A/N: A couple of things, the first is that this chapter is kinda short. I haven't done anything this short since the first one but I promise there is a reason! The Halloween Chapter (aka, this chapter) was getting seriously massive (excuse the pun) so I broke it into two parts. I'd like to put up the second part tomorrow but if feedback is slow and people aren't that into it I'll probably take more of my time on it. So, if you really want the second part done tell me what you think of this one. I would love to get some feedback now that the story is well underway.
The second thing is that I've got a couple of other writings in the works (including a prequel and a sequel to this...). I'm probably going to post teasers for them in the next week or so and would love for people to go check 'em out.
The usual: I'm not JKR, I don't own the characters or the names. Wish I did but I don't. This is just for fun.
Please enjoy!
Elise dabbed a napkin at the corner of her mouth before folding it back into her lap and helping herself to more treats.
"You know," Cynthia was saying "I think this is the first Halloween feast we've ever gotten through in which those Gryffindor boys didn't mess it up somehow."
Jeffrey nodded, swallowing a huge bite of tart before answering. "It is odd, isn't it? I walked in here this evening prepared for some serious shenanigans. I almost feel let down."
The seventh year Ravenclaws glanced over to the Gryffindor table to find nothing amiss, just a seemingly normal evening meal between the four Marauders.
Elise shrugged. "Well, Potter doesn't help out anymore. Not since he made Head Boy which gives Remus some back up against Black and Peter."
The her fellow classmates nodded.
"But even still," Oliver piped up. "I would have thought that in our last year they would have done something."
"In any case, I must say that I'm glad that I won't have to spend tonight figuring out how to fix what they did." Elise replied.
There were murmurs amongst them in agreement before the conversation turned as Cynthia brought up a particularly troublesome rune she had come across in class but Elise's eyes wandered back to the Gryffindor table.
She watched as Lily smiled at something James was saying to her with an even wider smile than hers as Dorcas rolled her eyes, muttering something darkly under her breath. Peter was chattering quickly and rather animatedly to a unsurprisingly quiet Remus. He held his chin with his hand, his plate of Halloween goodies mostly untouched as he listened to Peter. And then her eyes fell to Sirius Black who was holding his head in his hand. His palm was cradling his forehead as he leaned hunched over the table.
Elise, true to her word, had remembered to loan Sirius her copy of "Carrie" the morning after their trip to Hogsmeade. He seemed to be slowly working at it but every few days he would bring it up in class, asking her how she felt about this character or that, the writing style, and the like. Elise had found herself pleased to be discussing anything with Black that wasn't an argument or an awkwardly close physical encounter but their oddly placed point of conversation had not gone unnoticed.
"Stephen King, Elise?" Lily raised her eyebrows at Elise over her steaming cauldron. "Really?"
"Uh, yeah?" Elise responded distracted as she stared down at the contents in her own cauldron. The color hadn't been turning the way it was supposed to so she added another pinch of salt and nodded in approval as the concoction before her bubbled to the appropriate shade of green.
"You and Sirius are discussing Stephen King?" Lily clarified, crossing her arms tightly over herself, continuing to stare Elise down.
Elise glanced up, taking in her friend's look and stance before leaning away from her cauldron. "Uh, yeah. He wanted to read "Carrie" so loaned it to him. Why?"
Lily rolled her eyes before throwing a quick glance to her potion, just to ensure it was progressing as it should. When she looked back to Elise, her face looked skeptical. "You really don't find it at all odd that Sirius Black is reading recreationally? Muggle horror novels at that?"
"He knows I'm still mad about the rain cloud incident. He's just trying to get on my good side, Lily." Elise said dismissively. She knew what her fiery redheaded friend was attempting to get at and Elise was refusing to take the bait. She decided weeks ago that despite her attraction to the raven-haired mischief maker, she would not be a challenge to him to be conquered, that had to be manipulated and coerced. She would have consented under her own free will, but not his way. Not through tricks.
Lily shook her head and silently cursed as the motion sent a light breeze over her cauldron. She fretted over her brew for a few moments before she seemed to get it back under control. She sighed clear of her potion and set her wand down on the lab table with a soft clatter.
"I know that you said you're over playing with him, that his attempt to bully you into a date hurt you but-"
Elise held up a hand and interrupted, "But I'm seeing Ian. Maybe Black is trying to get back in my particularly good graces again." She picked up her own wand from the desk to rhythmically begin to wave it over her cauldron. "But it won't work. We are discussing a book that we've both enjoyed. I do that with lots of my friends. Is that so odd?"
Lily shook her head and picked up her wand to begin the same step Elise was working on before muttering, "It may not be odd for you but it certainly is for him."
Elise continued to watch him as Sirius turned a page, shifting his hand to hold his chin with his elbow propped up on the table beside his plate. His brows were knit as his shaggy black mane enclosed his face like a curtain but he appeared to be concentrating hard. Remus was attempting to talk to him now and he appeared not to hear. Remus repeated himself again and Sirius still didn't turn to his friend. Finally, Remus waved a hand in front of his face.
"Elise?" A familiar voice drifted into Elise's own attentions. She turned her head toward her Ravenclaw companion.
"Er, yes?" She said to Cynthia, slightly confused.
Cynthia looked slightly annoyed as she shifted a bit of parchment her way. "I was asking you if you knew this rune…"
Sirius had been reading this blasted week for a good couple of weeks now. He hardly got more than ten or twenty pages done at a time before his attention had been called elsewhere but he was trying. If he was being honest the beginning hadn't really appealed to him at all and he was having a hard time understanding why the clever, blonde witch across the hall from him was interested in reading a book about some awkward muggle girl who's getting the mickey taken out of her by some other, clearly awful other muggle girls.
But that was before "the Prom".
He began this particularly nail biting section of the book right before dinner and even though he had had to punch Prongs hard on the arm to get the git to leave him alone about it, he had taken the book down to dinner. It didn't help that it was Halloween, which was lending a rather eerie air to the situation unfolding before him between the pages of this odd novel. His eyes were glued to the page as he read and he was starting to understand why Elise had been sitting as anxiously as she had when he had gone to find her.
"Padfoot." Merely a whisper, he brushed it away.
"Padfoot, mate." Sirius deliberately ignored him this time. He was almost done with the page when a hand broke his concentration as it wiggled between him and the book in his hands.
"What?" He whipped his head up, almost surprised at the confused faces surrounding him.
"Padfoot, what the hell are you doing?" Remus asked, looking slightly concerned.
"Isn't it obvious?" Sirius responded in a forced tone of incredulity before he turned his head back down toward the pages before him.
"Sirius, we're trying to make plans for tonight. Do you have any input.?" Remus asked annoyed as James snickered.
Sirius just waved his hand at him. "Just give me a minute. I'm nearly finished."
He knew that Remus didn't think his reading was for any noble reason and he suspected that that annoyed Remus even more, that he was reading for evil instead of good. A few nights before he and the other Marauders had brought it up, in between James prattling on about his strides forward with Lily, that is.
"Padfoot, what do you think you're doing with that book?" Remus had asked him, giving him a hard look.
Sirius had looked up then, noting his page number before putting the book down on his nightstand. "I am reading it, Moony. I'm surprised you have to ask, I was rather under the impression that was what you did with them." He responded cheekily, as he stretched.
Remus shook his head before sending a look at James who merely shrugged.
"Moony, you're barking up the wrong tree." James said, holding his hands up in surrender. "Just because we are trying to execute a little differently doesn't mean we aren't both after the same objective." James threw a wink at Sirius then who grinned broadly at his best mate. "You've got my full support. You go get her, Pads."
Sirius grinned wider still as he looked back at a tomato faced Remus Lupin. The young werewolf opened his mouth to speak before closing his mouth. He stood up and ran a hand over his hair as he looked between James and then Sirius. "You're my mate and you know I love you but I don't like what you're doing with Elise."
"And what is that?" Sirius asked quietly.
Remus licked his lips anxiously, taking a step toward his friend. "You're trying to make her think that…" He cast his eyes down on the floor as he stopped. "Why did you try and make her go to Hogsmeade the way you did?" He asked instead, bringing his eyes back up to meet Sirius's.
Sirius's mouth dropped open, his jaw going slack as he looked at his scarred friend curiously. "I wanted to get her back for that potion from the first week back." He said.
Remus shook his head. "No, why did you try and force her to go with you? Why were you trying to make her agree to get you to make the cloud go away?" He asked, dropping himself onto the end of Sirius's bed. "Why didn't you just ask her? Like a normal bloody person?"
The room had gone quiet and Sirius could feel the tension building. He swallowed, if he couldn't say it to her he might as well say it to his mates.
"I wasn't thinking about it that way." He said finally. "I wanted to embarrass her the way she embarrassed me and I wanted to ask her to Hogsmeade. It seemed like an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone, as it were. I wasn't trying to make her feel forced."
Remus said nothing and didn't look at him. Sirius rubbed his face with his hand.
Had he messed up colossally?
Sirius knew Remus was friends, real friends, with Elise, was he going to be upset with him?
"She would have gone with you if you had just asked like a human being, you know." Remus said finally, standing from the bed and walking back to his own chair.
Sirius nodded. Of course.
Elise Simon wasn't a girl to be won by tricks.
"Simon isn't the kind of bird to be won over by stunts, mate." James said, almost as if he had read Sirius's thoughts. "Trust me. I'm trying to win over one of her best mates."
Peter groaned loudly. "Not this again!" He cried and threw himself back onto his pillow, making his bed creak in protest.
The rest of the Marauders laughed but Remus caught Sirius's eye and Sirius knew in that look that Remus had talked to Elise about him and it had not been favorably.
"She isn't to be won, Padfoot. She isn't to be another conquest." He said before turning to his desk and homework while James began retelling Lily's reaction to a joke he had told at breakfast that day.
Again.
Ian was sitting uneasily at the Slytherin table, picking apart a cauldron cake on his plate without looking. He could hear his friends chattering beside him, laughing but he only had eyes and attention for Elise Simon.
For the moment she was talking innocently with her own House mates and Ian relaxed. Enjoying the way that her hair framed her face, how delicately she spoke with her hands. He wasn't sure why he hadn't asked her to go out with him before now. She really was special. He wished he could have enjoyed that book she had offered him and that he had realized he'd made a mistake by refusing it. She was trying to share something with him and he overlooked it.
But Sirius bloody Black had not.
And that was what annoyed Ian. Elise and her friends were clearly talking about him and his friends as they whispered between each other, glancing over in their direction. Ian stiffened. Sirius Black was over there clearly reading that book now and Ian's jaw clenched tightly.
He wasn't sure what Black was playing at. Was he trying to win her back over?
Probably.
Maybe he was just being friendly?
Ian doubted it. There had to be some motive.
He thought back to his conversation with Black on the subject.
"I'm better suited for her than you, Pinprick." Black had insisted.
To which Ian replied, "Why do you think that? Because you're a brave and noble Gryffindor? Because you need a new partner in crime to get into mischief with since you lost Potty? You only want to use her. At least I want her for more than pranks and frivolity. Surely you want better for her than that. Just let her go."
Ian shook his head. The Gryffindick was still going to try and get back with her. Ian watched as Elise watched Black and his eyes narrowed as he realized Black was reading in the Great Hall for Elise's benefit, to prove he wasn't what she thought he was.
But it was a trick. All just a trick.
Of course, Ian didn't need the display before him now to figure that much out. Elise had been discussing happily, too happily for Ian's taste, her calm and analytic conversations regarding the book a few times now. He thought back to their most recent conversation on the topic.
"Can you actually believe that we agreed on something?" Elise had said in disbelief.
She had been discussing some character that they had both thought was awful or… something. Ian hadn't been entirely sure.
"I'm sorry I didn't read it, Elise." Ian said suddenly, looking down at her beside him as they walked.
She returned his gaze, a small understanding smile gracing her lips. "We'll find another one for the two of us to share."
Her mention of them as an 'us' immediately made Ian feel less threatened by Black's reading, as she no doubt had intended, but he still found himself feeling wary.
"I would love that." He responded instead, brushing her hair behind her shoulder to see her face better. She leaned into his touch, her eyes closed a moment.
Ian sighed. "I'm sure you already are aware of this but I think you should be careful with Black."
Elise's eyes snapped open and fixed him with a look that he had come to understand wasn't meant to be as intimidating as it was, merely perceptive.
"I know." She said, her voice soft as she watched him. "I know what he's doing."
Despite his best efforts his eyebrow rose in question and Elise laughed lightly, turning her head against his hand to kiss his palm and look back at him. "I do know what's he's playing at. He won't fool me, Ian. Don't worry so much." She had reached up then to gently rub at the lines that had formed between his eyebrows, allowing her hand to trail down his cheek as she gazed at him.
"Very well." Ian had said, swallowing hard, distracted by the soft pads of her fingers dancing across his skin. He knew it was intentional on her part.
Everything she did was intentional.
Dorcas glanced up a moment from her pie and immediately regretted it. As Lily giggled and smiled at James, Dorcas immediately found herself losing all interest in her food. She looked down to her lap, muttering about they should just get married and get a room already. She shook her head and looked up, catching Kimberly's eyes across the hall. Dorcas gave a wave and a tight smile.
Kimberly clearly chuckled. She glanced from the offending couple and then back to Dorcas, giving another laugh.
Dorcas frowned, pursing her lips. She shook her head and rolled her eyes.
Kimberly held up a finger then and dove down underneath her table. When she reappeared she had parchment, quill, and ink in hand. She began writing furiously before folding it neatly into a small paper plane and sending it in Dorcas's direction.
Sorry about the lovebirds. Think you can manage to hold your supper down?
Dorcas grinned before nudging Remus, requesting quill and ink. He glanced at the note between her fingers and smiled before handing over the requested items.
Barely. After all this time complaining about him, it's amazing that a few nice words, an answer in class, and the occasional considerate deed has her doting all over him. She wrote back quickly, sending it back with her wand.
Kim opened it and nodded, she glanced back between James and Lily and laughed before scrawling a response.
Absolutely disgusting. I wish they'd get a room already. Are we all ready for tonight?
She chuckled to herself responding quickly.
That's what I said! Of course we are. Lily and Elise took care of it all earlier this week. We're all going to meet on the staircase at 10:30.
What are the those Hogwarts prefects doing out of bed on Halloween night?
Why are the Marauders making plans?
Will all mayhem break loose!?
Probably.
To be continued...