"So what did she say?" Sirius was rapidly losing what little patience he had with Peter.
"She said she didn't know" Peter mumbled.
Sirius groaned. "You're hopeless!" he announced, adding "It wasn't a difficult task!"
"She suspects you sent me to ask her" Peter squeaked.
"What?" Sirius, Remus and James exclaimed in unison.
Peter repeated himself.
"I'm doomed. It's over. The plan has failed...and it's all James's fault" Sirius groaned, dramatically throwing himself onto his bed.
"What? How is it my fault?" James asked indignantly.
"You said the plan would fail if Ellie suspected anything...you jinxed it!" Sirius accused his friend.
Remus rolled his eyes at the theatrics of his friend. "Sirius, the world isn't ending" he reminded him.
"It might as well be...now I'm never going to know if Ellie likes me or not" Sirius whined.
The others chuckled. "It's Remus's turn tomorrow, he'll probably do a better job" James reminded him, in an attempt to cheer him up.
"It won't work!" Sirius wailed.
"What won't work?" Eleniel asked curiously. The four boys jumped, turning around to see Eleniel leaning against the doorframe. "What won't work?" she repeated.
"Nothing" they all said quickly.
Eleniel laughed. "And you all go mad with me if I have a secret..." she teased.
The boys looked at each other nervously.
"Why do you all look so guilty?" she asked. "Apart from Peter, who has done my head in all afternoon, I don't see what you've done."
Quick-thinking Remus was the first to speak. "Sirius was whining about not having a girlfriend again, and we knew that Peter had annoyed you, so we'd agreed not to mention it to you again" he explained.
Eleniel didn't look convinced, but shrugged and said "whatever" before she sat down next to James.
James turned to her and asked "any ideas about me and Evans?"
Eleniel laughed. "You could always start by calling her Lily, she hates it when you call her Evans" she told him.
He looked cheerful. "Thanks Ellie, anything else?" he asked.
Eleniel thought for a few minutes. "Erm...you could try and be a bit nicer to Severus" she suggested.
James and the others looked disgusted by the suggestion.
"Well, Severus is friends with Lily, so she's not going to want to date you if you're horrible to her other friends" she told him, sneaking a glance at Sirius who looked thoughtful.
James sighed. "I'm not going to be nice to Snivellus" he said firmly.
Eleniel shrugged. "Suit yourself" she told him. "Erm...you could try and appear a bit more interested in your school-work" she said thoughtfully.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because, Lily cares quite a lot about her work, so she's not likely to date someone who just messes about, especially because she already thinks you're a bad influence!"
"What? She thinks I'm a bad influence, on who?" James asked, smirking.
"She thinks you're all a bad influence, expect Remus, and she thinks you're a bad influence on me and Remus" Eleniel laughed.
James looked torn between wanting to laugh and wanting to find out more. "So..how can I change that?" he asked.
"You could try coming to the library with me and Remus" Eleniel suggested.
James looked horrified. "Not the library..." he whispered.
Eleniel and the others laughed. "You asked" Eleniel reminded him.
"But the library..." James groaned. "It's so boring!"
Eleniel laughed. "It can be" she allowed. "But just think how impressed Lily would be if she saw James Potter doing his homework on time!"
"You really think so?" James asked eagerly.
Eleniel nodded. "Yeah" she replied.
Before any of them could speak, there was a knock on the door. "Come in!" they all yelled.
Arthur Weasley stuck his head around the door. "Is Eleniel in here?" he asked hesitantly.
"Yeah, I'm over here" Eleniel called, "What's wrong Arthur?"
Before he could reply, Sirius spat out "What do you want her for, Weasley?"
Arthur looked anxious. "Molly and Lily asked me to come and look for you, they said you were going to go to the library with them" he explained to Eleniel.
"Oh sugar." Eleniel got to her feet. "I completely forgot! Thanks Arthur, tell them I'm just coming!" she said.
Arthur nodded and headed back down to the common room.
"I'll see you guys later" Eleniel told them. "Oh, and Sirius, don't talk to Arthur or any of my other friends like that, they've done nothing to you, and I might have to stop hanging out with you guys if you can't stop being so jealous!"
Sirius opened his mouth to retort, but Eleniel had already gone.
James and Remus started to laugh. "Weren't you listening to the love advice Ellie was giving James?" Remus asked.
Sirius sighed. "She's never going to want to go out with me now!" he grumbled.
"Well that was your fault!" James told him. "She said that if you want a girl to like you, you have to be nice to her friends, not just her!"
Sirius got up and stormed into the bathroom. "I'm going to have a shower" he said sulkily, slamming the door behind him.
The others looked at each other and started to laugh.