Chapters 70-72 of Nobody Sees Me Wishing

We were still talking about it the next morning.

"Thank god Ivy's outburst made Marlene walk away in a huff. I was about to do something drastic if I had to spend one more moment with her," I said, buttoning my shirt.

Remus made a face. "Why did you even ask her?"

I shrugged. Why did I ask Marlene? She was just there – someone I hadn't been with before. Someone to compliment me. I gagged dramatically. "I have no clue."

James snorted. "You always pay attention to looks, never personality. Maybe you would have avoided the whole Marlene fiasco if you pay attention to the right thing."

I raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Since when have you gotten all sensitive? That's Moony's job."

James laughed. "I've been spending too much time listening to Moony's spiels."

Remus made a thoughtful sound. "Spiels. Nice word, Prongs."

With wide eyes, James exclaimed, "I'm using words like him too!"

We both looked at each other in horror. "Run away! Go now before it takes ahold!" James and I scrambled down the staircase, leaving Remus alone in the dormitory, probably shaking his head in disbelief.

I went to go claim the couch since nobody was down in the common room. A few seconds later, Remus came down the stairs.

"Oh no! Hide!" James whispered. We ducked underneath the table.

I could hear Remus's chuckle. "You guys are really taking this too seriously." And then there was a pause. "Good morning, Dorcas."

Of course. Distracted by a girl.

"Are you coming to breakfast?" Remus's head ducked under the table.

"Noooo..." I exclaimed, rolling on the floor. "The sensitivity. I can't stand it."

Remus sighed in exasperation. "I'm going with Dorcas. I'll see you down there."

And then the evil villain was gone.

"That was a close one," I said to James with a relieved sigh as we clambered out from under the table. In front of us, Peter was staring in curiosity.

"Wormtail, did he get you?" James asked seriously.

Peter stared at us wide-eyed. "What?"

James and I both burst out into laughter and made our way to the portrait hole.

"Was Marlene really that bad?" James asked as we walked down a staircase.

I looked over at him with an expression of horror. "She was like...Evil Feline Woman. She kept hanging on me and giggling and it was just too much for me to handle. Besides, that whole thing with Ivy. I can't believe she would do that – I really thought that she was going to break the poor girl."

James grinned. "Ah, but Ivy didn't."

"Ivy was almost an actual Marauder last night," I added. I still couldn't wrap my mind around the fact that Ivy had done that. It brought a grin to my face.

There was a pause before James said, "Do you think Remus is really over Ivy?"

The way he jabbed me in the stomach last night made me believe the answer was no. I mean, he was clearly upset by the fact that I realized she had a body. It was just an innocent observation and I almost got killed because of it. I shrugged. "He likes Dorcas, but I don't know about Ivy." I laughed. "You can't say he didn't enjoy the view last night."

James grinned. "Bet his dreams were filled with Ivy wearing short skirts and tiny shirts."

"He'd kill us if he was here," I commented as we made our way into the Great Hall.

I caught sight of Ivy sitting at the table, looking down at the food on her plate. I nudged James and discreetly pointed over to her. We quickly made our way over with huge grins on our faces.

I took the seat next to Ivy and leaned forward to see her face. She looked over at me hesitantly, her eyes trying to shake my gaze. I grinned to reassure her and said, "You're definitely an honorary Marauder, Ivy."

She immediately looked away and back down at her plate. But she couldn't hide her smile.

We had decided that we were going to show her exactly what being an honorary Marauder was that day. All four of us followed close to her all day.

She looked back at us a couple times, clearly shaken.

"I think we're scaring her," Remus announced.

I laughed, clapping him on the back. "You're just overly sensitive."

Remus looked at me with an exasperated expression. I was used to it. "Why do you keep bringing this up?"

We didn't justify that with an answer. Instead, we went through the doors into the library to see Ivy had disappeared in there. And, aha, there she was – sitting by herself with her journal in front of her.

"Hey Ivy!" James shouted. I grabbed one of the cushioned armchairs and dragged it next to her while Remus pulled up a chair, Peter stood awkwardly, and James sat on her journal. Nice.

She stared at her trapped journal for a second and then looked up, brushing her hair out of her face. "Hi."

"You sound tired," Remus said, analyzing her.

See, he's totally the sensitive one. He acts like a mother. Who else would be worried about health?

"Just working on some essays," she answered, sitting back and looking up at us. She stared at us for awhile and then said, as she began nervously playing with her hands. "I was just wondering. Why exactly am I an honorary Marauder?"

She couldn't be serious. Did she see the amazingness she did yesterday? "Are you kidding? You told off Marlene and she had been annoying me all night."

"And you told her off in the middle of the common room," James added.

Remus smiled at her. "You didn't give in."

"You stood your ground," Peter spoke up.

I grinned, sitting up to look at her. "And you looked damn good while doing it."

I watched as a blush appeared on her cheeks. She obviously wasn't used to compliments like that. "I doubt it," she muttered, looking back down at the table.

I didn't understand why she couldn't see it. Everyone was talking about it – she was the talk of the day. Didn't she want the recognition with it?

"Honestly," James continued. "Everyone thinks you're just a shy, reserved little Gryffindor, but in reality, you're a little firecracker. You need to let that out more often."

Ivy Bennett being a firecracker...I would have never believed it before yesterday.

"That's your Marauder side," I proclaimed, and then added, "Especially with that costume you were wearing yesterday. At least Marlene knew what she was doing with that."

Another compliment and more blushing. She couldn't be used to compliments about her appearance. She needed to hear them sooner or later.

James nodded, looking over at me quickly. "I bet Remus enjoyed that view."

I grinned and looked at Remus for a reaction. He was staring back with raised eyebrows and an expression of alarm. "No, no, no..." he began scrambling to say. "I'm going out with Dorcas. It's not like that between me and Ivy."

Such a lame answer. Rolling my eyes, I said, "Yeah right." I picked up one of the many books on Ivy's table and began flipping through it.

Boring stuff, of course.

I said the excuses in my mind as Ivy began. "We're friends," she said the same time I said it in my head.

James shrugged and then said something I had forgotten about. "Well, then, that's good. Because relationships between Marauders and honorary Marauders is forbidden."

Oh, yeah. That rule. There really wasn't any use for it before. I had almost forgotten about our whole constitution we created in 3rd year.

With rules like 'Hop on one foot for five minutes at least once every week', we were bound to forget about it.

Ivy seemed confused. "Isn't Lily an honorary Marauder?"

I almost laughed out loud. James had asked Lily to be one in fifth year and she had almost hexed him to death. The sight of James flailing like a mad man came to mind.

"She doesn't want to be an honorary Marauder, so she's not a problem," James gave the short explanation.

Wait – Lily.

There hadn't been any fighting. I couldn't even remember the last time they had fought.

"What is going on between you two?" Ivy asked the same question on my mind.

James wouldn't look any of us in the eye as he shrugged casually. "We're friends."

Big, fat liar. I would get it out of him later. Or take drastic measures. He couldn't keep information like this away from me.

"You've fancied her since fourth year and you're acting this casual about it?" Remus asked, clearly skeptical like myself.

And then James grinned. "Maybe."

He wasn't going to say anything.

Git.

--------------------------------------------sc7----------------------------------------------------

Why was November such a boring month?

The Americans had Thanksgiving to gorge themselves with food, but we didn't have anything. We had classes and homework and more boring things.

The only thing we had was the first Quidditch match.

And it wasn't even an interesting one. We won by a landslide.

What's even worse is that, with James and Lily being Head Boy and Girl, they didn't want to have a celebratory party. Which meant no firewhiskey. No fun being drunk.

Just boredom.

I tried to plan as many pranks as possible. Ivy accompanied us on most of them, watching with wide eyes as we threw dungbombs down on first years. We even gave Filch's cat a bath and the painful meows made Filch believe his cat was being murdered.

We weren't caught.

How boring.

Remus and Dorcas spent most of their free time together. I couldn't help but think that this wasn't going to end well. I could see that Remus still fancied Ivy by the way he looked at her. But Dorcas was oblivious to it. How long would that last?

James wasn't telling me a single thing about Lily. I even dumped a bucket of ice water on his head one morning. That just resulted in many curses being thrown in my direction.

But, as November finally ended, that meant one thing.

CHRISTMAS.

I loved Christmas. It was my holiday – the one that put me in good spirits. Sure, Valentine's Day and Easter and all those other holidays were pretty good, but Christmas was a clear favorite. Presents and desserts and even cheesy gimmicks like mistletoe.

I never thought James liked Christmas as much as me, but judging by the massive grin on his face, I was beginning to think otherwise. He kept grinning throughout our entire game of Exploding Snap, barely paying attention to the way his cards kept blowing up. Was he really this excited about Christmas that he couldn't concentrate on anything else?

"So..." I said slowly. "Do you want to go see what Christmas decorations they put up in Hogsmeade this weekend?" If he was this excited about it, I was going to try and support his...weird ways.

He shook his head. "No, I'm actually seeing someone this weekend."

Remus, Peter (who sneezed loudly) and I exchanged a look before turning back to James. "What? Who?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Oh, I have to get started on that Potions essay. I'll talk to you guys later." And, just like that, he was gone.

He had a date to Hogsmeade and he wasn't even going to tell us who it was? He was going to leave me alone this weekend with nothing to do? He. Was. Dead.

Suddenly, Ivy walked up, smiling at us. "Hi," she said softly.

Okay, there was no way I was going to go alone. I stretched out on the couch, enjoying James's absence some way. "Hey, Ivy, are you going with anyone with Hogsmeade this weekend?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Why now?" she asked, not even trying to hide her frustration. I guess I deserved that. After thinking I was using her and all.

I laughed despite that, because it was still quite hilarious that she was showing her exasperation without concealing it from her. "Remus is ditching me for Meadowes, Peter isn't even going because he has a cold, and James just told us that he seeing someone. Please say you'll come with me!"

She paused and then said, "Wait. What did James say?"

Remus, the human memorizer, exclaimed, "He said, 'I'm actually seeing someone this weekend'. And that was verbatim."

Ivy took a moment, biting her lip and probably thinking something through. "Lily said the same thing to me," she finally whispered.

We all shared the same look. There was no possible way that James had a date with Lily Evans. We had spent the last couple years trying to convince him that it wasn't possible, and then, suddenly, they were getting together.

Things like that didn't happen, did they?

"There's no way..." I exclaimed in disbelief.

Remus was shaking his head. "They would have told us," Remus proclaimed rationally. "We're just jumping to conclusions."

But it made sense. The whole grinning thing and the being happy and the not telling us. Prongs was finally getting his date with Lily Evans.

THE WORLD WAS ENDING.

"But what if they wanted to keep it a secret from us?" Ivy began theorizing. "What if they thought of this beforehand? What if they knew we would react in this manner and they wanted to try to the relationship before all of the friends were involved?"

Peter nodded. "She's right."

"That actually makes sense. They would do that," Remus agreed. Of course he would agree with Ivy.

But it made sense. I was just confused. Why wouldn't he tell me?

"They didn't tell me," I said out loud, "What was Prongs thinking? I would've thought that he'd tell everyone in Gryffindor tower. Maybe even the whole Great Hall."

Ivy softly nodded. "Maybe we're wrong."

I frowned. This just wasn't happening. Why was James keeping a secret from me? We told each other everything. If he really was going on a date with Lily, why wasn't he telling everyone? Why was he keeping it a secret?

I needed to know.

It was time for those drastic measures.

I looked over at Ivy and grinned. "Still up for going to Hogsmeade together?"

She raised an eyebrow at me, but I knew the answer that was on the tip of her tongue.

I wasn't even planning on updating today! I was procrastinating this chapter forever and then, at the last minute, I began writing and didn't stop.

I am planning on writing Remus's POV during winter break. I don't know when, because I get into these writing moods, and then that's when I write everything. But I will post something soon.

Oh, I posted the site where I was nominated at the top of my profile. Voting hasn't began yet, but it's there to look at.

Thanks.