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Chapter 8: Bacon and Tricks

"SHAWN!" Lily screamed as she raced to her friend's stiff body near the big lounge chair she loved to read in. "No, no, no! You have to be okay! HELP!!"

"Lily, really, it's too early to be yelling!" Gina bellowed as walking down the girl's dormitory steps to enter the Gryffindor common room.

"Gina! Get some help, it's Shawn!"

"WHAT?!?!" Gina screamed in terror and ran to see one of her dearest friends lying on the floor not moving. "Is he still alive?" she stuttered out, fearing the answer, with the tears starting to run down her cheeks.

"I… I can't tell. I think so. Stay here with him. I'm going to go get McGonagal," a clearly shaken Lily commanded, but to their luck someone happened to be coming down the boy's side of the stairs.

"Why, good morning ladies!" Sirius Black cheerfully greeted the two panic stricken girls, but upon seeing the situation he decided that the girls should stay there and that he would go get Professor McGonagal.

"Lily, I'm so scared. I really hope he'll be okay. Do you think he did this to himself?"

Lily started calmly, but by the end of her speech she was crying so hard her voice was not understandable. "I can't be sure, but most likely. He's been so upset, but this is not the answer. I wished he just would have talked to us. He's been so distant. We should have pressed harder. It's all my fault, I should have been a better friend!"

"I should have been a better friend, too!" Gina joined in with Lily and grabbed Shawn's hand staring intently at him.

Both Lily and Gina jumped when the portrait flew upon with Professor McGonagal speeding towards them with Sirius tailing closely behind her.

"Children, children! If you'll please move away from Mr. Austin. I need to examine him and get him to the hospital wing, immediately." Professor McGonagal demanded. "Mr. Black, will you escort these two girls down to breakfast?"

"But, professor! We want to stay with Shawn!" Gina insisted while still trying to control her tears.

"Yeah!" Lily echoed Gina's demands.

"Ladies, you will be of no use unless you can tell me or Madam Pomfrey the details. I'm sure that you cannot, or else you would have already. It appears Mr. Austin has only taken a sleeping potion that was stronger than he was aware. Please go down to breakfast, and go to your classes. You may see Mr. Austin this afternoon."

"Yes, professor." The blonde and red haired girls muttered.

And with that, Professor McGonagal used her wand to levitate Shawn into the air and transport him to the fourth floor, to be cared for in the hospital.

After McGonagal had left the common room and led the two girls over to the couch and put his arms around their shoulders. "Shh. Shh. Girls. Come on. Shawn's a tough old bloke. He's going to be okay. I'm sure it's all just an accident. Nothing intentional. Wipe those tears away. We could go dancercise in front of Shawn this afternoon! That'll cheer him up….and will get us thrown out of the hospital, but hey, it'll be worth it!"

Upon hearing this Gina and Lily burst into giggles. "That would, indeed, be quite a scene to witness." Lily responded, "Sirius, you don't have to escort us to breakfast, we can make it."

"Yeah, but thanks though. You can go down with James. He'll need someone to go with him. Oh and if you could wait for Jenny or tell Remus what happened with Shawn. I don't want to have to re-tell it right now."

"Oh, of course, my fair ladies! Anything to pleasest thou." Sirius bowed to Gina and to Lily and then ran back up the stairs to get the other Marauders.

"Oi! Marauders! Get your lazy bums out of bed!" Sirius commanded after pointing his wand at his throat to amplify his voice.

A colossal "AHHHHHH!" came from the mouths of the remaining three boys in the room, who were dreaming peacefully until Sirius woke them up.

"Padfoot, you are going to die an early death for that." A cranky Remus Lupin mumbled while punching his pillow.

"Can I help you, Moony?" James asked while throwing on some clothes not taking notice to grab clean robes.

"Peter, aren't you going to complain?" Sirius inquired.

"No, my insults aren't awake yet." Peter spit out in between yawns.

"Listen, Marauders. Shawn was found this morning downstairs in the common room unconscious. Scared poor Lily and Gina to death. McGonagal came and took him to the infirmary, she thinks it was only a sleeping potion mixed incorrectly. Just thought you guys should know."

James stood for a moment before answering. "That's horrible. We'll have to go visit him later." And thought to himself, "Wow, Lily's gut feeling was right."

"That is horrible news, but we can't let it ruin our day! Does Jenny know?" Remus directed his question toward the bearer of the bad news.

"No, Gina and Lily asked me to ask you to tell her. That's a mouth full. Phew."

James laughed at his best mate and declared, "Listen, I was thinking last night before I drifted to sleep from an absolutely amazing night, about some Halloween pranks. I've got some ideas, but I say today, think about some ideas and let's meet this afternoon to discuss. Halloween is next week. We need to be preparing."

"We also need dates!" Peter piped in excitedly.

"Dates?" James and Sirius said confusedly.

"For the dance! Duh!" Peter said as if it were the most important thing in the world.

"I've got one. I'm good." Remus smugly said. "That's the good thing about having a girlfriend, it takes the pressure off finding a date."

"Wait a minute, why did you have such an absolutely amazing night, James? Most nights aren't like that…" Sirius teased.

"Oh nothing except Lily and I are friends now. She apologized for being rude to me all of those years."

"I must admit, that is an absolutely amazing night." Sirius said in shock. "Gina knew what she was talking about," he thought to himself.

"And what about you and Miss Parks, huh huh huh? You were out awfully late last night." James decided to aim the teasing away from him.

"Oh! We just hung out, she fell asleep."

"That's it?" Remus asked expecting to hear more.

"Yeah. What's wrong with that? We talked. That's it. She's really cool."

"Okay. Friends, eh?" James prodded.

"Suuuurrrre." Remus sarcastically echoed.

A few moments later, Peter added, "Uh-huh!"

The other three Marauders looked at him and laughed. "Wormtail, that was a little off, but good try. You're getting better." James ribbed.

&&&&&

After eating a hearty breakfast…

"So he didn't even try anything on you? That's amazing!" Lily uttered in shock upon hearing the amazingly sweet details of Gina and Sirius's outing.

"I know, right? He was very gentlemanlike. It was very sweet. I don't know if he likes me or not, though. I don't want to assume anything." Gina said hoping to gain some knowledge by glancing down the table toward a certain Marauder. No luck from said glance, only a humorous picture. Sirius was fighting Peter for the last piece of bacon. Echoes of the conversation could be heard from anywhere in the Great Hall.

"Don't make me draw my wand, Wormtail. We all know who the better dueler is."

"Psh. Please don't make me embarrass you, Padfoot. Just let me have the bacon."

"Why can't you just half it, Sirius?" Remus inquired while ducking from the scrambled eggs that threatened to splatter him and Jenny.

"That won't do, Moony. Absolutely not. The bacon was closer to me to begin with, so therefore it is MINE! Eat cheese, Wormtail!"

"Sirius, don't you think this is ridiculous?" James asked, still in a great mood from the night before, but barely missed the cheese that whizzed past his ear.

Jenny beginning to fear for her robes and hair stood up and said, "Hey guys, before I die…or get food on me, I'm going to go talk to Gina and Lily."

No one seemed to hear her because they were too engrossed in watching Sirius and Peter now playing Rock, Paper, Scissors.

"Lily, really, look at them. It's so funny!" Gina giggled, hoping that Sirius would win.

"I must agree. Sirius and you, eh? I think it would be a cute couple? When's the wedding?"

Lily had never seen Gina turn the shade of red she did just then. "I, uh, what? NO! Lily! Not fair, okay. Maybe it is. I did that to you. Okay. Fair enough. No more though!!"

Lily only giggled. "Okay, okay. Enough about you and Sirius. I hung out with James last night. We had hot chocolate…"

Gina interrupted Lily the moment she comprehended that Lily said 'James'. "You just said, James? Did I hear correctly? No, certainly, we've had a traumatic morning, you must have said Potter and I just didn't realize it."

Again, Lily laughed. She knew Gina was doing that on purpose. "No, no, you are quite correct with what you heard. I said James. We agreed last night after the hot chocolate and the picture developing that we would stop using our surnames and use or first names. It sounds much friendlier, wouldn't you agree?"

"I definitely do. But, my word Lily, what changed?"

"I realized I had fun last night with just me and him. I realized that I needed to change some too, I was being immature and not being fair and was being rude. Maybe he's always been that way, but I never noticed."

"Wow, I'm truly speechless. I am. I'm proud, but speechless. But, how did this come about? I ..just..can't..believe it."

"Stop feigning shock! You opened my eyes to it…but he did ask why I was being so nice."

"Ahhh. Okay. Gotcha. Oooo look Jenny is coming to see us!"

"Wow, that is a surprise! She must be getting tired of Remus." Lily rolled her emerald green eyes as she sarcastically responded.

"Lily, she's just caught up in having a decent boyfriend. Be nice, please? The honeymoon will end soon and she'll come crawling back asking for her girl time with us and we'll open our arms and welcome her back."

"Hey Jenny!" Lily said a little to enthusiastically to be believable.

"Hey guys! Thought I'd come down here to avoid the massive war going on down there." Jenny said ignoring the tone in Lily's voice.

"We're glad you did, we miss you, Jenny." Gina sincerely said. It was true for her part. She did miss her.

"I'm really sorry to hear what happened about Shawn. I hope he's going to be okay."

"I think he will be."

"Yeah, me too."

"Uh, girls? Sirius looks like he is about to punch Peter over that bacon." Gina suggested pointing down the table.

"Paper does not beat rock, Padfoot!" Peter yelled.

"Yes it does, tell him Moony, Prongs!"

"Umm, we're staying out of this."

"Yeah, what James said."

"I know how to settle this," Gina said. "Wish me luck, because what I'm about to do may get me hurt."

"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking, are you?" Jenny gasped pretending to be scared.

"I fear it is the only way." Lily said while patting Gina on the shoulder, "here, you better grab your things and run like the wind when you leave and head straight to class. It's almost time to leave anyway."

Gina decided to walk towards the Great Hall doors and aim her wand at the plate that had the bacon in question. She hesitated for a moment and realized that if she said, "Accio bacon!" a lot of unwanted bacon would fly at her, more than likely. Giving it a try, she concentrated and said, "Accio that bacon!"

Before she knew it, the bacon she had summoned was flying toward her. She grabbed it and ran towards herbology. It took Sirius and Peter a second to notice that someone stole their bacon. They both looked up at the same time and saw the distinct hair of none other than Gina Parks.

James stood on his seat and applauded Gina and added as a caution, "Run!"

Remus and he walked down to where Jenny and Lily were doubled over in fits of giggles and saw the, fleeting shadows of Sirius and Peter leaving the Great Hall.

"Let's go to class, but more importantly let's make sure my best friend is still alive." Lily said emphasizing the last few words and looking at Remus and James as if they would be to blame if it turned out to be otherwise.

&&&&&

"GINA WHATEVER YOUR MIDDLE NAME IS PARKS, GET YOUR ARSE BACK HERE WITH MY BACON!" Sirius yelled very loudly for the entire school to here.

"You have to catch me first!" Gina yelled back. "I just have to make it to the greenhouses." She thought to herself."

Peter decided to give up because he couldn't keep up with them. He turned back around and went back to walk with the rest of the group heading to class.

"Oh dear, he's almost caught me, and I'm not near enough the greenhouses yet!" Gina said in panic.

"That's right, be scared, be very AHHHHH!" Sirius had tripped. "OW! MY BLOODY ANKLE!"

Gina stopped and turned around, "Is this is trick?" she wondered. "Perhaps it's not."

She decided to turn around and go make sure he was okay.

"Sirius? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, my ankle, just landed on it wrong. Just give me a minute, I'll be okay."

"Here, I'll help you up." Gina offered and when she wasn't looking Sirius snatched the bacon from her hand with his mouth.

"MINE! Ha! Victory is mine! Oh it's so good!"

"That so is not fair!"

"Well, no it wasn't, but what you did wasn't fair either!"

"Okay, fair enough, is your ankle really hurt or are you just pretending?"

"It's not as hurt as I was letting on, but it is a little sore."

"Here, put your arm around me and I'll help you to get to class."

"Thanks, Gina."
"Hey, what is your middle name? I realized when I was yelling that I didn't know it."

"Uh, that's random. It's Nicole."

"That's nice. Gina Nicole. It flows well."

"Yeah, sure it does. If you say so."

"You don't like it?"

"Not particularly."

"Why not?"

"I don't know..it just seems to common for me."

"I think it becomes you very well."

"Aww. Well, thanks."

"Hey, Gina?"

"Yes?"

"What are you doing on Halloween?"

"Hmm, well, I suppose I'm going to dress up and go to the dance if anyone asks me, if not, I'll just sit in my room."

"That's gloomy, I'd hate for you to have to sit in your room on such a brilliant holiday."

"I appreciate your concern."

"Ow, ow, ow, easy, not to fast, my ankle remember?" Sirius said while leaning on Gina and continuing to walk.

"Oh, I'm really sorry! We're gonna go have that looked at as soon as class is over."

"Okay, you're probably right. Madam Pomfrey will have it fixed in a hurry."

"She is the best."

"Can you help me into my seat?" Sirius asked while looking up at Gina with puppy dog eyes.

"If you need me too. Do you need me to sit here and keep you company too?"

"Pwease. Herbology is such a dull class."

Gina giggled. "Okay."

&&&&&

After class Gina had some help getting Sirius to the hospital and his ankle was all better in a matter of time. Well more like the swish of a wand.

&&&&&

That's the end of that chapter! It was fun to write…the next one is going to be even more fun, pranks, the dance, the costumes, who's taking who?? Stay tuned for the next one. It will be up probably later today or tomorrow! Reviews are awesome!