Chapter Ten
Billie was on the floor repairing the contents of her bag chanting, "Only a week, only a week, only a week..." Over and over to herself. One second Quinn had been sitting on the floor playing with some blocks and the next he had pulled the strap of Billie's bag and it came crashing down to the floor, parchments ripping and inkpots breaking. Of course Quinn had started crying immediately so I took him and calmed him down while Billie starting cleaning.
Bill had informed me multiple times this week that she wouldn't have made it this far except for the fact that in a week we would be child-free for nine whole wondrous days. I was looking forward to the free time, although I was also a little worried about what it would mean for me and Remus. Would we still all eat dinner together and hangout? Would Peter still think of me as Mommy? And most importantly, would Remus still want to hang out with me?
Most of the time, especially when the babies were being bad, time seemed to go by like molasses going down a slide in January. Of course that meant that the time until they became un-baby-fied went by far too quick for my liking. I don't think any of the other parents agreed with me. They were counting down the minutes 'till the de-babyfication.
Walking into parenting class the morning the de-babifying was going to take place was ridiculous, everyone was acting like first years and McGonagall had to tell everyone to shut up at least three times in the first ten minutes. Once everyone was calm she said, "I know that you all must be excited to have a few baby free days so we will get right to it. If one parent from each couple would please bring their infant up to the front of the class I will then feed them the potion that will return them back to normal."
Not surprisingly James was right up front holding little Gracie up to McGonagall. "Mr Potter if you will please seat Miss Kelly on my desk," he did so happily. McGonagall was obviously very prepared and she handed Gracie a lolly. To the confused looks on all of our faces she said, "We have put the potions into forms that all the infants will readily take. This will only take a few moments; she does not need to consume the entire lolly."
And what do you know, a few moments later a slightly confused looking Grace Kelly was sitting on the desk holding a lollypop. McGonagall gave her instructions to take a seat and said that she would explain everything that would be happening for the next few days once all the infants were back to normal.
Quinn was next, he drank his potion out of a sippy cup. He and Grace had quite the reunion that caused McGonagall to remind them they were still in school and not to get carried away, and that the point of the class was to teach them exactly why they were not supposed to get carried away. Grace turned pink and Quinn just smirked a little.
Next was Peter, seeing as after the first few days of the project had passed Sirius had been lacking greatly on the parental duties I, of course, was the one to place him on the desk. Looking at Remus out of the corner of my eye I did so a little reluctantly. After only a few pulls on his bottle a seventeen year old Peter Pettigrew sat up, looked around warily and sat with the others on McGonagall's directions.
I went and sat down with Billie and Iggy. Distracted, I missed Robert's change back and tuned in at the very end of McGonagall's speech, "...therefore our 'parents' will have a few days with no work for this class."
"What'd she say?" I hissed in Billie's ear.
"The others have to do an essay about what it was like being a baby and the care they needed and blah blah blah... So we get these days with no work for this class."
"Oh score!" Iggy gave us a disapproving look so we tuned back in to McGonagall.
"Finally, you may choose to stay either in your regular house dormitories or if you would prefer, you can stay in the rooms you have been staying in up until now. If you have no questions, that will be all for today." Apparently nobody had any questions, so we got up and left the room.
Billie, Iggy and I were the last to leave, as we walked into the corridor we saw the Marauders and Lily standing outside talking to Quinn and Grace, Robert was already half way down the corridor.
"...come for sure if you guys want to," Sirius was saying.
"We would-" Grace started.
"But we've got some catching up to do," Quinn said with a smirk and a wink at the boys, he grabbed Grace's hand and they walked away.
Remus turned to us, "You coming tonight?"
"Coming where?" I asked, glad he was talking to me.
Sirius answered for him, "Party in our common room tonight, celebrating having Pete back here, and a night of sleep without screaming little terrors all around us," he grabbed Peter in a headlock and they started mock fighting down the hall.
"It's just going to be us 'parents' and Pete and we've got tons of fire whiskey!" Remus told us.
I gasped in mock horror, "Mr Prefect! Are you seriously suggesting that we break one of the school's main rules by getting fucked out of our minds, passing out and puking all morning tomorrow? I can't believe you would even suggest something so horrendous!"
"We are so in," Billie added. We all started walking back towards the common room together, Peter and Sirius still mock fighting in front of our group.
"Hey don't look at me, talk to your head boy and girl over here," he pointed at Lily and James walking slightly ahead of us and seeming like they were getting along quite well. "They are my superiors and sadly I must do as they say, and if they tell me to get pissed drunk, well..." he trailed off shaking his head as if he was dreading what tonight would bring.
James looked back at us, "Don't even trying blaming just me, Lily here also agreed to everything."
Billie looked outraged, "And we are supposed to look up to you! Tsk tsk Ms Evans."
Lily laughed, "Oh common, I'm not a total prude, I like to have some fun now and again."
"And on a school night and everything, this'll be fuckin' great!"
The rest of our classes that day passed by quicker than ever, I was stoked that Remus had invited me to the party and couldn't wait for the night to begin. My day got even better when I saw Remus approaching me after the last class of the day. Iggy, who I'd been in class with, walked on ahead to let me talk with Remus alone.
"Since we're going to be busy tonight I figured we could study now instead of after dinner," at my blank looked he added, "un-unless of course you don't want to...y'know, now that we don't have the kids and everything..."
Then it clicked, "Oh! Right, the 'studying', yeah sorry I forgot what with the excitement for the party tonight. Yeah, of course I want to. You wanna go to the library now? Maybe we can actually open one of the potions textbooks this time," I smiled at him and he looked relieved.
On the way to the library I talked about how surprised I was that Lily had not only agreed to the party but was also going to be a part of it.
While unpacking our bags onto an empty table Remus said, "Well Lily really isn't as bad as the boys think she is, about the pranks and prudish-ness and everything. It's more that she wanted to get James into trouble as often as possible, because he was always so mean to Snape, and she ended up looking like a no-fun, rule abiding prude."
"It seems weird that she was such good friends with Snape at one time, what with him being so anti-muggle and her being so...well, muggle. I mean, that friendship could only end in two different ways. Him realising that he'd rather be with Lily and stop being so Slytherin. Or him being so Slytherin that she no longer wanted to be with him."
"You think they liked each other as more then friends?"
"Oh Remus, you're very smart and mature but you are still a boy. Of course they liked each other as more then friends, I have no idea why but they did. They may not have been dating but neither of them would have taken each others loss so hard if there weren't underlying feelings! But when Snape called Lily a mudblood that was it 'cause to her it must have seemed as if he was choosing them over her. Something I'm sure he still regrets, whether or not he shows it openly now," I had been flipping absently through my potions text while I talked but now I looked up at Remus, who was nodding slightly.
"Yeah, okay I see your point, and that makes sense. At last it finally seems as if Lily is warming up to James. He really does like her so I hope she decides to give him a real chance now."
Slamming my book shut I smiled up at him, "I have a plan!"
He looked a little wary, shutting his book he said, "If your friends were here they would tell me to be scared I'm sure."
"It's a good one, I promise!"
He sighed, "So much for real studying tonight," he turned in his chair to face me, "I'm ready, go for it."
"No, no, not here. To the kitchens!" I had made it a tradition that whenever I go to the kitchens I did it ninja-style. So as Remus followed behind me, walking down the middle of the hall, I crept along the walls and karate chopped and jumped and rolled through all the corners. I had learned better then to try and ninja roll down stairs though.
As we sat down and had the house elves bring us snacks Remus said, "Seeing as it's getting close to dinner time should I assume we will miss dinner in the name of match-maker planning?"
"Well since we're already in the kitchens I would say that sounds like a great plan. Now tell me, do you know which prefects are patrolling tonight and where they will be when?"
"Uh, yeah. I'm starting to get worried here Sone."
I laughed "Well I won't lie, you probably should be. I had a few plans running through my head and I did choose the most risky one, but I think it's the best one too. I thought about a pre-planned game of Truth or Dare, Never Have I Ever or Spin the Bottle, but let's face it, those are too thirteenth birthday party for us. And those games are so overdone. So instead we are going to do... drum roll please... capture the flag-Hogwarts style," at Remus' blank looked I decided to explain further.
"What floor would you say is patrolled the least?"
"Hm...well...I'd say the eighth. There are no dormitories off the eighth floor and no connecting rooms or corridors that lead to places that students would sneak out and go to. The seventh floor and lower and the dungeons up to the main floor are the ones that students would have to go through in order to go anywhere that is worthy of sneaking out to. The grounds, of course, the kitchens, the library, other students' dormitories and so on. The ninth floor connects directly to the Astronomy tower and other higher spots that students would want to go to for snogging and stuff but the eighth floor doesn't go anywhere directly that is too exciting. And you can go directly from the seventh floor to the ninth without actually going through any of the corridors in the eighth floor so that's not too big of a worry."
"Perfect! The eighth floor it is. Seeing as we are planning this we will be a team with James and Lily. Sirius and Peter can be a team with Iggy and Bill. Each team will hide a flag with the school crest on it somewhere on the eighth floor. The goal of the other team is to capture the opponents' flag without being caught by the opposite team or, of course, teachers or prefects."
"That's it? That's the whole plan?"
"Well...yeah. Cause what we'll do is leave James and Lily to look after our flag, leaving us to go look for the other teams flag. The plan is that having to spend this quality time together just the two of them, they will be forced to...y'know...fall in love and all that crap."
"That's your brilliant plan? Are you kidding? Normally your plans are good, but that's barely even a plan, it's just a game."
"Yeah, well why don't you come up with something better then? At least if it doesn't work, which it will, then we'll all have fun anyways, you can't deny that. And I'll bet you a galleon that it will work." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat, we'd been eating dinner while we talked but now we were both finished.
"I will take that bet Ms Elliot. And of course we will have to tell the others about the game after the drinking has started or there is no way Lily and Ig will agree to it."
"You would be surprised how pro rule-breaking Iggy really is," I rubbed my hands together and did my evil laugh, "this will be great!"
"Where the bloody hell have you two been? We have been waiting for ever for you guys! Some one thought it would be a good idea to wait till everyone was here before we started drinking."
"So you've just been sitting at the table staring at the booze then?" Remus asked with a laugh.
"Well yeah! Seriously, you guys missed dinner," James said as if it was some great sin.
"We were studying," at all the blank looks I added," y'know something we do once a week to help me from failing potions...again. Actually we started out studying but then we got side tracked-" I was cut off by a wolf whistle.
"Oh piss off. We got side tracked creating the best plan of life."
Iggy turned on Remus, "You let her make a plan? Have you learned nothing?"
"I tried to stop her, really I did. And don't worry, it's not that great."
"Okay then, what is the plan," Lily asked, warily.
"Well I can't tell you that now. At least not till after the drinking has begun. So, let the drinking begin."
"That is your master plan? A weird version of capture the flag? You're losing your touch Sone," Bill spoke after I revealed the plan. Of course, no one else knew the real plan under the plan, except me and Remus. I had decided to fix that though.
"Shut your face, it'll be fun. Now, Lily and James, I need you to go and look over the prefect patrolling thingies that you guys have then come back and report to us. Mm'kay?"
Lily, as was expected, had not immediately agreed to this major rule-breaking. It was one thing to be caught out after hours and another to be caught drinking. But for the Head boy and girl to be caught doing both at the same time, that could cause some serious trouble. But, like I'd hoped, she was just tipsy enough to be convinced of the genius of this plan. Okay well she was at least tipsy enough to agree to this really weak plan.
As soon as she and James had gone to look over there Head Boy/Girl stuff I turned back to everyone else, "Okay so, that's not the real plan. Well it is, but it has secret motives. We weren't going to tell everyone else but I think that it will help our goal. By this drunken-ish game of capture the flag we plan to have Lily and James snogging by the end of the night."
Sirius spoke first, "I will take that bet, I think it'll happen. Who's against me?"
"I'm with you, Remus is against," I said.
"I'm with," Iggy.
"Against," Peter.
"Against," Billie.
"What's the bet?" Sirius asked.
"Just a galleon," Remus answered, "Okay now that we're all in on this we need some rules. There is to be no cheating, we cannot try and push them one way or another."
"I know how we can stop that from happening, but we'll have to change the plan a bit" Iggy spoke up. "This is what we do..."
A/N – Okay so the plan is about to be changed yet again and I think you all will greatly enjoy the result of the changed plan. Sonnie /Remus lovin' coming up in either the next chapter or the one after that! Tell me what you thought of this please! 3