A/N: I am a terrible human being and I am so sorry. I haven't updated in like a century! But being a senior theater major at an arts high school is pretty rough. My updates may come slowly for a wee bit as I have been staying after school to rehearse for a show. For those who continue reading this, yinz are great! I promise more, I am not giving up on this project. It's just been a rough few weeks. On the bright side, I have been admitted to my dream school. Hopefully they accept my tuition remission so I can afford it ( I find out tomorrow ) I LOVE YOU ALL! Stay Golden.
Y6: Plenty of Fish
The group of Gryffindor girls walked up the path to Hogwarts with the latest gossip struggling to die down.
"But did you hear about Rosalind Copper?" Dori whispered to the others.
Marlene gave a wicked smile, "That she hooked up with both Prewetts in a matter of days."
"Oi that's sick," Emmeline gagged, "To even shag one is bad enough, but both of them."
Marlene gave her a look, "Are you calling me a slag?"
The other two stopped surprised, Dori said, "Wait. You hooked up with a Prewett?"
"Which one?" Emmy asked.
Marlene shrugged, "Dunno. They're identical and I was pissed drunk."
Dori chuckled and Emmeline rolled her eyes.
"Lily Evans, are you ignoring me again?" Marlene glared at Lily who was walking beside them but lost in thought.
"Huh?" she turned her head.
"You just missed a shag story," Marlene tutted her.
Lily smirked, "Oh so sorry to miss that, I am."
"You should be, it was an epic one," she smiled and rattled off lies, "It had some of 'em Muggle- Uni guys that Emmy is always on about. And we were horseback riding—bare back—across the beaches of the Highlands when suddenly a snow storm hit. We hid in a cave but then the cave was closed in by snow. The only warmth we had was each other. So we stripped on down, completely naked. And we laid on top of each other. Pretty soon I realized I was the only woman and if we were meant to survive, we'd have to have babies. So I got right down to business and six pen—"
"STOP! I don't want to hear!" Lily stuck her fingers in her ears, "Lalalalala!"
Emmeline and Dori were struggling to stand up straight as they fell into fits of laughter.
Just as they were at the doors of Hogwarts, James Potter made his way over to the girls.
"What are we laughing about?" he asked.
Marlene rose her eyebrow and whispered seductively, "My sex life."
James's mouth dropped open and eyes were wide, this only made it harder for Emmy and Dorcas to compose themselves. Lily Evans was blushing, embarrassed of her friends.
"Oi! Little Evans is pink!" Marlene laughed, "C'mon, it's not like it's your shag story."
Lily shook her head and turned away.
James gave off a shaky laugh, "Well as interesting as your story may be, I've decided I don't want to listen."
"Afraid you'll get all excited Potter?" Marlene winked.
James shook his head, "Honestly McKinnon, you have no shame."
"Sex is nothing to ashamed of," Marlene smiled, "Everyone is doing it. Literally. Oh—Except Little Evans of course."
Lily snapped her head around, her face was red, "Stuff it, McKinnon."
"Whoa there! Virginity is nothing to be ashamed of either!" Marlene laughed.
"You are so annoying," Lily walked off.
"Good job, Marley! Now she isn't going to talk to us!" Emmeline frowned.
"Not my fault! I was just stating my opinions." Marlene said defensive.
"Well, I'm going to leave you now," James said awkwardly and jogged after Lily who was sprinting up the staircases.
"Evs! Evans!" James called after her but Lily didn't care to stop.
When he caught up to her, he grabbed her shoulder. She shrugged him off, "Please Potter, I've been embarrassed enough for the day."
Trying to catch his breath, "I wasn't going to embarrass you. I just wanted to—well I think it is cool that you don't sleep around like McKinnon. I mean—wait, there is nothing wrong with, well, with sex. I –erm—I think its just…cool… that you well you don't."
Lily could not look at him, "Thank you for that. Now please go."
"Seriously though, it's fi—"
"Potter, seriously. I really don't want to talk about this with you. Thanks for—erm—whatever that was. I'm sure you had good intentions, but this isn't something to discuss. Have a nice night."
"Erm—yeah—okay. Sorry." He ran a hand through his hair as he let her go.
She put up a hand in response but didn't turn around to look at him. She continued on up to the Gryffindor Tower with a bunch of kids not her age. And she was the one who said the password to let them all in. She spotted Cara amongst the kids who stayed behind and gave her a wave. At the sight of Lily, Cara eagerly jogged over.
"Hello Lily! Nice break?" Cara asked as they walked up the stairs.
"It was nice until about five minutes ago," Lily said softly.
"What happened?"
Lily shook her head, "Just Marlene being her normal self and embarrassing me in front of people. But never you mind that. How was your Christmas break? Did your parents visit?"
She shook her head sadly, "They were—they must've been busy. A friend of mine wrote that there were reporters at our door almost every day. I'm sure they had a lot to deal with."
"That's no reason to not see your daughter," Lily said quite angry.
Cara looked away and muttered, "Yeah."
They walked in the door and closed it behind them.
"Well I hope you didn't waste your break. Did you get any studying in?" Lily asked as she shrugged her coat off and straightened her robes.
"Study? For what?" Cara took a seat at the edge of her bed.
"The Year End Exams of course," Lily said.
Cara looked at her confused, "Erm, Lily? Aren't Year End Exams taken, you know, at the end of the school year?"
"Yes," she said simply and gave Cara her serious look, "But these can be very difficult exams and with your recent… incident… I fear they may be even harsher on you. I was hoping you had already started studying but no worry. I spent the break trying to write out a study schedule for us."
Lily pulled out a sheet of paper from a pocket of the coat she had hung on a chair. She unfolded it nicely and handed it to Cara with a smile.
Cara looked at the paper struggling to understand what it meant.
"This is just for this next two weeks," Lily went to Cara and sat by her and pointed at parts of the sheets as she read, "I'm giving you tomorrow morning off since it'll be first proper day back. But around six, we should start rereading the Potions book from the beginning. We'll only read the first three chapters. And then hopefully by then we can get into some of the Herbology text book. If not we can do it Monday right after classes finish. And then by five thirty we can start with some basic third year Charms. I think we can work are way up to seventh year Charms spells even, but I think we should really make sure we know everything for the tests so we'll have to work on Charms at least five times a week. That's why I have it on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then on Sunday again. Anyway though, we can study some Defense Against the Dark Arts stuff on Wednesday—"
"But I'm not in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Cara said to Lily.
Lily shrugged, "You will be soon. You wanted to be an Auror so you were placed in the classes. But I think they're a bit hesitant to put you back in right now, but they will I'm sure."
Cara nodded.
"Oh and on Saturday mornings I have us scheduled to—"
"That's when the Gryffindor Quidditch team practices."
Lily looked at her surprised, "Yes? I think they do. But I was saying we could work on some—"
"They do," Cara nodded, "So I'm busy then."
"Oh do you like to go and watch? We can bring the text books there and—"
"No Lily," Cara said flustered with this brutal schedule, "James Potter is teaching me to play again."
"Potter is having you play Quidditch?" Lily said shocked, "And the Head Master is okay with this?"
"Well Professor McGonagall has given me permission to begin flying again but no, I'm not allowed to play again exactly. I sort of just sit on the bench and pray that this Seeker they have now will catch the Snitch at some point."
"Oh, well," Lily said annoyed, "Then I have to redo the entire schedule."
"Can't you just move what—"
"No, I can't just move it!" Lily was standing quite frustrated, "I worked hard on this. And now I have to redo it all because you want to go play Quidditch. Do you know how dangerous that is? People get really hurt with all that flying and diving and... Never mind. I just have to redo it!"
"Sorry?" Cara said unable to see what the fuss was.
"Forget it," Lily said clearly not going to do so herself.
And then Marlene, Emmy, and Dori rushed in. They had been laughing but then straightened as they saw Lily.
"Marlene," Emmeline said forcefully, "What do you have to say to Lily?"
"Oh I wrote it on my arm," Marlene shook her sleeve up, "Dearest Evans, I am so very sorry to have voiced my opinions as well as state you sex life—or well lack of—to the Mr. James Potter. Sorry. Toodle- loo, Marlene Muire McKinnon."
Lily rolled her eyes, but Dorcas said, "C'mon Lils, that is the best apology you are going to get out of her."
"Yeah, yeah, you're forgiven," Lily said with a wave of her hand.
"Good!" Dorcas cheered and then ran to Cara, "CARA! How was your break?"
Cara could barely breathe through Dori's hug, "Fine."
When Dori released her, she asked, "Did you get to go out at all?"
"We were allowed to but I didn't. I didn't know anyone," Cara shrugged.
"Of course, of course." Dorcas said as she dropped her coat on the floor to Lily's annoyance.
"How was all of your breaks?" Cara smiled to the girls.
"So much fun, my father has this muggle job where he gets to travel so we spent half of the break in Australia," Marlene bragged, "I rode an ostrich."
"Marlene, I don't think one can simply ride an ostrich," Lily said sensing another one of Marlene's fabrications.
"I have a lot of experience riding… things," Marlene smiled wickedly and everyone but Lily giggled.
"Well my break was quite nice too, I had my cousins from America visit," Dorcas smiled, "they were quite entertaining. I never knew how different England and America were."
"Were they there all break?" Cara smiled trying to sound interested.
"Yes, they're still there. They have a longer break which is ridiculous if you ask me," Dori said.
"And how was yours Emmeline?" Cara asked.
"It was nice. I really just spent it with my parents. My brothers came in for Christmas dinner," Emmy smiled.
"Oh I didn't know you had brothers," Cara said surprised.
Emmeline felt bad she hadn't reminded her since the incident, "Yes, three of them. Two are older than me and one younger one. Andre is the oldest… he doesn't have magic so you never met him. Forest was in seventh year when we were in first. He was in Hufflepuff actually. And my little brother is Merlin, he's twelve and he doesn't have magic."
"Oh," Cara said realizing that she was supposed to know this but of course she couldn't remember.
After an awkward beat, Lily said, "So who wants to join our study group?"
"What are we studying for?" Marlene looked at her quizzically.
"End of the year exams," Lily smiled eager to start.
Dorcas looked at her as if she was insane, Emmy simply rolled her eyes, and Marlene burst out laughing because of course Lily Evans would be excited to start studying for tests that were months and months away.
…..
On the first day of classes back from break, James Potter sat in the back drooling on his first edition "Guide to Advanced Transfiguration". James and Peter had stayed up late last night planning the morning prank on the Slytherins; Remus of course planned the details but he didn't want to be tired for his morning classes. Sirius, however, had stayed back in the room with his curtains closing away his bed. He had been reading, apparently "studying". The marauders are not ones to read in their spare time when they could be planning a prank. Not to say, they don't read at all. Remus and James quite enjoy it, besides reading makes you smarter. And the four marauder boys had to do very well in their classes in order to make time for all their fun. And Sirius Black did indeed have a book open as he lay in his bed, but reading was not what he was doing. He had been thinking really. And just as today, while James was sleeping, Sirius was looking at his book thinking again.
The Blacks were capable of terrible things, Sirius knew this of course. But to torture a child was insane and far beyond cruel. To torture the friend of your son was just more heart breaking. And Sirius couldn't understand how they could do that. He couldn't understand why Regulus would ever want to become anything like his parents. They had no cause anymore, these death eaters do these things because they think they can.
An auror was the exact opposite of everything the Black family stood for. The Blacks were cruel, insane, heartless, selfish. The Blacks were death eaters, willing to kill innocent Muggle borns because they stood in their way for power. But the aurors, they were so much better. They were the sign of hope. They were authority figures who didn't abuse their power, instead they protected everyone. They were brave, kind, selfless, noble. Aurors were the heroes, death eaters were the villains. How could Regulus see it the other way around?
"Mr. Black, do you know?" Professor McGonagall snapped Sirius back into the classroom.
"Excuse me, professor?" Sirius said confused as to what the question was.
"We were just speaking of dragons and I asked the class if they remembered what spell turns an object like a quill into a dragon. Miss Evans was the only one who raised her hand but as she's answered eleven questions already, I thought I'd simply call on people, so," Professor McGonagall gave him an impatient look, "can you give me this simple spell that a third year can do?"
Sirius pushed his hair from his face and leaned back with a sigh, "Could it be the Draconifors spell?"
McGonagall raised an eyebrow surprised he had remembered, but nodded happily, "Wake up Mr. Potter if you would."
"No points?" Sirius joked.
She gave him a glare, "A sixth year will not receive points for answering a question on a lesson he learned in his third year. I will, however, take five points for Potter's lack of rest."
The Gryffindors let out a small sigh as Sirius rolled his eyes, "I assure you Miss Evans will make up for it."
McGonagall pretended she hadn't heard him and went back to the lesson.
Sirius nudged James' shoulder, "Wake up."
James slowly raised his head, "Is class over yet?"
"No," Sirius whispered, "and you just cost us five points."
"I'm sure Evans made up for it," James yawned stretching out his arms.
Sirius smirked, "That's what I said."
James leaned over the table with his head in his hands, "So are you feeling any better?"
"What?"
"Well you've barely talked at all the last few days," James shrugged, "I thought perhaps you were feeling better."
"I'm fine," Sirius said a little too casually, "I just had a lot on my mind."
"Yeah," James nodded, "So are you going to tell her. Or at least tell Dumbledore."
"What do you mean?" Sirius said carefully.
"Well, I know they're your parents Sirius but they tortured a girl and most likely killed those maids that went missing. Aren't you going to turn them in?"
Sirius gave him a look, "It's not that easy, Prongs."
"Your better than them, you—"
"I know that, Potter." Sirius was growing annoyed.
"Well then I think you should turn them in."
"Maybe I will."
"Well I think you should."
"That's nice James," Sirius said bitterly, "I think you should turn your parents in. How does that make you feel?"
"Pads, I didn—"
"Shut up, Potter," Sirius said and looked away.
James muttered a "sorry" before looking back into his book and rereading the paragraph he had tried to read before falling asleep.
…
"Moony, are you coming?" Peter asked Remus for the third time in a row.
Remus put up one finger as he continued to kiss his new girlfriend, Moira.
"Oh forget it," Peter rolled his eyes and started for the Kitchens to meet up with James.
"Moira," Remus managed to slip through between her kissing, "Moira, I- I… I- I," finally he grabbed her shoulders and held her a foot away, she batted her big brown eyes at him, "Moira, I have to go."
"Oh c'mon, Remey," Moira pouted, "can't you make a little time for me?"
Remus smiled softly, "I've been sitting in the middle of this corridor kissing you for the last fifteen minutes."
Moira bit her cheek, "Fifteen minutes. Pffft, that's no time at all. You're going to leave me and go hang out with your friends for the next three hours. You know, I don't even see why you have a girlfriend when the only relationship you can handle is with those boys."
Remus raised an eyebrow, "Those boys are my best friends, Moira."
Moira quickly realized she had pushed her limit and backtracked. Throwing herself on him and saying sweetly, "I know, Remey, I'm just a bit jealous. I wish you would want to spend more time with me."
"They're waiting for me though," Remus frowned.
"Can't they wait another ten minutes?" Moira puffed out a lip.
Remus leaned back and shrugged, "I guess."
Moira cheered and wrapped her arms back around him. She quickly started kissing him and he followed her lead; they didn't care for anyone else in the hall.
Emmeline Vance and Cara Connors walked by just then, Emmeline gagged. Cara frowned a bit.
"Can't you be decent people and find a broom closet?!" Emmeline shouted as she continued walking down the corridor.
Cara laughed lightly, "Not a romantic are we?"
Emmy rolled her eyes, "Nothing against romance, but everything against her."
"Who is she?" Cara said craning her neck to look back at them.
"Moira Toomey, a Ravenclaw," Emmeline gave her look that said 'you know what that means', but when Cara looked at her confused she went on, "she's a big know-it-all. And her sister Maggie is in Hufflepuff. Maggie is the normal one, Moira… well she's just awful."
"Well Lily is a know-it-all but you like her," Cara said fiddling with her books.
"Well, yes, but Lily is at least nice. Moira though she gets a thrill out of being a bitch. I swear she's been out to get me all year. I mean of course she would want my sloppy seconds."
"Sloppy seconds?" Cara said confused.
"She saw me kiss Remus, must've gotten the wrong idea," Emmeline said nonchalantly, "Now she's all over him. Using him because she thinks it'll get a rise out of me."
"And why would she do that?" Cara said not sure if she should believe Emmy.
Emmeline shrugged, "That's just the type of person Moira is."
Cara smiled slightly nodding, "Or maybe you're just jealous."
Emmeline stopped dead in her tracks, "Jealous? Why would I be jealous?"
"Because you like Remus," Cara bit her lip smiling.
"Remus Lupin? I do not like Remus Lupin," Emmeline said quickly.
"Well you definitely like toying with him," Cara started walking again and Emmeline chased after her, "And now that he has a girlfriend, you my friend are toyless."
Emmeline rolled her eyes, "Oh please, Connors, I can assure you Remus Lupin is nothing more than a friend. Yes, I kissed him once. I—I mean he kissed me, of course. Of course. I just kissed him back because I thought it was the nice thing to do. I didn't want to embarrass him or anything."
"Right," Cara nodded with a roll of her eyes, "right."
Emmeline let out a sigh of annoyance, "What do you know anyway?!"
Emmeline dashed off and Cara chuckled to herself. While Emmy went to meet up with Dorcas and Lily, Cara headed up to the dormitories. She was coming around a corner daydreaming when she dropped a book and proceeded to trip over it. She hit her knee hard on the ground but a hand was quickly offered. Cara looked up to see Sirius. She smiled and he almost pulled his hand away but then left it there because it was polite. She took it confused and he grabbed the book she had dropped.
"Thanks, Black," she smiled.
"Yeah no problem," Sirius nodded and turned to walk away.
Cara quickly jogged after him causing her a slight pain in her knee, "Wait, Sirius!"
He slowed down only slightly and she was able to keep pace with him.
"We haven't been able to talk," she smiled, "how was your break?"
"Fine."
"Oh," Cara said awkwardly, "Well what did you do?"
"Nothing," he shrugged.
She nodded, "Okay. Erm—how's your family?"
"They're—uh—they're fine, yeah," Sirius started to walk faster.
"Right," Cara said trying to catch up with him.
"Hey, Car, I have to go… do something with—with Professor Binns. I'll see you later," Sirius waved a hand and jogged down the corridor.
Cara couldn't even get a good bye in. Her smile faltered and she felt a bit hurt. She had kissed him, the night before he left. She kissed him and he kissed her back. All break she was waiting for him to come back so she could kiss him again. But he had been avoiding her, it was so obvious now. Cara hasn't spoken to him because he has specifically made sure to not cross her path. And that hurt.
She had put so much trust in Sirius. He was just a boy, in fact he was the son of her worst nightmare. But she had really liked him. And now he doesn't want her.
Cara stared after him, long after he took the stair case out of her sight. She had wanted him to come back. And then suddenly, she wanted him to fall down those stairs. Because of course he would do this. He was a Black after all. She learned long ago to never trust a Black, but he had proved he was different. Perhaps she was wrong. She shouldn't have kissed him, it was stupid of her to fancy him. She knew that now. So she clutched her book, raised her head, and strutted to the dormitory.
Cara Connors was not a fool and she would not be played as one. If Sirius Black felt he was too good for her, then so be it. Plenty of Grindylows in the sea… that was the saying wasn't it? Well, Cara wouldn't waste her time on him, he clearly wasn't worth it.