A/N: I really want to apologize for not updating sooner. Let me assure you it was not because of the lack of reader interest. Although I have officially decided to wait for at least 1 review before updating, I do enjoy this story and would have otherwise quickly updated it. I'll save the major boring details and get to the point. For the past week or two I haven't been able to get on the computer or even online to update this story or any of my other ones. My grandmother was in the hospital, to make a long story short, and I didn't tie up the phone line and rarely went on the computer except one day that I was sick and stayed home. On that day, I played Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island. If you like Nancy Drew you should really play the computer games. Anyways, my grandmother is home now (yay!) and I am able to update. I hope anyone reading this now will understand.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine, because if it were, Sirius would come back to life as some odd reincarnated adorable teenager. And as he hasn't, it's quite clear--- it's not mine.
A Marauder's Tale
EilayAdnayVolieay
Chapter Seven: Dance, Dance: Part 2
Remus, since the day his friends had pointed out about Ali's strange behavior, was confused. This was not some feeling that was normal for him—after all, usually Ali was always a little awkward around him. She even seemed awkward around her own friends when Remus was watching for whatever reason. So her behavior had not been any different than it usually was. But apparently James and Sirius, and even Peter, thought that it was different. He decided finally after pondering this matter in his head all day that he would—he felt ashamed in admitting it—spy on Ali, when she was away from him. When she wouldn't know he was around. Only then could he see what she was supposedly like when he wasn't around. And maybe then he would find out how differently she acted around him compared to others.
"So do you think Remus actually listened to you Sirius?" James asked. Sirius shrugged. Although he cared a lot about his friend, at this current crucial point in their prank on the Slytherins, he only wanted James to focus on the matter at hand.
"Dunno, Jamesie. But lets say we talk about this after this prank is set up? I don't want my icky Jamesie-poo's mind getting all frazzled when we're about to pull a big prank!" Sirius replied. James rolled his eyes at the nickname he had been given.
"I still don't get why we had to use this silly muggle substance," James replied. "Wouldn't it just be easier to hex them or something?" James replied. Sirius shook his head.
"No, Mr. Potter, it most certainly would not. Well okay it would, but we are the official best pranksters of this school! We have a reputation to keep! We cannot just throw that away! We—"
"Alright, alright, I get the point." James replied tiredly. Sirius looked at him for a moment.
"James… you've changed since you started liking that… Evans girl," Sirius replied sadly. "You're neglecting me! Don't you love me anymore?" Sirius demanded. He got on his knees and clutched at James' robes. "LOVE me James!" he shouted. Several students who had before been minding their own business, turned to see what the strange commotion was all about. James kicked Sirius off of his robes.
"Would you stop that? For heaven's sakes Sirius, I've been as good as ever. I mean…. Oh shove off!" James shouted at some giggling third years that were laughing at his comment. Sirius shook his head.
"You see? Now you're criticizing those third years because they laughed at your comment. Before we used to laugh about that… together!" Sirius shouted dramatically. James rolled his eyes.
"Would you stop that? You're going to make people think we're a couple or something," James added in an undertone. That was the last thing he needed. Although he supposed a lot of the girls at the school would actually find that attractive—after all, two of the most popular guys in school, a couple? James shivered at the thought.
"You see? THE OLD JAMES WOULDN'T CARE!" Sirius shouted. He pretended to sob loudly and then stopped and got serious—no pun intended.
"O-kay that's about enough of that, lets say we finish this prank shall we?" Sirius replied. James shook his head furiously and Sirius frowned. "Are you still going on about that? Listen its something they wouldn't suspect, and—"
"Hello, Mr. Potter. Mr. Black," Sirius turned around to see Professor Kettleburn, their Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He put on his charming smile, which might have worked had their Care of Magical Creatures teacher been a very young and fairly attractive woman. Instead it was an old man with graying hair, wrinkles and scars in places that Sirius refused to imagine.
"Detention, I believe, would work well for a situation such as this, don't you agree boys? How about tomorrow night, when everyone else is enjoying themselves at the dance?" Professor Kettleburn knew how much James especially wanted to go to this dance, and grinned gleefully. He had been hoping so much for an opportunity such as this to arise. Now a dance would go off perfectly without any frivolous pranks from the two troublemakers.
"I don't think that would be necessary," a voice replied from around the corner. Professor Kettleburn turned around and was soon face to face with the Headmaster.
"Headmaster… I…. Well you see… these boys were planning a prank, I caught them while they were… setting it up, and detention is a necessary punishment that any rule breaker must face. Surely, on the night these boys are looking forward to most, they should have detention? Clearly their detentions in the past have done nothing to them," Professor Kettleburn had more difficulty stringing that blurb together than he had restraining the rampaging Hippogriff in James' and Sirius' sixth year.
"You are correct, but innocent until proven guilty. No one was harmed, and if no prank is actually pulled on any unsuspecting student, I should see no harm in allowing these two students off with simply a warning. After all, Christmas is fast approaching, and its good to get into the spirit a little early, don't you agree?" Dumbledore replied. He smiled at the two boys before walking off. After Dumbledore was well out of earshot, Kettleburn turned on them.
"Perhaps you have Dumbledore on your side, but be warned: You are from this point on, on a very tight and short leash. Any slight disturbance I so much as hear of, and it's a month of detention… I do say that around the usual Quidditch practice time would be fair?" Kettleburn replied. He grinned… perhaps the two boys didn't get detention this time, but they soon would, they knew. And he was still triumphant.
"You know I get the strangest feeling that he doesn't like us," Sirius replied.
"Dunno why," James added, and they burst out laughing at the memory of the time they had accidentally of course stolen his toupee.
"Thank you so much Ali for helping me with this," Laura replied. Ali smiled.
"It's alright, I don't mind. So, are you looking forward to the dance tomorrow night?" Ali asked. Laura smiled shyly.
"Yes… actually, Matt asked me to go with him." Laura added. Laura was a girl that was very shy, but well liked and just needed a confidence boost every now and then. Ali liked her very much and helped her often with her Ancient Runes, a class she struggled terribly in although she was almost as brilliant as Lily in everything else. Matt Walker was the boy that she had liked for the past three years and who had recently started noticing her. Ali smiled, truly happy for her.
"That's great, Laura! I'm really happy for you," Ali replied truthfully. Laura smiled and wrapped her arms around her knees.
"Thanks. Do you have a date for the dance?" Laura asked absentmindedly. Ali smiled weakly and glanced across the lake.
"No…" she replied, "but that's alright," she added quickly. "At least then I can dance with whoever I want. As if I ever would," Ali added, laughing. From a distance, Remus was watching them. He turned around and for a reason he couldn't explain, felt sad. He had observed Ali in an environment that excluded him entirely, without her knowing. He felt terrible for spying, and now he felt even worse. She must hate him; it was the only logical reason he could come up with that she was acting so much more differently around this girl than him. He had come up with entirely the wrong conclusion.
When he returned to the dormitory, James and Sirius attempted to ask him if he had found out what they had meant about Ali acting differently around him. When they saw how sad he looked, they thought for a moment that something must be seriously wrong. It was James who came up with the conclusion that Remus must have thought Ali wouldn't still like him if she knew he was a werewolf.
"Mate, you shouldn't worry yourself so much about what people will think. About your furry little problem, I mean," James added. "Megan didn't, we didn't, Lily obviously didn't… so why should Ali?" James asked. Remus didn't answer and at hearing Ali's name, felt even sadder. Why, he didn't know, because he only cared for her as a friend and if she didn't return that feeling, fine. But if that was the case… then why did he feel as if his heart were ripping into two pieces? No, not two…Remus concluded, more like… a million. He ran up to the boy's dormitory and slammed the door shut.
The next day flew by fairly quickly, and finally the dance was almost there. Lily, Megan, and Ali, along with the rest of Hogwarts female population, were getting ready for the dance. James, Sirius and Peter were attempting to cheer up the suddenly depressed Remus.
"Look Remus, 1000 pages of learning fun!" James replied, waving the book they had gotten for him in the air. Remus didn't even laugh, and rolled over onto his other side.
"I'm just not feeling well. A bit peaky after the full moon, I suppose," Remus added. It was a lie, he knew, but it was the only way he could get his friends to leave without having to tell them why he really was sad. Why he had been sad all day so far, since he had spied on Ali. Even he still didn't know exactly why.
"Oh… well… you're coming to the dance, even if we have to drag you there. Remember that, Remus. We're going to go… wander… now, so we'll talk to you later." James replied. He, Sirius and Peter left, leaving Remus alone to his thoughts. He got up and looked out the window. It was snowing even more today, and the white snowflakes were finally staying on the ground. He looked at the clock on the wall—it was now four in the afternoon. In another four hours, the dance would start. Would he go?
"Ja—Potter, has Remus come out of your dormitory… at all today? He wanted me to help him with this Arithmancy problem, but I haven't seen him come out all day." Lily sat down on the other end of the couch, still trying to stay as far away as possible. James shrugged.
"Nope, he's been in there all day. Says he's feeling a bit ill after…" James looked around and lowered his voice. "The full moon," Lily was shocked.
"James!" she whispered loudly, "you aren't supposed to tell people of that!" James rolled his eyes.
"Thank you Sherlock," James muttered. Lily looked at him confused.
"That's a muggle character. How do you know about him?" Lily asked. James didn't answer at first and tried to avoid the looks of the many girls that were standing behind him glaring daggers at Lily.
"The library has a muggle section and for a detention I had to sort the books. I saw this book about this guy named Sherlock Holmes who was supposedly some great detective. And for your information, Lily, Megan confronted Remus about seeing him near the Whomping Willow. She promised she'd never tell anyone, not even you or Ali, but Remus said you already knew." James got up and grabbed his bag that was on the floor.
"Where are you going now?" Lily asked. James grinned at her.
"Since when do you care?"
Remus had finally come to the conclusion that he would go to the dance. After all, just because Ali for some reason hated him so much, that didn't mean he shouldn't go out and have some fun of his own. And after such a dreadful full moon adventure, he deserved some fun for a change. He was only glad that they didn't need to wear dress robes—he had accidentally tore his up at home one full moon, and still needed a new pair.
James entered the dormitory looking rather pleased with himself. Remus noticed this, and decided to ask what was up. James sat on his bed still smiling.
"Oh nothing… except I just had a for real conversation with Lily. You know how she came up here about that homework stuff? Well I ran into her in the halls and actually talked to her. And for once she didn't call me Potter! Isn't that great?" James asked. Remus forced a smile.
"Oh. Yeah, great." He suddenly thought of Ali but shook the image out of his head. "But James? I think you should know that the main reason Lily seemed to not like you so much was because you acted so… what were her words… oh, immature and arrogant. She didn't like how you seemed to think she had to like you because everyone else did. She thought you were full of yourself, and she didn't like how you pulled pranks on people. Some of them she thought were funny, but others she thought were mean and rude even if the person deserved it. Like in the fifth year when you pulled Snape's pants down. She still knew he deserved it, but thought you shouldn't have done that anyways. Maybe she thinks you've changed or grown up a bit," Remus replied. He got up and James noticed he was dressed.
"Hey! You're out of that weird funk finally! So does that mean you're going to the dance?" James asked. Remus smiled weakly.
"Well, I decided that I was feeling better. A little, I guess," Remus added. James looked at him suspiciously. There was still something up with his friend.
"So are you going to ask Ali to the dance?" James asked finally. He knew that his friend was probably still worried about what Ali would say about him being a werewolf, but what did he have to lose? Remus looked at James confused.
"Why would I? She hates me," Remus replied. He started to open the door when James put a hand on his arm.
"What do you mean, she hates you? Didn't you see what she was like around other people?" James asked. Remus nodded.
"Yeah. She laughs around them, she actually talks to them. With me, she doesn't even know what to say and when she does say something its always brief and then she runs off. I don't know why she'd hate me so much, but… I guess she does," Remus said ----sadly. He put a smile on before James noticed what was up.
"Wait… that's why you think she acts like… Remus you truly are the stupidest smart guy I know!" James cried out. Remus knocked James hand off his shoulder.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm going to go take this book back to the library," Remus replied. He left the dormitory, and didn't hear James saying, "She likes you, not hates!".
A/N: I realize that the chapter is a bit short, but I really don't have too much time left to work on this at the moment because I have to help my mom paint my room… since I moved into my grandmothers and she wants to make my room seem more like my own and more… livable, for me. So here's the chapter, I'll try and get another one done as soon as possible, but until then… read and review.
