I certainly take my sweet time updating, don't I? (Disclaimer: I only own the characters that I made up. Still wish Sirius was mine.)
"All's good, mate," Remus said, clapping James on the shoulder as he took a seat by the fireplace. "I've explained to Lily what happened. She's been told it was Sirius's idea, not yours, and she's furious at him but won't give him detention."
"You're a lifesaver, Moony!" Sirius exclaimed thumping him on the back.
"But what abo—" James started to ask.
"She still doesn't like you." Remus cut James off matter-of-factly.
James cast a look over to where Lily and his sister were doing homework together. This was the year he was supposed to be forgetting her, but he just couldn't do it. He didn't know why he liked her so much. Getting up from his seat, he debated between going to bed and asking Lily out… again.
"Evans!" he called out."
"What do you want, Potter?" she asked, looking up from her homework.
"Perhaps a date? Come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend." James grinned.
"No, Potter. Is there anything else?" Lily said, turning her attention back to her homework.
"A kiss?" James asked, his grin getting wider.
"Do you want me to actually reply to that?" Lily asked through clenched teeth.
Before James could reply, Adriana leapt forward and gave her brother a kiss on his cheek.
"Go on then, you got your kiss, now get back to Sirius, he's going to be lonely without you," she shooed her brother.
"You're a horrible sister, you know that? I sent you on a mission to win Lily over for me two years ago!" James almost yelled out as his sister marched him over to the fireplace.
"As you can see, I've decided not to follow through with the mission. Besides, there was nothing in it for me," Adriana replied as she sat him back down on his couch.
"Want me to change that?" Sirius asked with his trademark smile.
"What do you have in mind, Black?"
"Oh, I was thinking you, and me, and maybe the prefect's bathroom, or the boys' dormitory, or the locker rooms by the Quidditch pitch… " Sirius trailed off with a suggestive look.
Adriana beat James to a reply, "There's nothing you can do to me that Severus hasn't done already."
There was a moment of silence as the Marauders let Adriana's words sink in, and then—
"HE WHAT?" James yelled, jumping up and shaking his sister by her shoulders.
"Wait 'til I find that slimy, greasy haired, moldy git!" Sirius shouted, getting up to retrieve the Marauder's Map.
"NO!" Adriana exclaimed with a look of horror. "You can't! I love him!"
Peter's head snapped back and forth between his best friends and James's sister, as if he was watching a tennis match.
"She's been hexed, or given a love potion," Remus said, clearly under the impression that Adriana had been hoodwinked into falling in love with Snape.
Unable to contain it in any longer, Adriana burst out laughing, clutching one of the couches for support.
"You should all see the looks on your faces!" she finally managed to splutter, retreating back to Lily. "Ridiculous!"
"Has anyone ever told you that you're one of the best people to be friends with?" Lily asked as Adriana sat back down.
"Yup, plenty, but don't stop saying it, now that you've just started. I enjoy hearing it, it makes me feel loved," she replied with a silly clap.
"Is it odd? You know, being friendly with me, but then having your brother…" Lily trailed off, unable to properly finish her question.
"Ask you out all the time and demand that I help him and make you see the light?" Adriana finished. "No, not really. He's my brother. I just ignore him when he gets annoying."
Lily let out a small giggle and got up. Her homework was done and she wanted to get to bed early; she had a busy day at Hogsmeade and didn't want to rush about the village because she woke up late.
"Thanks for the help, I was really lost back there, even though muggles are really keen on stuff like astrology. If I'd known we would need it for Divination I would have paid extra special attention when mum kept talking about it," Lily said.
"Don't worry about it," Adriana replied with a smile. "Are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?"
"Yes, with Alice, Frank, Baran and Jill. Want to come?" Lily offered. She really liked James's sister. She was nothing like her brother, except for maybe mischievous. She did like pranking people, but she never got caught, either.
"Oohh you mean Aldebaran Cadre from Ravenclaw?" Adriana gushed with a hopeful smile. "I'd love to, but I'm going with Jordan Riley. I haven't properly hung out with him in ages and I don't think he'll stay my friend if I take a rain check."
"Bring him with you, then!" Lily pressed on. "Um, I know it's not really my place to ask, but you two aren't, you know, seeing each other, are you?"
Adriana waved her hand impatiently, signaling no. "I'd much rather get into Sirius's pants. Or Baran's," she blushed.
Lily let out a very unnatural giggle. "He's something, isn't he?"
"Yes!" Adriana replied enthusiastically. "Remember how he was dating Artemis Geoffrey of Slytherin?"
Lily nodded. How could she forget that? It was almost akin to a Gryffindor going out with a Slytherin, even though Artemis was not brainwashed enough to be sorted into that house.
"She told Robin Blunt everything about their relationship, and I was lucky enough to have been Charms partners with Robin," Adriana said, giving Lily a knowing look.
"Tell me everything you know!" Lily cried out, practically jumping up and down from excitement in a very un-Lily like manner.
"Let's go up, shall we? Don't want any annoying boys," Adriana gave the Marauders, who had been eyeing the two girls, a pointed look "eavesdropping in on our conversation."
-x-
"Well, what was that about?" Sirius asked as the girls glanced in their direction and traipsed off to their dormitory.
"Drop it, Padfoot," Remus said, without looking up from yet another book. "They're probably gossiping about one of their latest crushes."
"Who do they fancy?" James demanded, pulling Remus by his collar and bringing him within inches of James's nose.
"Me. And me," Sirius said simply. "But since you're my best mate, I suppose you can still go after Lily. I'll just have to break it to her as gently as I possibly can. Scarlet, on the other hand… I really don't think I'm strong enough to resist that bird, Prongs."
"I overheard the girls in Transfiguration class talking about Aldebaran Cadre," Peter piped up suddenly.
"Gah! He's actually one of the good guys!" James half yelled, half said.
"But, Prongs!" Sirius whined, "I'm better! You said so yourself that I'm the best looking fifth year in Hogwarts!"
"You know, if you like, we can always follow the girls and see what they're doing in Hogsmeade tomorrow," Remus suggested.
"We're not stalkers," Peter said bluntly.
"Think of it as keeping track of their whereabouts, Wormtail," Sirius said, standing up. "We're just making sure they're safe, and that no one tries to do anything funny to them."
"Yes. That's what we'll do," James said decidedly, getting up to go to bed.
-x-
"You made it!" Alice exclaimed as Adriana led Jordan Riley over to their table at Three Broomsticks.
"Yeah, we're trying to shake Jamesy and his friends off," Adriana said.
"They've been following us around all day, ever since we got out of the castle," Jordan Riley added. "Do they really think I'd do something to you?" he asked, addressing Adriana.
"There they are now," Lily nodded in their direction as the rest turned to stare at the entrance.
'What could I have done to deserve this?' Adriana demanded with half a mind to go confront the four boys who, after glancing around the pub inconspicuously, made a beeline for the bar to where Madam Rosmerta was.
"Ugh, not again," Lily groaned as James waved at her from across the room. "When will that boy leave me alone?"
"I don't think he will," Aldebaran frowned.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked him, wide eyed.
"James Potter loves you. Or at least that's what he tells anyone who will listen," he replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"What?" Lily asked, her temper rising.
"Well, he kind of won't shut up about you," he continued oblivious to the furious girl beside him. "Whenever we have classes together, all he talks about is you. When he's not planning a prank, that is."
Lily wanted nothing more than to yell at James and give him a slap across the face. She didn't care that the pub was filled with students. James certainly didn't care about professing his 'love' for her, so why should she care about her actions? Alice spoke up as she stood up,
"Please don't be angry at him, Lily. He really, really does like you. Please sit down," her best friend implored, but Adriana beat Lily to a response.
"Jordan, let's give Jamesy and his friends what they want, shall we?" she asked her best friend.
"What do you have in mind, Scarlet?" he asked with a frown, as everyone at the table turned to stare at them. "I don't want to be hexed by those boys, they can be downright evil at times."
"Oh, don't worry, the most they can do is give you an extra head," she replied with a wave of her hand. They've been following us around all day, and I'm beginning to think that they expect us to do something inappropriate, so why not make their lives easier and do something to prove them right?"
"What are you guys going to do?" Jill piped in. She had been dreaming off in her own little world but caught snippets of conversation here and there.
"Just act normal for now, but do not be surprised when Jordan," Adriana turned her head to him, "follows my lead."
-x-
"I should go up to her, shouldn't I?" James asked his friends as he waved at Lily, who turned a bright pink when she saw his action.
"Do you want to come back, dripping in butterbeer? Or worse, with bits of glass in your head after Lily smashes her bottle against your huge head?" Remus asked, looking lazily around the room.
"They're not doing anything, let's go to Zonko's," Peter complained from his stool. He didn't understand why they were following two girls around during their last trip of the year to Hogsmeade.
"They're talking, Wormtail," Sirius said, his eyes never leaving Adriana.
"Yeah, so are we, but they," Peter jerked his thumb at the group they'd been spying on, "are not the ones who –"
Sirius gripped Peter's shoulder as Adriana let out a loud giggle, grabbed Jordan's tie and pulled him closer before getting up and pulling him out of the pub.
"She has got to be joking," James muttered. He would have a word with his sister about the boys she dated once they all got back to the castle, but Sirius didn't seem to want to wait. He was already halfway across the pub before the rest of his friends realized where he'd gone. They caught up to him outside the pub.
"They're gone," he stated, looking around for his best friend's sister and her soon-to-be dismembered boyfriend.
"They probably just pulled that stunt to make you angry, Pads," Remus reasoned. "She's a smart girl, she knows we've been following her around."
"No, Moony, she's dating him!" Sirius snapped. They're dating, I just know it. "A boy and a girl cannot be best friends without having ulterior motives. And don't call me one of those muggle devices that girls use."
"When did you become so knowledgeable about male and female interaction? And about muggle products?" Remus inquired, mildly surprised.
"Since I knicked that magazine from that foxy Ravenclaw prefect," Sirius replied absentmindedly, still looking for Adriana and not bothering to elaborate about the Ravenclaw. "I wish our map worked here, too," he sulked, before trudging off to Zonko's. "Come on, who wants to buy me something to cheer me up?" he grinned.
I hate how everything is so slow at the beginning. :( I always feel like skipping the boring bits and going straight to the good stuff I have planned out but I can't do it without getting the boring chapters out of the way. If you've read, could you review, please? My little heart's breaking over here, I need to know what I'm doing wrong/right so I can correct myself/keep doing a good job. T_T Please? For my poor little heart?
Preview into the next chapter:
"Oh, yes!" a feminine voice screamed.
After a few moments there was a loud crash from inside the little closet as a deep voice let out a moan. Lily's face was a bright shade of red. She didn't know what to do. Sirius and James were looking livid, and Remus could barely hold his laughter in. Peter was watching the door of the closet with wide eyes, as if he could see everything that was happening on the other side. Another few minutes passed, during which shrieks, yelps and moans could be heard from the closet. By then Remus was clutching his side and had tears of laughter in his eyes, laughing uncontrollably.
"She's good," he managed to say, however incoherently.
"What do you mean, Moony?" James demanded from Remus, who burst out into more peals of laughter at the sight of his friend.
"I'm not waiting to find out," Sirius said, his face contorted with rage as he got up and and raced to the door, pulling it open to see what those two were doing.
(Chapter 3 should be up in a week or so.)