A/N: Hey, sorry for the wait. A GIGANTIC THANK YOU, AND LOTS OF LOVE to everyone who reviewed (or favorited, or added to their alert list, or anything of the sort.) I really appreciate it. More than you could ever imagine...
This chapter's a little… I don't know, a little strange. Not that exciting, and a little stupid in my opinion. But let's, for this chapter, up the rating to M. I mean, it's nothing you can't handle, but just so be safe…
Still beta hunting. Come on guys I'm a mess of self-editing, here, you must be getting sick of it.
Madame Pomfrey said I had to stay in bed for another week before she'd even consider letting me out. I asked if I could maybe go back to my own bed in the dorm but she said (and I quote) "I will NOT have you going back to your room with those shenanigan hooligans you call your 'mates' just to have you wind up back here within a day after they convince you to jump out a window onto a floating pile of marshmallow beds."
Okay, so maybe I don't quote... And maybe I was a little drugged up on painkillers when she was talking to me…
But you know, the point is the same. I had to stay in that damn Hospital Wing for an entire week, and I was bored.
I did everything I could to force myself not to think of Moony and our little encounter, but after a couple days with minimal visits from the blokes I became painfully aware that there's nothing to do when you're on bed rest. Kayleigh came to visit me and gave me this stupid muggle magazine called Cosmopolitan. Mmmm… Sex Poll: 30,750 Dudes Tell What They're Dying for You to Do in Bed. Or the classy Sex Extras: Naughty Games, complete with tear out truth or dare cards Truth: What sex move of mine is your favorite? Give me all the dirty details about why you like it. Dare: For 60 seconds, touch yourself like you'd like me to touch you. I kid you not.
However, I could only read and reread the magazine so many times, and I was left to my own thoughts…but now when my mind wandered it stayed directly focused on topics relating to sex. Why did Kayleigh have this stupid magazine anyway? Oh, gods, I was so bored.
On the day Kayleigh brought her lovely literature to share, the blokes came to visit. Well wasn't I just so popular. They had been coming a couple at a time – Sirius would take an afternoon to stop by, James would be on after dinner duty. Remus never came alone, and I couldn't really tell you how he acted around me because I tried to look at him as little as humanly possible. The one time I met his gaze he looked at me like he was pitying me, and that fact alone made me angry enough to ignore him for the rest of the visit.
Anyway, so this particular day (a Thursday, if I recall correctly) they decided they'd all come to see me after dinner, sneaking me some chocolate ice cream from the Great Hall. Pomfrey doesn't let me eat junk – she says she's trying to cleanse my system to make up for all the abuse it gets when I'm not under her careful watch. I sat up straight when I heard them coming in, sliding the article I had been reading ("Why Guys Cheat In the Summer") hastily under the sheets.
"Ah, yes, Layla, you look bright and shiny this evening," James always comes up with the most awkward greetings.
I rolled my eyes. "And now you're comparing me to a knut."
He laughed, walking around to the side of my bed and settling himself in the chair beside me, comfortably placing his feet on the bed as the others came into view around the curtain.
"Hey Whiskey," Sirius said, bending down to kiss my forehead in greeting before shoving me over to the side and lying down next to me, arms behind his head.
Pete chose to stay standing, and Remus stood awkwardly next to him.
"So tell me, what's new in the world of Hogwarts today?" I asked, eager for news – any news.
"Prongs caught Evans snogging some seventh year and almost hexed his head off," Sirius smirked, warranting a glare from James. "If Moony here hadn't intervened I really think we would have had a dead Brantley Hunter on our hands…"
Remus let out a bark of a laugh, visibly relaxing as he leaned against the bed. "I do believe it may have been a dead James Potter, there. Brantley was doing quite while in gaining the upper hand."
A smile tugged at Peter's lips as if he were recalling some fond memory. "Padfoot's only bitter because he's been stood up three times in the past day. Seems that the female population of the school is finally learning."
I grinned, happy that we were all together.
Sirius stretched out his arms as Pete and James argued about his dear Lily Evans. I heard something crinkle under the sheets as Padfoot shifted his weight.
"What're you keeping under here, Whisk?" he asked, reaching a hand under the sheets. I looked at him, confused, until realization dawned on me that I had decided to shove my embarrassing choice of entertainment under there before the four of them had come in. I tensed and tried to shift so that I was sitting on top of it, preventing Sirius from gaining access. He grinned when he realized it was something I didn't want to see him and grew more determined. His hand dove under the sheet and he proceeded to literally fondle my legs (yes, fondle) in an attempt to reach under them.
"Uh, it's nothing, Sirius, and besides the fact that you're completely groping my thighs right now, nothing out of the ordinary is under the sheets."
He smirked and raised an eyebrow as a new idea occurred to him. I rolled my eyes and lay back on the pillow, concentrating on keeping the magazine out of his reach. His new idea, however, was not one that I appreciated… or, well, didn't appreciate once I realized what was going on.
He shifted his body so that he was lying over of me, propped up on his knees, one to my right and one between my legs, and one elbow, the other hand evidently occupied elsewhere. Slowly, gently, using only the tips of the fingers on his, uh, not supporting hand, he proceeded to trace designs on my outer thigh. I felt myself shiver and he leaned in close to my ear and breathed with his lips almost touching my neck. His hand traveled to my inner leg and my eyes fluttered closed as he started stroking that soft spot just inside my thighs with his thumb . His breathing remained steady, but when his hand brushed the place where no man's hand ever brushes, I breathed in sharply and attempted to lift my body to meet his.
"AH HAH!" Sirius shouted as he snatched the magazine out from under me, grinning triumphantly and jumping off the bed before I could cause any permanent physical damage when I realized what he had done.
Oh gods, what had just happened? I blushed profusely and sat up quickly, pulling my legs up to my chest and covering them protectively with my arms. I guess Padfoot's man-whore title is … well, accurate. I looked up and saw James clutch his sides as he doubled over in laughter. Peter was looking at the floor with cheeks a shade that I would guess matched mine, and Remus looked… what was that? Remus looked angry.
I managed to look up at Sirius and saw that he was just staring at the magazine with a defiant smirk on his face. "Well, looks like our little Layla's been feeling a bit lonely in her hospital wing days… reading up on how to please her man."
I pulled my legs tighter to my chest and tensed my jaw, glaring at the foot of my bed. This was humiliation. I mean, we try not to acknowledge the fact that I'm a girl, because it just makes things awkward. It may not seem that bad, but having this magazine was just about the worst thing I could have done in the eyes of the Marauders. Okay maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but still.
Sirius began flipping through the dreadful thing, pausing to comment on each page. By the time he got to that wonderful little tear out truth or dare section, more than ten minutes had passed, but no one had moved from their earlier position.
"Ah, yes, what's this now? Dare: arouse me by telling me an erotic sto—HEY!"
My gaze jerked up in time to see Remus grab the magazine from Sirius and angrily throw it under the bed. "Enough."
"Aw, Moony, I didn't mean anything. You knew that, Lay, right? It was just fun." Sirius looked at me pleadingly, all traces of mocking gone from his expression, and it seemed that he was truly sorry.
Remus didn't back down. "Enough, Sirius. We should be getting back to the dorms anyway. Layla, it was good to see you. Good night." Bloody hell what's with the formality? He turned to leave but stopped to wait for the others, staring at the cold tile floor.
Sirius dared to step closer to me and bent down to kiss my forehead again. "I'm sorry, Layla, for any confusion or hurt I may have caused in my toying with your sexual emotions." He smirked and I rolled my eyes and gave him a hug. All was forgiven. Aw come on I couldn't stay mad at him for long… Okay usually I would have been much better at holding a grudge but grudges are pointless when you're stuck in a bed all day, and the painkillers were making me a bit loopy.
Pete come over and gave me a hug, as did James, adding, "See you tomorrow, darling."
They walked out in a clump, not saying anything, but it wasn't long before I heard the ever-present teasing start back up. I heard James' voice, "Moony a bit moody tonight, eh?" followed by an "ow!" as someone punched him.
I waited until I could no longer hear them before leaning down under the bed and retrieving the magazine, quietly pulling my wand from the table beside me and transforming it into an empty picture frame. There, harmless enough. I set my new creation on the table and scooted down in the bed, trying to rid my mind of any lingering thoughts of Sirius and the constant tug at the back of my mind reminding me who I wished it had been instead.
--
"And NO quidditch for a week, Miss Armone. Mr. Lupin, I trust that you will see these rules are followed, seeing as I can't trust any of the rest of you."
I grinned up at her as she stood sternly shaking her finger at me. "Yes, Poppy, anything you say! Just let me out of here!" Somewhere between her second and third attempts to wean me off of my pain meds, I started calling her Poppy.
The blokes had come to retrieve me from my prison on my blessed final day and I was practically giddy with excitement. With a couple more warnings, Madame Pomfrey shoved some clothes at me and stepped back, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, go if you're going to go! Before I change my mind," she insisted, and I jumped quickly out of bed, sprinting out into the corridor before I stopped to wait for the others.
They came slowly, taking their time and laughing at my haste. I pulled on my jeans under my hideous hospital gown and shoved a sweater over it, vowing to change as soon as we got back to the dorms.
"Okay!" I was jumping up and down, "let's go!."
Remus shook his head, grinning as he ran a hand through his hair, "Layla if you don't calm down and behave I'm going to have to take you back to Pomfrey."
I feigned shock, screaming, "Traitor!" and ran to him, clutching his arm and shaking it up and down, causing his entire torso to jerk back and forth. "You wouldn't never do that to me. No, you wouldn't dare take me back there, you can't!"
Things seemed to be returning to normal. Well, sort of.
--
A couple days later we were all down at breakfast enjoying some nice cram-them-in-you-mouth-before-class pancakes. Pete and James were arguing about Lily, of course.
"Prongs I really think you need to step back for a bit and let her breathe. A week, here, just a week. Let her function without you always there for a single week," Peter insisted.
James shook his head. "No! Then she'll forget about me and find someone else! She said yes to me once I don't doubt I can get her to do it again."
I caught Sirius' eye and rolled my eyes, tuning out the Evans Argument of the hour. Remus cleared his throat and I raised an eyebrow, silently asking "what?" He lifted his chin as if to point behind me with his head and I turned around to see what he was motioning to. Ah, yes, Jake Walker. I had almost forgotten.
"Hey Layla I'm glad to see you're feeling better," he said, nodding the entire time. Gods he looked like a bobble head. "It must suck that you can't play quidditch for a bit. Ironic, isn't it, that you were trying to practice when you got hurt and now you can't play."
I looked at him like I had no idea what he was talking about. Why? Because I had no idea what he was talking about.
"Wait, what?" I asked.
"Hm," he kept nodding as if he understood everything, "yeah, they said you might not remember the accident."
"What accide—"
"Ah, yeah, that's right, Jake, she's a bit fuzzy on that one, still," Remus jumped in. Sirius decided to join in the fun.
"Yep, it was really something. One minute she was just flying around the pitch and the next it was as if she was on a war path, seeking out the closest tree. We tried to stop her, we did, but she just kept flying straight at that tree. Flew right into it. We can't figure out why she did it, but it happened. Straight into the tree. Permanent brain damage, you know," Sirius said this all while nodding, having adopted Jake's bobble head fashion. "Damaged goods now."
I glared at Sirius, realizing that I had no choice but to go along with it. "Yeah, that's me. Damaged."
My attempt to seem undesirable didn't work. Jake responded, "Oh that's ok, you're still perfect in my opinion."
I forced a smile and heard Remus snort in laughter behind me.
"Yes, thanks Jake. Now what did you want?"
"Oh, just to welcome you back. And hey would you mind meeting up with me after dinner tonight?" How the hell could he still be nodding? What was there to nod about?
I paused, mentally checking my oh-so-busy schedule. "Yeah sure whatever."
He nodded (surprise surprise) and raised a hand to wave as he said, "See you later, then."
I turned back to the table ready to personally castrate both Sirius and Remus with my bare hands. Ok maybe with hedge cutters. Yes.
"So now the entire school thinks I'm a loony freak who flew straight into a tree. And that I have permanent brain damage."
Sirius grinned, "Good, you understand." I kicked him under the table.
"GAH you WHORE." He screamed, clutching his shin and shooting daggers at me with his eyes, causing many people to turn and stare. Sirius has lovely insults.
"Yes, because of the two of us, I'm the whore," I replied as I turned to yell at Remus. "And what about you! You could've stopped him! You could've come up with a less horrific cover story."
He smirked. "Well, we had to come up with some story, didn't we? Besides, maybe now Walker will get off your back. Hah… not that he was ever really on it, eh?"
I gave him a look that said, "I can't believe you just stooped low enough to make that joke." Suddenly serious, he leaned forward across the table, placing his hand over mine and lowering his voice.
"For what it's worth," he whispered, "you'll never be damaged in my eyes." He immediately straightened up and went back to eating his pancakes.
Why does this man insist on messing with my mind!?
--
After an uneventful dinner during which we argued the logistics of the temperature-to-alcohol ratio necessary for swimming in the Black Lake, I made my way back up to the common room. Upon reaching the portrait hole I found Jake leaning against the wall outside.
He smiled sheepishly in a way that I assume would make other girls squeal. "I forgot the password."
"Oh, well, come on. Snippitsnicks." We entered the common room and found it largely empty, most people still down at dinner. "So what did you want to talk about?"
He shoved his hands in his pockets, leaning up against a table and chewing on his bottom lip. "Well the other day you just sort of disappeared. I wanted to make sure we were still… okay."
I suppressed the urge to scream at him to leave me alone and nodded instead. "Yeah, we're good. I just needed to be somewhere. Sorry." I turned away from him, pretending to be looking through my bag for something. I heard him come closer and felt his hand on my arm.
"Wha-ahhhhhh," I tried to say as he turned me around and shoved his lips against mine. Oh hello, Jake's tongue. That's disgusting. Please get out of my mouth. Please refrain from making yourself comfortable here. I stood there frozen, squeezing my eyes shut so I didn't have to look at him. He grabbed my arms in an attempt at heated passion and pushed me against the back of the couch. I just stood there, not able to find the heart to push him away but in no way desiring to play some twisted form of tonsil tennis with him. He kept at it for a good minute or two seeing as he had full access to my mouth since I had been trying to speak at the time. Gods this was awkward. And disgusting.
It occurred to me that I was analyzing the disgusting level of the "kiss" as it was happening. Should I be hating it that much? Was he actually enjoying this? He seemed pretty into it. I mean I've had my fair share of snogging and it's usually at least marginally enjoyable. This was just… it felt like there was a dying fish flailing around in my mouth. Alright, enough was enough, this had to stop. I sighed, preparing myself to shove him away, but before I could…
"Layla!?" I pushed Jake backwards and turned to find the source of the voice. Remus? Oh god, it was Remus.
"Sorry," he spat, glaring at me, "didn't mean to interrupt anything." With that he turned back to the portrait hole and disappeared out of it, leaving me to deal with Jake.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Try to review if you have a second, and I'll see you in a couple weeks I'm currently in Brooklyn taking art classes, and then I'll be backpacking in Alaska so I have to squeeze in update time between those. There, now you know everything about my summer. Yayy!
