Heya, all of you.
Gosh, its been a while. *Guilty look*
But this chapter is pretty great, I think. And long. :D
I want to say a few things first, though.
First off: This is the tenth chapter. Its crazy, amazing, lovely, and mind-boggeling that I've written this much. However:
I think this story will only be the Marauder's 4th Year at Hogwarts ( I may do other years) so, in keeping with that, I am pondering a Name-Change. PM me your thoughts, ideas, opinions, all that. YOu know the drill, my lovely readers.
Second: If you feel that the *spoiler alert* (lol) Lurve in this chapter is extreme for 14-year-olds, remember that in the wozarding world, there is no higher education, so real life starts at 17 or 18. Just keep that in mind, ehh?
As always, all of this belongs to JKR. Well, except for Isabella Lovegood, whom I don't mind if you borrow. c:
Without further ado, I present (-drumroll please-) Chapter Ten!
"So what was all that about a Ball, that we need dates for?" Sirius spoke sleepily, his eyes still half closed. It was breakfast, and he was having an even worse time than usual waking up. He was tired! And it was Friday morning, how could anyone be expected to….to….
"Padfoot! Wake up!" Remus grabbed a fistful of Sirius's shoulder length dark brown hair, yanking just enough that Sirius jerked his head off the table, where it had been resting.
"This is an all-time low, mate. Falling asleep over breakfast?" James snickered as Sirius dusted blueberry muffin-crumbs out of his hair, glaring at the other boys.
"I think McGonagall is going to explain to us now- look, she's standing up at the front of the table!" Peter, who was sitting across the table, placed his fork down on his plate and gestured at the front of the room.
All three other boys swiveled to look where he was pointing. Indeed, the Transfiguration professor stood at the front of the long, polished Gryffindor table, looking extraordinarily crisp and put together for a Friday a few weeks before Christmas break.
"Girls! Boys!" Minerva McGonagall clapped her hands twice, getting the attention of all of the sleepy students at the table. "As you might already know, Hogwarts in proud to be hosting the seven hundred and twenty third annual International Board Of Wizarding Education meeting this Christmas while you are on break. To honor the many distinguished witches and wizards, we are hosting a Yuletide ball, in exactly two weeks. I am aware that some of you can make plans amongst yourselves for the ball-" Was it just James's imaginaction, or did McGonagall smile slightly in the direction Remus and Marlene (who were now completely intertwined) before continuing? "- But I know many of you will want for an escort, so we have randomly paired you off."
A low rumble of conversation broke out at that- the teachers were assigning dates?!
"I bet you three galleons and a bar of that caramel chocolate crunch your mum always sends that you'll be with Lily." Sirius gulped down a goblet of pumpkin juice and waggled his eyebrows at James.
"Ughh…" James's forehead made contact with his hands. " My mum only sends a bit of it know 'cos we'll all be seeing her soon, and Lily'll for sure be with me. My life is miserable…Miserable!"
"Aw, I'm sure it'll be looking up soon, Prongs," Remus smiled and then began to passionately kiss Marlene.
"I don't feel well, " Sirius said, looking at them with a sick expression on his face.
"I know, they should really get a room, right?" James snorted in spite of himself, and then helped himself to a plate of buttered toast.
"No, actually, I think it might be the flu that's going around the school. I'm gonna go to Madame Pomfrey." Sirius's face was rather greenish, now that James thought about it.
"Alright, Remus is…occupied, so I'll come with you. Peter is…who knows where….so I guess that its just us."
The two slowly walked up to the Hospital Wing, Sirius looking worse and worse as they went. Finally, they were just a hallway away from Madame Pomfrey and her potions and cures.
"Hello, James, Sirius!" Isabella Lovegood skipped by, her long yellow-blonde hair tied up into a high ponytail that swung wildly around her head, and a sparkling pink ribbon holding it in place. "You don't look very well, Sirius. Perhaps you ought to see Madame Pomfrey. " Isabella surveyed him with the air of one studying a peculiar specimen.
"Ohh…" Sirius clutched his stomach. Isabella stepped back, but a bit too late- with a nasty squelching sound, Sirius was sick all over himself, the floor, and most importantly, Isabella's pale pink shimmering high heels.
"Ew! Sirius Black, that's really nasty!" Isabella's expression turned to one of utmost disgust. With a flick of her wand, the vomit disappeared, the smell replaced by a slight vanilla-y scent, but her expression remained the same.
"Yup…" James, too, flicked his wand, cleaning Sirius, who now looked pale and shivery, up and removing any splatter from his person. "Anyway, Padfoot, come on, lets go see Pomfrey before you redecorate any other parts of the school."
"Bye, now," Said Isabella cheerfully as they walked away, wiggling her finger's in a perky little wave.
" I will now read the list of the pairings for the Yuletide Ball, which, as you all know, is exactly four days away!" Professor McGonagall's voice had to be louder than usual to penetrate the din in the Great Hall. Five days before Christmas Break, the students were even more unruly than usual.
"Here we go. I bet that if I'm not with Lily, I'll be with a Slytherin." James's expression became one of complete and total terror. " You don't think they'd pair Gryffindors with Slytherins?"
"Doubt it- they wouldn't want any kind of bloodshed, would they?" Sirius was now completely over the stomach bug, although, James thought, his ego still needed some healing after vomiting spectacularly on the girl that some called the hottest in the school.
"Gryffindors will be paired with either Gryffindors or Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs with themselves or Slytherins, and vice versa." McGonagall continued, slightly more softly, as she know had every student's attention. "Starting with Gryffindor-Ravenclaw pairs, we have Sirius Black and Isabella Lovegood-"
Sirius's mouth dropped open. Although he wasn't ready to admit it to anyone yet, he sort of, kind of, almost had a thing for Isabella- beyond the rather slaggy clothes (which Sirius had to admit he found, if not attractive, extremely appealing to the eye) she was very pretty, and after working with her on the Potions, Sirius had to conclude that she was very, very smart. The sorting hat had not been wrong.
"Wow, Sirius, you got lucky!" James winked, and Sirius blushed. Apparently his attraction to Isabella had not gone unnoticed.
A few minutes later, McGonagall started the list of Gryffindor inter-house pairs.
James and Peter waited, nearly vibrating with anticipation, while Sirius stared happily into space. A pre-arranged date with Isabella was almost too good for words.
"James Potter and Lily Evans, Peter Pettigrew and Lila Brown . . . "McGonagall continued along, her voice carefully even, while James bit his lip nervously, his heart-rate speeding up with every increasingly panicked thought. He was trying so hard to get over Lily- why did his efforts have to be thwarted?! He didn't know how he could stand a whole night with Lily without saying anything dumb, embarrassing himself, and distancing her from him further. And it wasn't like it was normal, when Lily would just be wearing normal robes, or muggle clothes, which she still looked lovely in, but she would be wearing a gown, and-and-
" Prongs, you're hyperventilating!" Remus chuckled, grabbing James's wrists and forcing his friend to look him in the eye. "Its just one night- don't even think of it as a date if you don't want too. It. Will. Be. Fine."
"Easy for you to say, Moony. You've got a girl friend," retorted James with a sigh.
" So I do, Prongs, so I do…" Remus smiled happily, and glanced off in the direction that Marlene was going, in search of colder pumpkin juice, or something like that, which James knew she had explained, but hadn't processed, as he had been too busy getting worried.
"I'm with Lila! I'm with Lila!" Across the table, Peter was also hyperventilating slightly, although for a very different reason than James. Lila Brown, a half-blood a year above the Marauders, had had Peter's somewhat obsessive affections since second year, despite the fact that she had no idea who Peter was.
Remus, James, and Sirius rolled their eyes simultaneously, as Peter turned to look at Lila with a look of utmost desire on his face.
"Well, at least one of you is happy," quipped Remus, a smirk creeping along his face.
James's head was buried in his palms, Peter was practically drooling as he stared at Lila, and Sirius was…. practicing saying things seductively?
"This is bad, oh, this is very, very, very bad indeed!" Lily paced furiously up and down the small room she shared with Marlene and Alice.
"Oh, lighten up, Lils!" Alice threw a pillow at her. After being paired up with a handsome Ravenclaw named Frank Longbottom, Alice was in an exceptionally good mood, although not one to listen to Lily's addimatedly whiny complaints.
"Look, you like him, right? You do up your hair, put on a pretty dress, and let him drool. Not like you need to seduce him, or anything!" Marlene, too, had no patience. She was lying on her bed, flipping through a dress catalogue from Madame Malkin's, a dreamy smiled on her face. "What'd ya think?" She gestured at two glossy images of gowns, one a long, sweeping light blue concoction complete with a corseted, bodice, and the other a slinky dark crimson affair with tiny diamente straps.
"Red," said Alice at the exact same time that Lily said "Blue!"
"Seriously, though, I don't know what to do. What if I end up spilling how I feel to James? I'll look like such a fool!" Lily resumed her pacing.
"Hun, whatever you do, it won't matter. The poor boy is absolutely smitten." Alice jumped onto Marlene's bed and showed a glossy full-color photo to Marlene and Lily. "What'd you think? This purple and gold baby gonna win over Frank?"
Lily smirked. All it took was a few minutes around Alice to cheer anyone up. "Ali, that purple and gold thing would win over every single male on the planet, and probably a few ladies too. " Indeed, the dress Alice was talking about was short, tight, and covered in sequins and sparkles in a pattern that definitely…. added… to the wearer's womanly gifts, to put it that way.
"No, I don't think that Rem is into that sort of thing, to be honest," Marlene said in a dreamy sort of way, giving up control of the Madame Malkin's catalogue and sinking back happily into her bed. "He told me so, after I said that I wasn't interested in boys that are the most athletic."
Alice snorted. " You and Remus are so perfect," she said, laughing.
Lily had to agree. The question that remained was: was her night with James going to be that good?
"Stay calm, James. Stay. Calm," James muttered to himself, wiping his absurdly sweaty palms on his bottle green dressrobes.
"Nervous, Prongs?" Sirius smirked, although tucked his long dark brown hair back carefully, his eyes trained on the staircase where their dates would emerge any second.
"Oh, you know what Padfoot? You're not one to talk…perhaps you know Sirius Black, who spent nearly two hours on his hair tonight, so it would look right for darling Issy?" James, always ready with a comeback, grinned appreciatively at the outraged look in Sirius's face.
"Shut. Up. You. Massive. Git!" He hissed, not taking his eyes of the sweeping staircase.
"Mates, please. Act your age, not half of it, for a change!" Remus's words where firm, but his amused voice took the punch out of his words. He wore dark brown, almost black dress robes with fine golden threads that made it seem to glow, almost in the candlelight, and his hair was freshly washed and trimmed (without singeing, this time) to a respectable, if long, length.
" I wonder how Worm Tail's faring…." James, Sirius, and Remus all grinned. Lila had met Peter at the common room, looking lovely in a float-y lavender dress, but looking at Peter like he was a cow-patty that had stuck itself to the bottom of her very tall, shiny lavender heels.
Neither Sirius nor James said anything. They were both staring at the staircase, where Isabella, Alice, Lily and Marlene where presently descending, looks of rapture on their faces.
Isabella wore a simple, knee-length silver dress, and her blond hair hung in waves down her back to her slender waist. Next to her, Alice, who decided against the purple-and-gold dress, was bedecked in an equally short, tight purple dress and her thick, curly hair had been straightened, and hung nearly as far on her back as Isabella's. Lily, too, looked stunning, in a floor-length, strapless indigo gown and flats, her fiery hair twisted into an up do. Compared to the other three, Marlene seemed smaller than usual, but it suited her perfectly, in her soft, light pink dress and long blond braids.
"Rem, you look amazing!" Marlene was the first one of the girls to speak when they reached the boys.
"No, but you-you are the most beautiful creature I've ever seen…" Remus couldn't seem to get his mind to work properly, and he seemed to be getting lost somehow in Marlene's blue eyes. He leaned forward, and then she was kissing him, in front of James and Sirius and everyone, but Remus hardly cared. They broke apart and walked off, holding hands, lost in their happiness.
"Well, on that note…" Alice tugged at the hem of her ultra-short dress, and scurried off towards her meeting place with Frank, muttering something about 'not interfering with love'.
" Not much I can say that'll top that, eh, Isabella?" Sirius laughed awkwardly.
"You could at least tell me that I look good, Sirius." Isabella stared stonily at Sirius.
"Right! Err, you look stunning, Isabella!" Sirius brushed his hair back, smiling hugely.
"C'mon, Sirius. Lets go get some butterbeer…." Isballa grabbed Sirius's hand and tugged him off towards the ball. Just before they rounded the corner into the Great Hall, Sirius turned back to James, grinning wildly, and mouthed 'she's holding my hand!' several times.
James watched Sirius and Isabella disappear, and then turned to Lily. She was nibbling on her nails, which, James noticed, were painted a glossy dark purple that matched Lily's dress. As he watched, a tiny flake of the smooth indigo surface chipped off, breaking the even surface of Lily's nails.
"Don't- you'll ruin your nails…." Before James knew what he was doing, his hands reached up and brushed Lily's away from her mouth. His hand met hers for only a few seconds, but James swore he felt tingles reverberating throughout his body.
"Thanks," whispered Lily, her green eyes meeting James's for a fraction of a second.
James merely nodded. He realized with a jolt that his hand was still on Lily's although her's were now by her sides, and he let go, blushing.
James still felt the tingles, though.
"This was….really nice," Lily said finally, after what seemed like an eternity of staring in James's deep soulfull eyes.
It was nearly midnight, and the two stood just outside the gates of Hogwarts, the darkness-broken only by moonlight and twinkling stars- and cold a welcome break from the hot, loud Great Hall.
"It was…" James smiled. "Lily, I have to tell you something. I really like you. I still do." He lowered his eyes, taking a deep breathe.
Lily's heart began to pound-what could she say? If she said that she liked him back-well, Lily didn't exactly know what would happen, but somehow, she knew that she couldn't say that. Not yet.
"I know that you don't like me, but I want to be friends." Nervously, James looked back at Lilly, a tentative smile on her face.
Friends. Lily let the word roll around her mind for a minute. Friends. That wouldn't be too bad. They would be friends, friends is all, until Lily was ready to tell him how he felt.
"Friends." Lily returned James's smile.
"This is so much fun!" Sirius had to yell to make himself heard over the loud music.
"I know!" Isabella shouted back. They were dancing in the Great Hall, so close they were touching. Sirius inhaled deeply, smelling the spicy, exotic smell of Isabella as she danced close enough that he felt her long hair tickling his arms.
" We should go to Hogsmeade after Christmas!" Sirius leaned close to her ear, not shouting this time.
" I like you, Sirius Black," Isabella smiled coquettishly, and swiveled her hips seductively.
"I like you too, Isabella Lovegood. "
Afterwards, Sirius couldn't believe that he'd actually done it. Maybe it was the firewhiskey, mixed into the Butterbeer as a prank that the Prewette brothers pulled. Maybe it was the perfect pleasure of the pressure Isabella put against Sirius when she danced close. Maybe it was that perfume Isabella wore.
Sirius didn't know what, or why, but in a second, his lips were on Isabella's, and they both knew that nothing had ever felt so right.
" I love you, Marlene. Never forget that."
Remus and Marlene had changed out of their party clothes, and lay, in their pajamas, on Remus's bed, nestled together.
"I love you too, and I always will."
"We'll be together, always, y'know?" Remus sleepily smiled at the blonde girl beside him.
"Always." Marlene laid her head on Remus's chest and closed her eyes, just as she drifted off to sleep.
"Always," Remus repeated again, as his eyes fell shut.
"Lila? Lila!" Peter stood panting at the edge of the dance floor. His cheeks were flushed, and he was tired of running around all night, chasing Lila.
His tired eyes scanned the dance floor, finally locating his so-called 'date' dancing enthusiastically with Amos Diggory, a Hufflepuff Quiditch player.
"Hello, Patrick!" Lila waved cheerily at Peter, her long wavy brown ponytail swooshing back and forth.
"Its actually Peter," Peter started, but Lila had already turned back to Diggory.
Peter sighed. It was very nearly midnight, and Peter certainly felt it. Lila was dancing with someone else. Remus and Marlene had long since disappeared upstairs. James and Lily had left not long ago for a walk around the gardens. And Sirius- well, Sirius was passionately snogging Isabella, in the middle of the dance floor!
Peter scowled, and turned to go upstairs.
"Bye, Paul!" Lila called, waving goodbye and he marched up the stairs.
Peter didn't bother correcting her again. After all, he had been called Pace, Pacer, Paris, Parker, Paavo, Paulo, and Perry. Perry was actually growing on him.
"Merry Christmas," Peter muttered to himself, looking back one last time at the ball.
Whew, that was long, right?
Haha, hope you liked it! Tell me if you do, and tell me if you don't. Tell me whatever you think, even if its just 2 or 3 words. Seriously.
Speaking of Sirius, for every review, he gets a kiss from Isabella. And we all want that, right? Right? Riiiiiight?
:D Love and stuff,
Lady G