A/N: This is set the day after the events of the previous Chapter - Furry Little Problem -
This is the chapter where things begin to change.
I'm really sorry for the wait, My exams finished but my computer blew up and I lost everything so I had to retype a lot and save what I could, It could take a little while longer to finish this than I intended, Sorry
Please review, it keeps me motivated.
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Sirius woke up as James pummelled him repeatedly with a large pillow that was leaking its feather stuffing all over the floor.
As he sat up and looked at his alarm clock he suddenly remembered why he didn't want to get up today.
The note.
Sirius sat up and picked up the slightly curled parchment from the cabinet next to his bed, glaring daggers at it and ignoring the tell tale signs that the rest of the Marauders were also getting up and ready for the day ahead.
This was bad. Bad with a capital B. She didn't actually think he would do this? Could do this? It was completely against his I-hate-snivellus-to-the-end-of-the-world religion. He was going to die.
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Prue smiled as Echo crawled across the bed spread towards her, her stormy grey fur shining slightly in the winter morning sun. The grounds were still covered in snow so Echo didn't stay out as long as usual.
Prue picked her up and tossed the blanket aside, looking over at Lily's bed. Solari was curled happily next to the sleeping red head.
Echo flapped up to the dark scarlet canopy and hung herself there to sleep as Prue began to dress.
Saturday was always a welcome day. Lessons all through the week were exhausting enough without all the homework on top of it.
Lily stirred in her bed as Prue came back from the bathroom, her hair damp and loose. She wore a simple pair of faded jeans with a tan coloured pattern on the lower leg and a thick and too big powder blue woollen jumper over a tight tan coloured tank top. The weather was slowly improving.
Picking up her wand from the bedside cabinet, Prue dried her hair and hoisted it into a ponytail but securing it with a slide. She slipped her wand into her jeans pocket and smiled at Lily as she sat up, dislodging Solari who promptly began licking her paws.
"Morning, Do you want me to wait for you?" Prue asked, pulling her legs to her chest and wrapping her wool covered arms around them.
"Nah, you should go to breakfast, I'll meet you there and we can go down to the lake, kay?" Lily responded, tossing clothes onto her bed. A fleece hoodie fell onto Solari who scampered out from underneath it scowling at her.
"Okay, don't be too long," Prue stood up, "see ya, Echo," she walked across the dorm and shut the door behind her. She hurried down the stairs and almost collided with Remus.
"Remus-Oh, sorry. Do you feel better?" Prue asked, stepping back and looking at him.
"Yes, thanks. By the way I found a book on how to tame rabbits by my bed in the hospital wing this morning...do you know anything about it?" Remus answered.
"No, you may want to ask Lily...or Potter," Prue answered. For some reason, Remus wasn't as annoying as the others all the time and on occasion Prue could have a civilized conversation with him.
"Right...thanks, I should go up then, see you," Remus said. He edged past her but was impedded in his escape up the stairs by Sirius coming down.
"Thornton! I need to talk to you!"
"Ah! Bye," Prue ran for the portrait hole, ducking out of it and hurrying along the corridor. Sirius pushed it open again (the fat lady jumped in her frame and scowled at him as he let her slam shut again) and hared after her.
Prue ran down the stairs, down another corridor and through a tapestry but Sirius followed her all the way,finally catching up and slamming her against a wall (the man in the portrait nearby winced and then hid pointedly behind the largest book in the pile of volmes painted next to him).
"What do you want," Prue said, breathing slightly more heavily than normal.
"Why...that...challenge?Why?" Sirius asked, his breathing more laboured.
"Because anything else and you'd do it in a flash...I had to think of something a little more...awful," Prue answered fairly, pushing him away by the shoulders and leaning off the wall (the man in the portrait looked over his book) Prue stepped right into Sirius personal space (the man hid again) , "No one's making you do it, Black, but if you don't, the whole school will know you couldn't carry out a challenge."
Prue stepped back, smirked and continued down to the Great Hall.
Sirius caught her up outside and sat down next to her wordlessly. They began eating, Prue looking pleased with herself and Sirius shooting her death glares every few minutes.
Lily showed up not long after, the rest of the Marauders trailing behind her.
"You are not getting the sastisfaction of knowing you beat me, Thornton," Sirius whispered as the others joined them.
"Then do it," Prue whispered back, smiling at Lily who yanked the sleeves of her fleece hoodie over her hands and sat down, for once not turning pointedly away from James.
Prue said nothing.
"Hey, Prue, You free later for an extra parctice?" James asked, pouring out a glass of pumpkin juice.
"I guess, not this morning though?"
"Sure, after lunch," James clarified.
The group had started on their cereal (full english for Peter and Sirius) when the slytherins began making their way into the hall.
Snape came in near the end and Sirius took on a tortured expression as he hexed him to hold him still. Glaring at Prue, he vacated his seat and stomped moodily over to the paralysed Snape, mumbling curses all the way.
Sirius knelt down and placed a kiss on each of Snape's shoes before standing, bowing and racing back to his seat where he lifted the hex and downed a jug of ice water and half a pitcher of pumpkin juice then the rest of his breakfast without hardly breathing.
"Never, NEVER, again!" he said finally, glaring at Prue and then at the rest of the group, all of whom were fighting not to laugh.
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Lily and Prue left the table shortly after and hurried down to the lake, frozen over with a thin but strong layer of ice.
They started off their morning with a snowball fight, using magic to pile the snow and making forts. They also used magic to conjure ice skates and go out on the lake. Prue had been ice skating since she was small and taught Lily the basics on this lake in their first year. Each year, when the ice was thick enough, they came out and now Lily was almost as good as Prue.
They stayed by the lake all morning, playing in the snow and ice skating.
When they returned to the castle for lunch their hair hung in rats tails their clothes damp and covered in snow with crystal snow clinging to their eyelashes.
before they could get aprehended for trailing water inside Lily used her wand to dry them off and the drips on the floor before running to the Great Hall.
Prue had to change after lunch and she left Lily in the llibrary while she went back into the grounds and to the quidditch pitch.
She collected her broomstick from the shed and joined the rest of the team. James was captain and a chaser, Sirius was a beater and there was one fifth year and three sixth years, she was the seeker, since her third year when the previous one had left.
Practice was brief, James had organised the team well and everyone was working hard despite the weather so Prue found it relatively easy to focus and catch the snitch.
She left them to pack the balls away and flew up to the castle.
The rest of the day passed quickly and finally, Prue and Lily sat down in the little alcove where the window in their dorm was, Solari curled up on Lily's lap and Echo on Prue's knee.
It was late, the bell for curfew had long gone and the sky was black, stars blinking at them from over the top of the forest. there were a few lights still on in Hogsmeade village.
"Remus got out the hospital," Lily said vaguely, her focus on her finger, scratching Solari behind the ear.
"Yeah, I know, he was sent a book about how to tame rabbits," Prue said, remembering their conversation earlier.
"Oh," Lily started laughing, "Yeah, long story, but it was funny. Potter isn't half as annoying when he's worried about his friends."
"I guess, Lupin got out of the hospital today, He's not as bad as he was a few years ago," Prue commented, resting her head on the wall behind her and looking absently out the window.
"I talk to him now and then," Lily said, "We talk in the library sometimes and he's grown up...funny thing is...it's beginning to make an impression on Potter and Black, they aren't as mental as they were at the beginning of the year."
"Going soft, Lily?" Prue teased, "Think you might be able to see something in Potter after seven years of yelling at him down corridors?"
Lily didn't answer and Prue looked at her, blue grey eyes lighting up, "You are...going soft...aren't you?"
Lily locked eyes with her friend, "Maybe...If, and only if, he keeps going down the road to being sensible."
Prue backed down and opened the window slightly as usual, "Night Echo, see ya in the morning."
The little bat hung onto Prue's finger as she held her hand out the window. The little fruit bat sprang off into the cool night and Prue pulled her hand back in.
"We should sleep, I have to be up early tomorrow morning," Prue said, flopping onto her bed and quickly running a brush through her hair.
"What on earth for? It's Sunday!" Lily asked, scooping up Solari and placing him next to her pillow.
"Tom and Jerry, I'm going to the room of requirement to watch some before breakfast," Prue said, smiling as she placed the brush down.
Lily smiled, "Jesus, of all the things you could watch..."
She left the sentence hanging and settled under her covers.
Honestly, Lily thought as Prue blew out the candle by her bed, It would be easier if Potter and Black were acting like idiots all the time again...It would hold her excuse not to date him intact but that was beginning to crumble.
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Hovering outside the girl's dormitory window on a top class broomstick and in a state of absolute shock, was James Potter.
He had been there since the girls had settled to talk and caught every single word, not that he had been eavesdropping...no...he prefered being in the right place at the right time.
It was only when the flickering orange light was blewn out and he caught the sounds of steady brething through the slightly open window that James felt safe enough to punch the air and let out a harsh whisper into the night.
"She has got to be joking!"
A/N: Once again, so sorry for the wait
