I tried to upload this yesterday, but it wouldn't work. It would've been up sooner, but I didn't have a lot of time to re-draft, but it's here now, so, let the reading commence!
Green-Tinted Affection
Chapter 4
2 weeks later.
"You didn't! Pru, please say you're joking!" cried Lily. Pru, Lily and Alice were in their dormitory; Pru said perched on the end of the bed, her elbows rested on her knees and her face buried in her hands, Alice said cross legged on her bed next to Pru's, and Lily was pacing in front of them.
"I know! I'm a disgrace to the female gender!" Pru whined, looking up, disgusted with herself.
Lily had entered the dormitory to find Pru sitting staring blindly into the wall in front of her, Alice with her hand on Pru's shoulder, trying to bring her back. "What's up with her?" Lily had asked. "She," Alice had started, looking sadly at Pru, "...she...her and Sirius were fighting, and they were shouting pretty loudly. They heard Filch coming, and Sirius had just set off a load of dungbombs, so they hid inside a broom closet-" Lily interrupted at this point, "Why did Pru hide if Sirius set them off?" she has asked. "Because it was Filch, Lily. He would have found a way to blame it on her as well. So, anyway, they were in this broom closet...and they were still fighting, in whispers...and then...and then they kissed."
"I shouldn't have let him! I should've beaten him into a pulp! Why didn't I beat him into a pulp?!" Pru was shouting now.
"Calm down, Pru! It's not that big a deal!" Lily shouted back. Pru snapped her head up to look up at Lily.
"Not a big deal?" Pru repeated. "Not a bloody big deal, is it Lily? I get snogged by the most repulsive being on the planet and you say it's not a big deal?! Just because you don't hate Potter any more, just because you're all lovey-dovey, bestest friends with Potter, doesn't mean I feel the same way about Black!" she looked genuinely angry at Lily.
"'Lovey-dovey, bestest friends'? I stopped hating Potter for no reason Pru, that hardly makes us 'lovey-dovey, bestest friends'! I meant it's not a big deal because it was one kiss! We're not twelve anymore, Pru! It's a kiss, it's not like you're married! You're the one making a big deal out of it! Okay, so I was a little shocked at first, but it's not like it was Mulciber! It was just Sirius! Don't you dare start on me because you kissed Black!"
Pru was momentarily lost for words. She was shocked; Lily hadn't spoken to her like this in the five years she'd known her, but, to be fair, she had started on her. She sighed, looking down at her feet and then back up at Lily. "I'm sorry, Lil." Lily had her arms folded tightly across her chest. She didn't answer at first, but then she relaxed her body, nodded, and then sat down next to Pru.
"Come down to the common room now and get on with your life," she said. Pru smiled and she and Lily stood, as Alice leapt off her bed.
"Maybe if you're lucky, darling Sirius will be there!" Alice laughed. Pru shot her a death glare, and Alice quickly stopped laughing. When they entered the common room, they saw the Marauders sitting around a table on the far side of the room, leaning in and talking in hushed voices. Peter, James and Remus glanced towards the girls, then back to Sirius, and said something the girls couldn't hear. Sirius shook his head.
Lily and Alice looked at Pru, and hurriedly sat down. "You don't know they're talking about you," Lily pointed out. "They could easily have just been looking who had just come down from the dormitories; they could be talking about anything! Probably quidditch or something stupid like that." Pru raised one eyebrow as she looked at Lily, who shrugged. "They could be," Lily said, replying to Pru's unasked question. Pru shook her head, and leaned back into the arm chair she was occupying, looking as if she was waiting for it to swallow her. Lily looked at Alice, who shrugged and took out her potions text book, a sheet of parchment, a quill and a bottle of ink.
The four boys stood up and made their way towards the girls. "Hello Lily, Alice," said Sirius. "Caulfield," he added as an afterthought. Lily and Alice smiled and said 'hi', but Pru just looked up and nodded.
"Black," she said. "Remus, Peter, Potter." The three boys waved with their hands at their sides and smiled in response.
"So," Alice said, breaking the awkward silence that was depending upon the group, "what were you lot talking about so secretly over there?"
"A secret," Sirius winked, and Peter's eyes flashed to Prudence, who, unfortunately, noticed.
"And would I happen to know what this secret is, Black?" she said, looking away from Peter and glaring up at Sirius.
"Well, it was you who caused it," Sirius pointed out. Pru's mouth fell open and she jumped to her feet.
"I did not! Liar! You kissed me while I was in the middle of shouting at you!" she yelled. A few heads turned in their direction, but Pru turned to these heads with murder written on her face, and they quickly busied themselves with something else.
"I remember it a little bit differently, Caulfield!" Sirius shouted. "I never asked you to hide in that broom closet with me! In fact, it was you that pulled me in there!"
"I wasn't going to get detention for your childish little stunt! And I never asked you to kiss me!"
"Well, that would've made much sense seeing as how you were the one who kissed me, would it?" Sirius and Pru were inches away from each other, screaming in each other's face. Alice was perched on the edge of her chair, unsure of whether to join Lily behind Pru. James stood right behind Sirius, Peter stood a little away, and Remus stood a foot from James.
"Why would I want to kiss you, Black? You disgust me! And if I remember correctly, you were kissing back!"
"So you admit that you kissed me first? Because it's hard to kiss back if you're initiating the kiss!"
"No! I-" Pru started, but Sirius wasn't done.
"And even if I kissed you, which I'm positive I didn't, Caulfield, you've admitted to kissing me too! You kissed me, regardless of who started it!"
"Oh, and you ran all the way back here to tell your little friends of your accomplishment, didn't you?! So proud, weren't you?!" Pru spat at him.
"I'm pretty sure you told Alice and Evans, Pru," James said, his voice raised only slightly as to be heard.
"Don't you start on her, Potter!" Lily shouted. James' face fell, but he knew he had to defend himself.
"I wasn't starting on her, Lily! I was saying it was unfair of her to say that to Sirius when she did exactly the same thing!"
"Trust me, she wasn't boasting when she said it!"
"I didn't say she was! Neither was Sirius!"
Two arguments were now going on in the Gryffindor common room; Sirius versus Prudence, and Lily versus James. Lily seemed to have forgotten the recent progress her and James had made with their friendship, and although he didn't stop arguing, hurt showed on James' face.
The portrait hole swung open, and Sarah entered, smiling. Her expression quickly changed to confusion when she saw the others fighting. She made her way over, and whispered to Alice, "What's happened now?" Alice filled her in, and Sarah stood and spoke up.
"Look, we're not little kids anymore!" Sarah said, raising her voice so she was louder than any of them. "You're all acting stupid and childish!"
"She's right, this is all over nothing!" Remus agreed.
"Oh, don't you start as well!" said Pru, turning to face Sarah. "And you haven't been acting stupid and childish for the last couple of weeks?"
"What are you talking about?" Sarah asked, angry about the fact that Pru was now yelling at her, but utterly confused.
"You and Remus!" Pru clarified.
"Yeah, you two better sort something out and stop dodging around each other before you tell us we're being childish!" Sirius shouted, standing beside Pru, and looking from Remus to Sarah.
"It's not as if nobody knows you like each other, so do something about it, it's getting really annoying!" Pru added, still shouting. Sarah looked hurt and angry, and Remus looked shocked. Sarah snatched up her book bag, and stormed up to the dormitory. Neither she nor Remus had admitted to their friends that they liked each other, partly because they weren't sure they did. It infuriated Sarah that Pru would scream something like that for the whole of Gryffindor to hear, especially since she wasn't sure what answer she would give if somebody asked her if it were true or not.
As she made her way up the staircase, she noticed that the shouts had died away. 'Oh yes, what better way to resolve your anger with one person than by screaming at a friend?'she thought sarcastically. She threw her bag down at the foot of her bed, and angrily pulled on her night clothes before climbing into bed. She didn't bother to pull the curtains around her four-poster, as it seemed petty and childish to isolate herself after a few harsh sentences. Closing her eyes, she made a mental note to talk to Remus the next day, before drifting into a land that, after spending the last half a decade as a witch, took a lot of imagination to create.
The four Marauders were making their way back to the Gryffindor common room after Transfiguration; their last lesson of the day. McGonagall had given the class a two-foot-long essay to write, and they were not happy about this, but it was to be expected, as they would be taking their OWLs at the end of the year.
"No, I mean, they're not going to ask us to write enormous essays for every question in the test, are they?" Sirius asked irritably. "They're going to want a two or three sentence answer at most!"
"I think McGonagall thinks that if we can write a two-foot long essay, we'll be more likely to get the question right, mate," replied James. "And she can't just give us one question, can she? The question on the test might be different." Sirius muttered that it was still unnecessary, but didn't argue his point any further.
"Remus?" came a girl's voice from slightly behind the four boys. "Can I speak to you a minute?" The boys turned around to see Sarah McCarthy standing awkwardly in the corridor. Remus had hoped they could avoid the conversation they were about to have, but knew that after last night, that was not possible.
"Um, okay," he said, and he walked back to meet her. Sirius, James and Peter looked at him, but he nodded to tell them to go on. He looked uncomfortable, and Sirius felt a pang of guilt in his stomach; if it weren't for him and Pru, there was less of a chance that Remus would have to deal with this right now.
Remus and Sarah made their way down to the entrance hall, and out onto the castle grounds. It was cold outside, but it was dry. They walked over to the lake, neither saying anything until they sat at its edge, stationary. Sarah looked up at Remus as if she hoped he would start, but she knew that as she'd asked him to talk, it would have to be her.
She sighed, and began. "Remus, they were right, last night," she said, looking with particular interest at a patch of grass beside her foot.
"I know," Remus mumbled, looking across the lake at nothing in particular.
"I, err, we did kind of start avoiding each other, and it was getting a bit stupid..." she continued.
"Yeah," Remus whispered. Sarah felt awkward, as Remus was not supplying anything for the conversation, and was forcing her to say all the uncomfortable things they were both thinking.
"I, umm, I do think that I, err, I, err...Remus, I like you," Sarah said it very quickly, and her cheeks blushed pink. She looked up and away as soon as she said it, not wanting to see whatever expression was on Remus' face. She was suddenly very worried that she'd interpreted his signals wrong; that he would be disgusted or amused or that he would laugh. When Remus didn't answer for a moment, she looked back, half expecting him to have disappeared.
"I like you too, Sarah," he finally said, when she looked at him. Sarah smiled unintentionally, but Remus continued, "but I don't think we should go out together." Sarah's face fell, and she seemed to tense. She didn't answer, but shifted her position so that it was harder for Remus to see her expression. Remus was suddenly aware that he shouldn't have started the sentence in a way that gave the girl hope, and quickly tried to explain himself. "It's just, there's factors I have to consider and I don't think it'd work, and I really don't want to hurt you and I-"
"It's fine, Remus, really," Sarah said, cutting him off. "It's not the first time that I've had this conversation with a person, Remus, it's no big deal." She forced herself to smile, and pushed herself up from the ground. Remus stood and joined her.
"What do you mean, it's not the first time you've had this conversation?" he asked, confused. How many werewolves had this girl liked? Of course, she didn't know he was a werewolf...
"I've been in situations before were the person I liked has told me they didn't want to go out with me. It doesn't really bother me anymore, I never really expected anything. It's why I don't really bother with it anymore, which I think has led people to believe that I don't date as I'm 'obsessed with school work', or so Sirius says," she explained. Remus knew that this was meant to make him feel less guilty, but it made him feel worse. She had said she didn't bother with it, the dating thing, anymore, and exactly the thing she'd been avoiding had happened – again, apparently. He had a sneaking suspicion that she didn't really believe him when he said that he liked her, and that he was just trying to spare her some embarrassment. He wished he could show her differently, but knew there was no point, as it would just hurt her further. The rest of the journey back up to the common room was made in silence.
When they entered the room, Sarah mumbled a quick goodbye, and made her way up to her dormitory. Remus watched her go sadly, but soon saw that his friends were sat watching him, waiting for him.
"Well?" Sirius asked, excitedly. The first time in the five years that Remus talked to a girl he so obviously liked about them so obviously liking each other, was, in his opinion, a very big deal.
"Well what?" Remus asked, sitting down and busying himself with looking for something in his bag.
"Did you ask her?" Sirius said, grinning.
"Ask her what?"
"If she had any spare socks," James supplied; his voice thick with sarcasm. "Out, you idiot, did you ask her out?"
"No, of course not," Remus said, looking up at his friends confused. Surely they realised that due to his condition, or as James called it, his 'furry-little-problem', he would not have been able to ask her out.
Sirius eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "Why?" he cried.
Remus raised his eyebrow. "You know why," he answered, annoyed that his friends were either acting stupid enough to ignore the blatant reason, or actually stupid enough to not see the blatant reason.
"Here we go," James sighed. "The whole 'I-don't-deserve-happiness-so-I'm-going-to-turn-down-any-chance-to-be-a-teenager' thing." James and Sirius looked at each other, stood, hitched Remus up by his elbows and began to drag him up to their dormitory, Peter following behind closely. Remus' cries of protest were having no affect, and he seemed to realise he was wasting his breath, as he soon shut up.
Fortunately, when they entered their dormitory, they were alone; Frank was still at dinner. They threw Remus onto Sirius' bed, as it was closest, and stood in front of him.
"Tell us why!" Sirius half-shouted. Remus sighed.
"Because," he said, with the air of someone explaining something to a toddler for the sixth time, "it wouldn't work. If she found out about by lycanthropy, she'd break up with me, and if I didn't tell her, she'd break up with me for keeping stuff from her!"
"No, Remus, she wouldn't," James said, sitting down on the bed next to Sirius' and looking at Remus. "For one thing, she doesn't seem like the kind of person who likes to invade people's personal space, and I doubt she'd expect you to tell her everything, especially if you didn't want to. And secondly, you heard her talking about werewolves the other week! She doesn't care! She's got exactly the right view on werewolves; they're still people."
"If she really liked werewolves that much, don't you think she'd have noticed already?" Remus pointed out. "Which means that she might not like werewolves as much as she makes out."
"Okay, I have a couple of comments on that, Remus," said Sirius, who still stood. "Number one; she barely spent any time with you outside of lessons, definitely not enough to be able to realise which days you disappeared on, because she didn't stalk you. Number two; how do you know she doesn't know? She's not likely to stroll up to you and go, 'Hey, Remus, are you a werewolf by any chance?'" He looked to James and Peter for support, and they nodded, so he continued, "Even if she did, you'd say no, so she might think it's easier if you tell her yourself without her asking a potentially offensive question."
"Are you saying she knows?"
"No!" Sirius said exasperatedly. "I'm saying you're not giving this a chance and you haven't got a good reason why!"
After a minutes silence, Remus looked at his friends, and said simply, "It wouldn't work." He then muttered something about 'dinner' and headed out of the dormitory.
James stood up and stood beside Sirius, and looking at the door Remus had just exited through. "I hate it when he does that," he muttered. Sirius nodded, glaring at the door as if it had deeply insulted him, before deciding that he, too, was hungry, and dragging the other two down to dinner with him. They would work on Remus some more tomorrow.