well this is a strange thing to write when you're starving, but I know no one in his family would have written this, they would torture you or kill you or something, not send you a letter, so I guess you shouldn't send Marauder to him. But I really do wonder why he would ask you not to send him food," Remus said, wondering why in the world Sirius wouldn't want them to send him food, and why he was worried that his grandmother would find out if James sent him Marauder.

"Well let's try not to worry about old Padfoot, he and take care of himself, and plus he said he would see me soon. Come on let's go get my brooms," James said.

James grabbed his broom which was still lying on the floor and the boys went up to his room to grab the other for Remus. James's old broom was the original model of a Skysweeper, and much slower than his Skysweeper 6000, although in Remus's case slower was probably better.

James grabbed his case of quiditch balls and led the way outside to his backyard. The Potter family had quite a bit of money so they were able to afford a huge backyard blocked from muggle's view by many tall trees to go along with their very large manor. On the way Remus struck up conversation, "Guess what!"

"What," James answered.

"I have a girlfriend," Remus said, trying not to sound too excited about it.

"Who, do I know her?" James asked, ready to interrogate Remus until he got all of the information.

"I won't tell you…yet," Remus said, trying to hide how happy he was about his girlfriend, "but you can find out on next week, you and Sirius should come."

"Of course," James said, he decided not to ask him too many times who Remus's girlfriend was, because he would get to meet her.

When they reached his backyard James threw open the trunk and released the snitch, a tiny golden ball with wings that flew around, and was hard to spot. In quiditch the seeker would catch to end the game and would earn his or her team 150 points, as James was the Gryffindor seeker when he would play games on his broom he always loved to use the snitch.

"Come on," Remus complained, "you know I am terrible at catching that thing, and we play with the quaffle?"

"Okay then," James said, "but the quaffle boring, it doesn't do anything. All we can do with the damn thing is pass it back and forth. Let's compromise and use the bludgers instead." The quaffle was a ball about the size of a soccer ball and chasers would have to get the quaffle through a hoop on the opposing team's side to score ten points. The keeper would have to block the quaffle from getting through any of the three hoops. Bludgers were heavy metal ball about 6 inches in diameter that flew around, trying to knock players off of their brooms. Beaters had short wooden clubs the hit the bludgers at opponents, and block it from hitting one of their teammates.

"Fine, snitch it is. I don't want any of those bludgers flying at my head and killing me!" Remus said, as though he had just been threatened.

James smiled and mounted his broom and Remus followed. The two boys would take turns letting loose the snitch for the other to go after. James had a lot more fun then Remus playing this game. Remus was only able to catch the snitch once, and that was because when James let go of it, the snitch flew straight into Remus's hand. Other than that James always had to go after the snitch for Remus. After a little while James felt bad to see that Remus wasn't having too much fun, so he put the snitch away and took out the quaffle. They both got tired of playing catch with the quaffle so they played broom tag, where they would just try and to touch the other person's broom, without them touching their own broom.

After an hour or two the two boys retired to James's bedroom. They sat in his room talking for a while, eventually James's grandma called him down for dinner. She at made steak, corn on the cob, and enormous platter of mashed potatoes shaped like a volcano, with gravy coming out like lava.

"We're having a potato volcano again? We've had potato volcanoes three nights in a row already!" James complained.

"I think it's quite nice, and very creative," Remus complimented.

James rolled his eyes, "Come on Moony, stop being such a suck up, I don't think a volcano is very original."

"Thank you Remus, and James, you can do the dishes by hand after dinner, and then you can go clean the bathroom, which you still haven't done," said Mrs. Potter.

"Oh come on now Helen, be easy I think cleaning the bathroom is enough of a punishment, James you're off the hook, I'll just wash the dishes for you," James grandfather, John, was a very easygoing man.

Before Helen could reply there was a knock on the door.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After Sirius ate the piece of chocolate cake James had sent him he gulped down the last bit of butterbeer that was in the bottle he packed all his things that he would need. He packed all of his clothes, and all of the things he would need at Hogwarts. Once he finally had everything packed (which took awhile, his room was quite a mess) he put on his cloak, opened his window and climbed out. When his grandmother created this passage way, she knew Sirius could escape from it if she made it easy to get out of, so the passageway out was vertical. Sirius had escaped from this passage once before, so he knew how he could he could get out. The passage was very long (his room was pretty far under the ground), and tiring so he grabbed both of the bottles of water James had sent and put them in his pocket. He then grabbed his pocket knife and climbed out the window.

Sirius shoved his pocket knife into the dirt walls of the passage and made a good sized foot hold, he made four of these holes, two for his hands, two for his feet. He put his feet and hands in the holds, and made two more of these holes and moved his feet to the previous ones his hands were in and his hands into the two new holes. He continued making two more holes at a time and climbing. It took him at least two hours to climb all the way out of the passageway. He pulled himself out of a small hole in the ground on Grimmauld Place in front of number 11 and number 13. He lived in number 12 which was magically hidden by some Black magic. He walked into a nearby alleyway and sat down to catch his breath.

After a few minutes he stood up and swept some of his hair out of his eyes. Sirius walked out of the alleyway and walked down the street. After about 30 minutes he reached his destination and knocked on the door.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

James jumped up, "I'll get it!" He ran of to get the door; he did not want to be reassigned to wash the dishes by hand. James went to the door and opened it only to see Sirius standing there covered in dirt and grime.

"Hi, told you I'd be seeing you soon!" Sirius smiled, "Can I come in?"

"Yeah," James said, "You ran away?"

"Yeah, I wanted to know if I could possibly…uh…live here for a while." Sirius asked.

"I hope so! Come on, let's go ask!" said James, he was very excited.

Sirius and James walked down the hall and into the elaborately decorated dining room. Mrs. Potter was surprised to see the filthy Sirius standing in her sparkly clean dining room, "Sirius! As much as I enjoy your company, I must ask you to wash yourself off before you sit down."

As mischievous as he was, Sirius could still be very charming, "Of course ma'am I just got away from my mother, she was refusing to feed me." Sirius said all this very calmly, he did not get very emotional about his mother starving him, like many people would.

James's grandparents both knew all about Sirius's family life and were not surprised to hear this, "Oh you poor dear, I'll go help you wash up, and then you can sit down," Mrs. Potter said.

Sirius had just noticed Remus sitting at the table, "He Moony! How was your summer?"

"Boring so far," Remus answered as Mrs. Potter cleaned Sirius up quickly with her wand.

"Uh…Mrs. Potter, Mr. Potter, do you think I could, well…um…live here for a little while?" Sirius asked, hoping the answer would be yes.

Mr. Potter answered, "Of course you can Sirius it is always nice to have you at the house."

"You can live here as long as you like dear," Mrs. Potter added.

Sirius sat down at the table and took a very large slab of steak, the biggest ear of corn on the table, and the huge heaping pile of mashed potatoes with tons of gravy slopped over the top. Sirius gobbled it up in two minutes and helped himself to seconds and thirds. Sirius always ate like this, even when he wasn't being starved. Luckily Mrs. Potter knew this or she would have been fondling him obsessively.

Remus decided to stay the night that night and James and Sirius decided to let him in on the prank they would pull on Lily (of course after they helped James clean the bathroom). At first Remus objected to their prank, he knew that Lily would have a huge fit about this and it would not help James's attempts to get her to like him, but eventually he agreed not to tell her.

Then James and Remus told Sirius about Remus's girlfriend, and Sirius was all for going over to her house to meet her.

The three boys did not go to sleep until four in the morning; they were going over all the possible pranks they could pull while they were at the school for a very long time until Remus saw how late it had gotten.